Original British WWII British No 69 Bakelite High Explosive Grenade – Inert Original Items

Original Item: Only One Available. This is an excellent original inert example of a very hard to find British ordnance piece from WW2!

The British No. 69 was a hand grenade developed and used during the Second World War. It was adopted into service due to the need for a grenade with smaller destructive radius than the No 36M “Mills bomb”. This allowed the thrower to use a grenade even when there was little in the way of defensive cover. In contrast, the much greater destructive radius of the Mills bomb than its throwing range forced users to choose their throwing point carefully, in order to ensure that they would not be wounded by their own grenade.

Externals and internals- The shell of the Number 69 grenade was composed entirely of the hard plastic, Bakelite, which shattered without producing fragments like a metal-bodied grenade. Metal fragmenting sleeves were available to increase the grenade’s lethality.

Using the No 69 bomb was very simple: the screw-off cap was removed and discarded, and the grenade was then thrown. When the grenade was thrown, a linen tape with a curved lead weight on the end automatically unwrapped in flight, freeing a ball bearing inside the fuse. In this manner the all-ways fuze was armed in flight and the grenade exploded on impact; and like the Gammon grenade, which used the same fuse design, it was withdrawn from service soon after the Second World War ended.

This example still retains the original linen tape, though the closing cap and lead ball bearing are not present. The grenade completely disassembles for inspection and/or display. It still has a painted broad arrow on the side of the top, next to 5 1 4, but we do not know the meaning of these markings. The usual paint markings on the outside are no longer present, so this was most likely used in training, long after WWII. The usual markings on the bottom look to have been removed when the paint was, however there are still mold and maker marks on the components. The rubber gasket on the top is intact, but somewhat brittle, and the one on the bottom has mostly crumbled into the inside of the grenade.

A great display piece from WWII, in very attractive red bakelite. Ready to display!