Mills Bomb Found in Hollow of Fruit Tree
A tree surgeon got a rather nasty surprise when felling an apple tree in the back garden of a house in Ely, Cambridgeshire. On sawing the stump down he discovered a No. 36 hand grenade (more commonly known as a Mills Bomb) in a hollow of the decaying trunk.
The Police were immediately informed and the area secured until an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team could arrive from Colchester to safely remove the device for disposal. A commonly-used item by both regular forces and the Home Guard during WWII, hand grenades are regularly discovered in places as diverse as canals, garden sheds and now…former monastic orchards.
Filled with baratol, Mills Bombs provide a very real hazard and the tree surgeon acted with appropriate caution. It is likely that the device will have been destroyed in a controlled explosion in a local field.
