Abstract
The article looks at the early development of the grenade from its use by the Chinese in the early medieval period, through to the more sophisticated forms of cast-iron types that were issued to Grenadiers in the 19th century. Experimentation pre-WWI by a Belgian designer named Roland led to the first self-igniting hand grenade. The War Department believed their use in trench-warfare would be invaluable and an engineer and designer named William Mills, of Birmingham was asked to look at improving both the mechanism and means of manufacture. Mills redesigned the grenade to make it safer and more efficient, and decided to manufacture it by casting. By 1916 the Mills, No. 5 Mk 1 hand grenade was in widescale production by four British contractors, including the Mills Manufacturing Company in Birmingham. During the course of WWI, some 75 million Mills grenades were manufactured and William Mills was knighted for his services in 1922. An improved variant of his grenade, the No. 36, remained in service as the standard British hand grenade until 1972.
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