Mills bomb rifle grenade by attaching a metallic rod to its base. This rod-type rifle-grenade had an effective range of about 150 yards. The operating procedure was to insert the Mills bomb rod down the barrel of a standard rifle, put a special blank cartridge in the rifle's chamber, place the rifle stock on the ground, then pull the Mills bomb's safety pin, releasing the safety spoon and immediately fire the rifle. If the soldier did not launch the grenade quickly, the grenade's fuse would time out and explode. The British soon developed a simple cradle attached to the rifle's bayonet lug
Nigger in the woodpile Nigger in the woodpile A nigger in the woodpile or fence is a figure of speech originating in the United States meaning "some fact of considerable importance that is not disclosed—something suspicious or wrong". Commonly used in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, usage has declined since then, and use of the phrase by public figures has often been followed by criticism over the racism of the term "nigger". Thus, the phrase has been supplanted by the similar (though not entirely synonymous) phrase "skeletons in the closet" which carries no such connotations. Both the "fence" and "woodpile" variants developed