THOSE TERRIBLE SHELLS!

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 64, 16 March 1900, Page 2

THOSE TERRIBLE SHELLS!

i Major Albreeht, the commander of the Boer artillery, of whom more anon, has written to a friend in Ger- j many a letter in which he sets forth the actual lethal value of artillery generally, and pays some very ponr compliments to our ranch vaunted | lyddite shells. At the battle of Colcnso, | lie. says, that "out of 100 shells not ten I burst, and even these make more ! noise that they do damage. The day I before yesterday about 25,000 English I with over 50 guns stood against us j j .13,000 Boers. T. can well say that we j ! did not lose more than 100 men, j jamonght them about three dozen killed. To about 1000 English shells about j twelve men were killed, and 30 or 40 | wounded, for the rest, was done by [rifles. Our Boer artillery was by no j means as successful as I had anticipated before the war. I leave it open whether it disabled in all a hundred | men. The riflemen disabled in ten ! minutes ten times more than our ar- | tillery did sometimes in ton hours, j Artillery in defence docs not seem to j jbe destined to play a brilliant part, j 1 and as regards to attack, its use con- i j sists chiefly in intimidating the enemy, j jso that the attacking1 bodj- can ad- I I vance under its protection. The real j decision lie? in close fighting."'. >! Exactly, but "Tommy" declares that the Boor's will never indulge him with that eye to eye scrapping for which he has such a penchant.