Mills bomb rod and the gas check grenade could be thrown as a standard hand-grenade. Mills bomb "Mills bomb" is the popular name for a series of prominent British hand grenades. They were the first modern fragmentation grenades used by the British Army and saw widespread use in World War I. William Mills, a hand grenade designer from Sunderland, patented, developed and manufactured the "Mills bomb" at the Mills Munition Factory in Birmingham, England, in 1915. The Mills bomb was inspired by an earlier design by Belgian captain Leon Roland. Roland and Mills were later engaged in a patent lawsuit. Col. Arthur
British Army uniform and equipment in World War I as the mortar body. Drawbacks were that the steel tail was usually projected backwards towards the firer when the bomb detonated, resulting in occasional casualties; and the No. 80 fuse was also required by the 18 pounder field guns which were given priority, limiting mortar ammunition supply to the front until early 1916, when a special cheap trench mortar fuse was developed. The 2-inch mortar served in limited numbers in France in 1915, from March, with early mortars and ammunition made by the Royal Ordnance Factory, mass production finally began with an order in August 1915, for 800 mortars from