Help to ID trade & Proficiency badge please

[Simon J Emmerson]

Hi can anyone please explain to me the grenade badge above the Marksman badge please. I've never seen one so large. 

Regards Simon 

[mancpal]

I’m looking on my phone so don’t have the best image. Machine gunner perhaps? 
Prior to the formation of the MGC? Wild guesses I admit.

Simon

 

[GWF1967]

2 hours ago, Simon J Emmerson said:

Hi can anyone please explain to me the grenade badge above the Marksman badge please. I've never seen one so large. 

Regards Simon 

 

Rifle Grenade proficiency?

[FROGSMILE]

3 hours ago, Simon J Emmerson said:

Hi can anyone please explain to me the grenade badge above the Marksman badge please. I've never seen one so large. 

Regards Simon 

It’s never been officially recorded as such, but the evidence (which in terms of visual prevalence is strong) is that this relates to men trained and qualified in the use of Rifle Grenades, of which there were several types before the Mills version was settled upon. Variations have been seen frequently in this forum, most commonly showing the universal grenade badge (gilding metal) placed above the crossed rifles of a marksman on the lower sleeve.  As the other usage of the grenade badge usually places it on the upper arm in relation to trench mortars and ‘bombing’ (hand grenade) instructors (and users), it seems intuitive that placing it above the crossed rifles on the lower arm was probably intended to denote men formally trained in the usage of rifle grenades, which were effective in trench warfare, as they could be projected far further than they could be thrown.  In all cases both metal and cloth (woven worsted) insignia was used, presumably depending upon unit preference and the clothing supply chain at the time.  The French also developed this type of weapon using their own methodology.

Afternote:  I see that GWF1967 and I have posted with the same answer close to simultaneously.

Edited 26 September , 2021 by FROGSMILE

[Simon J Emmerson]

1 hour ago, mancpal said:

I’m looking on my phone so don’t have the best image. Machine gunner perhaps? 
Prior to the formation of the MGC? Wild guesses I admit.

Simon

 

Thank you for the information 

11 minutes ago, GWF1967 said:

Rifle Grenade proficiency?

Many thanks for your reply and information. 

11 minutes ago, FROGSMILE said:

It’s never been offended recorded as such but the evidence (which in terms of prevalence is strong) is that this relates to men trained and qualified in the use of Rifle Grenades, of which there were several types before the Mills version was settled upon. Variations have been seen frequently in this forum, most commonly showing usage of the universal grenade badge (gilding metal) placed above the crossed rifles of a marksman.  As the other usage of the grenade usually places it on the upper arm in relation to trench mortars and ‘bombing’ (hand grenade) instructors, it seems intuitive that placing it above the crossed rifles on the lower arm was probably intended to denote men trained in usage of rifle grenades, which we effective in trench warfare as they could be projected further than they could be thrown.  In all cases both metal and cloth (woven worsted) insignia was used, presumably depending upon unit preference and the clothing supply chain.  The French also developed this type of weapon using their own methodology.

Afternote:  I see that GWF1967 and I have posted with the same answer close to simultaneously.

Thank you for the reply and the information. 

[FROGSMILE]

5 minutes ago, Simon J Emmerson said:

Thank you for the information 

Many thanks for your reply and information. 

Thank you for the reply and the information. 

I’m glad to help Simon.  It’s a super image.  I’ve corrected a few typos courtesy of predictive text, which sometimes proves irritating.