William Mills (inventor) William Mills (inventor) Sir William Mills (24 April 1856 - 1932) of Sunderland was an English engineer, who invented the Mills bomb which was developed and manufactured at his factory in Birmingham, England. The Mills bomb was the hand grenade most widely used by British and Imperial forces during the First World War. He was knighted in 1922. William Mills was born on 26 April 1856 in Wear Street, Southwick, Sunderland. He was the son of David Mills, a shipbuilder, and his wife Sarah Ann Kirkaldy. The Sunderland historian James Watson Corder recorded that David Mills had an interest in
General-purpose bomb bombs. The 1000 lb MC was developed from 1942 to replace the existing 1000 lb GP (General Purpose) bomb. Initially using most of the components of the 1000 lb GP it was decided to give it a new tail and it was built with a half-inch thick wall. Fillings could be Amatex, Amatol, Minol, RDX and others. Actual weight was around 1020 lb (464 kg). It was introduced to service in 1943 and about a quarter of a million were produced by the end of the war. The Russian term for general-purpose bomb is "fugasnaya aviatsionnaya bomba" (FAB) and followed