Shrapnel

[Muddyknee]

Part of today's permission included a spot where the Home Guard practised with their grenades,found a couple of Mills base plugs.
Also found this shrapnel,any ideas what from?

[Resurgam]

Take care mate; lest they left any live ones minus their pins!

[MilitaryMetalMagnut]

Central tubes (what's left of) for a Mills grenade. The 'ridges' are the impressions from the striker spring, imprinted at the moment of detonation.



As you're finding the central tubes, you should find the bottom part of the central tube, where the detonator is placed into. They look like little flattened 'cones', made of zinc.

Also, on the part closest to the ruler on the first pic, you can just see a small amount of the original reddish coloured shellac coating.
The Mills was filled with Barratol explosive, which was mildly corrosive. The shellac protected the internal parts.

Best regards,

Simon

[fred]

Thanks Simon. I never knew that about the shellac.

We have loads of places in East Kent where grenade fragments turn up, and even the occasional whole one.

[Muddyknee]

Take care mate; lest they left any live ones minus their pins!

Mate at school did precisely that,brought one back from a school trip to the trenches in Belgium.
Teacher was surprised when he produced it in class,got the rest of the day off as the bomb squad dealt with it.
Confirmed his hero status.

[Muddyknee]

Cheers MMM,might dial down the disc and see if I can find more bits.