No36 Question

[ben2000]

Hello all,

I have this No36 grenande (inert). It has a 1917 dated base plug by Howard Bullier. But the grenade body is marked ACM. It has been drilled twice on both sides and once on the front, Was this to make it a drill grenade or just to inert it? It appears to have been thrown around a bit as the zinc/aluminium? filler plug is quite marked and sand keeps finding its way out of the holes in the body. The alluminium centre piece has an 'N' or 'Z' on it.
It came with a 1944 dated drill det, but can anyone tell me. Is this a WW2 era No36M grenade that has been incorectly fitted with a WW1 plug, or is it all a WW1 No36 that someone has added a WW2 drill det to make a complete looking piece? I did look at the Mills Grenade website but couldn't find the ACM Maker?

Hope someone can enlighten me :tinysmile_grin_t:

Ben.

 

[paul the grenade]

Hi Ben
The zinc filler and centrepiece make the body 2ww. Someone has put it together from various eras. Im sure someone would swap you a 2ww plug for your 1st ww one. the body is very interesting as that shape with the larger lugs are usually marked JPS.
Cheers, Paul.

 

[Nismosonic]

I believe the body is a No 36 Mk2. ive never seen one marked ACM, only same as Paul above.
Body, filler plug and internals would be from WW2 era, holes drilled in body tend to point to a drill grenade, these are usually painted white.
base plugs tend to get mixed up on drill grenades easy, as they were used for throwing practice, and the internal spring and lever would have been recocked each time, hence need to remove base plug. I have a drill 1917 36 Mk 1 body marked FICO with a 42 dated baseplug, more than likely mixed up in same way.

 

[gothica7]

Hi Ben,
an unusual gren, i do not know the maker, perhaps Norman can help here. Well worth cleaning up.
It could be a WW1 body but would not have been drilled out until 1936 when all drill/training grens were so treated. However i suspect as Paul says its a WW2 one thats just had a WW1 base plug added.
I have 3 WW1 bodied drill grens with the holes and WW1 base plugs. These were all originally from WW1 as they have aluminium No 36 centre tubes, not the zinc alloy type you have.
If you would like to swap the base plug for a very nice 44 dated zinc alloy one, please pm me.

Andy

 

[gothica7]

I believe the body is a No 36 Mk2.

Sorry but i have to disagree here and there have been numerous threads on this in the past.

A Mk 2 gren is only a Mk 2 if it is fitted with a Mk 2 base plug.

Yes, it has the swept forward lugs, characteristic of JP&S but that is all. I have several Mk 2s with the standard lugs.
The Mk2 was only a training gren, never a live gren as you could only have standardised kit, not a system that needed 2 types of base plug to be fired from the Burns cup. Imagine if a soldier couldnt fire his gren in a battlefield scenario cos he didnt have a MK 2 base plug? Just would not happen. The Mk 2 was only introduced as a training aid to make the base plug last longer as the Mk 1 often snapped the thread on the gas check when fired from the cup discharger.

Hope this helps.

Andy

 

[Snufkin]

Acm

A reasonable probability that it's Ames Crosta Mills. They received an order (294/G/5638 - their only order) for 50,000 grenades in July 1940, which was later amended for the supply of 10,940 reject casings to John Pilling & Sons Ltd, Colne to be turned into training grenades. (JPS handled a lot of this work of conversion of reject bodies to training and drill items.)

That about one in six of ACM's output was a reject casing might account for the fact that no further orders were forthcoming.

Even for grenades that passed inspection, it is doubtful that a base plug marked ACM existed. Most likely one of the specialist mazak die cast producers like Strebor (Manchester) would have provided the base plugs, along with the centre pieces and filler screws. For putting together training grenades JPS would certainly have used components from Strebor and others.



T

 

[gothica7]

Hi Tom,

so thats quite a rare gren body then? Its good that these makers keep turning up. Another one to add to my list, thanks.


Andy

 

[pointblank0]

I agree with Andy's comments here. Mk2 being only a Mk2 because of the thicker and stronger baseplug, nothing to do with the swept forward lugs, just a coincidence that many of the Mk2 grenades found for sale are by JPS who cast their bodies with swept forward lugs. I have never come across that maker before though, if Snufkin is correct, then this could be quite a rare example then?
Rob

 

[millsbomber]

A reasonable probability that it's Ames Crosta Mills. They received an order (294/G/5638 - their only order) for 50,000 grenades in July 1940, which was later amended for the supply of 10,940 reject casings to John Pilling & Sons Ltd, Colne to be turned into training grenades. (JPS handled a lot of this work of conversion of reject bodies to training and drill items.)

That about one in six of ACM's output was a reject casing might account for the fact that no further orders were forthcoming.

Even for grenades that passed inspection, it is doubtful that a base plug marked ACM existed. Most likely one of the specialist mazak die cast producers like Strebor (Manchester) would have provided the base plugs, along with the centre pieces and filler screws. For putting together training grenades JPS would certainly have used components from Strebor and others.



T

Just to add to Toms post, here is a ACM in my collection and the defect is very clear to see with this example,,,,,,, Dave