Battles & Wars › World War I › Trench warfare
Hand grenade
Mills bomb 1915 (roots in Song China)· Invention or discovery· Weapons, armor & warships
Well documentedSolid records, physical evidence or scientific consensus.
A small bomb thrown by hand; Britain's 1915 Mills bomb set the modern pattern, but the idea goes back to Song China.
See it on the Battles & Wars map →What happened
Chinese armies used gunpowder bombs by the 1200s, and European grenadiers threw iron ones from the 1600s. Grenades faded as guns improved, then returned in the trench fighting at Port Arthur in 1904. William Mills's 1915 design held a spring-loaded striker back with a lever and pin; once thrown, the lever flew off and a delay fuse burned for a few seconds. Over 75 million were made in World War I. Germany used a stick grenade, the 'potato masher.'
Why it matters
Grenades let soldiers attack enemies hidden in trenches, rooms and bunkers that rifles could not reach. The Mills pattern of lever, pin and delay fuse still shapes grenades today.
How we know
Chinese military texts, excavated bomb casings including some from a 1281 Mongol shipwreck off Japan, Mills's 1915 patent, and British munitions production records.
Connections (3)
▸Hand grenade became a key weapon in Trench warfareWell documented
The connection
In a trench, a rifle could not hit a man around a corner or behind a sandbag wall, but a grenade could be lobbed over. Armies trained specialist 'bombers' to lead raids and clear trenches section by section. Improvised jam-tin bombs gave way in 1915 to factory-made Mills bombs and German stick grenades, made by the millions.
When and how
Western Front and Gallipoli, 1914–18; William Mills's factory in Birmingham, England, and many other contractors.
How we know
Training manuals, production records showing over 75 million Mills bombs made, and memoirs such as Ernst Jünger's Storm of Steel.
Debates and open questions
Some officers worried that grenades made soldiers neglect their rifles; how far that worry changed later training is debated.
▸Hand grenade descends from the early bombs of Gunpowder and cannonWell documented
The connection
Gunpowder, first recorded in China around 850, was soon packed into bombs. By the 1200s Song and Jin armies threw or catapulted iron-cased 'thunder crash' bombs, and Mongol forces used bombs against Japan. The idea reached Europe, where 'grenade' comes from the French word for pomegranate, its seeds like the fragments.
When and how
China, 1000s–1200s, including the Mongol siege of Kaifeng in 1232; Japan, the 1274 and 1281 invasions; Europe, from the 1500s.
How we know
Chinese military manuals such as the 1044 Wujing Zongyao, a Japanese scroll of the Mongol invasions, and bomb casings recovered from the 1281 wreck site off Takashima.
Debates and open questions
Early 'bombs' may have been mostly incendiary rather than explosive; when true explosive grenades first appeared is debated.
▸Hand grenade was a key street-fighting weapon at the Battle of StalingradMostly agreed
The connection
At Stalingrad the fighting moved into ruined houses, cellars and factories, often room by room. Soviet General Vasily Chuikov told his troops to stay close to the Germans, so German aircraft could not bomb them without hitting their own side. Small Soviet storm groups armed with grenades and submachine guns cleared buildings; Germans called it 'rat war.'
When and how
Stalingrad, September 1942 – January 1943; Chuikov's 62nd Army against General Friedrich Paulus's Sixth Army, in places like the Tractor Factory and Pavlov's House.
How sure are we?
Chuikov's memoir, Soviet tactical instructions, German soldiers' letters, and histories by David Glantz and Antony Beevor.
Debates and open questions
Its share is hard to measure: submachine guns, mortars and Soviet artillery firing from across the Volga mattered just as much.