Sticky Bomb - Design

Design

"It was while practising that a HG bomber got his stick bomb stuck to his trouser leg and couldn’t shift it. A quick thinking mate whipped the trousers off and got rid of them and the bomb. After the following explosion the trousers were in a bit of a mess though I think they were a bit of a mess prior to the explosion."

Home Guard member Bill Miles recounting the dangers of training with the Sticky Bomb

The Grenade, Hand, Anti-Tank No. 74 consisted of a glass sphere in which was contained approximately 1.25 pounds (0.57 kg) of semi-liquid nitroglycerin devised by ICI. The sphere was covered in stockinette which was coated with a liberal amount of birdlime, an extremely adhesive substance from which the nickname 'sticky bomb' was derived. A casing made out of thin sheet-metal, and formed of two halves, was then placed around the sphere and held in place by a wooden handle, inside which was a five-second fuse. The handle also contained two pins and a lever; the first pin was pulled out to make the casing fall away, and the second to activate the firing mechanism in the grenade. This primed the grenade, with the lever being held down to ensure the fuse was not triggered; then the user would run up to the tank and stick the grenade to its hull, using as much force as possible to break the sphere and spread the nitroglycerin onto the hull in a thick paste. Another alternative was for the user to throw it at the tank from a distance. Either way, the lever would be released and the fuse activated, and the grenade would then detonate.

The grenade did possess several problems with its design. Users were urged to actually run up to the tank and place it by hand, rather than throw it, thus the adhesive could very easily stick to their uniform in the process; the user would then be placed in the unenviable situation of attempting to pry the grenade loose whilst still holding onto the lever. It was also discovered that as time passed the nitroglycerin began to deteriorate and become unstable, which made it even more difficult to use. As the grenade was a short-range weapon, users were trained to hide in a trench or other place of concealment until the tank went past them, and then to stick the grenade to the rear of the tank, where its armour was thinnest. However, provided that they were not in line with the handle when it detonated they were relatively safe if only a few yards away. The Mark II design used a plastic casing instead of glass, and a detonator instead of a cap.