BIG GUN EXPLODES.

Bush Advocate, Volume XXII, Issue 11, 14 January 1910, Page 2

BIG GUN EXPLODES.

LORD KITCHENER

ELEVEN MEN INJURED. Press Assn —By telegraph—Copyright. MELBOURNE, January 13. During practice operations at Point Nepean in connection with Lord Kitchener's visit, a shell from a 9.2 inch gun exploded, wounding eleven men. The injuries are only slight in the majority of cases. Among the injured are Sergt. Hardy, fractured arm; Sergt. Scott, injuries to the eyes; Gunner Wilkinson, injuries to the head; Gunner Mouchmore, injuries to the eyes; Gunner Hatley, injuries in the region of the heart; Gunner Finch, injuries to the hip. Warrant Officer Henderson and Corporals Bringell and Dike and Gunners Cook, Davern and Hartney suffered from contusions and shock. Finch has been sent to the hospital and Hartley has developed serious symptoms. All the. injured men were m the gun-pit at the time of the explosion. ° The gun is on hydro-pneumatic mountings and is loaded in the pit and then elevated. The charge went off before the lip of the gun cleared the parapet and the projectile ricliochetted and broke into pieces, filling the pit with smoke and flame. The projectile weighed 380 pounds, the charge consisting of 64 pounds of powder. The big gun practice at Point Nepean was part of Lord Kitchener's camp scene. The fatal gun had fired two_ shots and there had also been two misfires. In consequence of this it was decided to substitute a percussion tube for the electric tube. After that was done the gun was loaded and was being raised again when it prematurely exploded. The shell caused terrific havoc. It struck and wrecked the masonry and then ricoehetted almost vertically into the air. Artillerymen . were hurled _ m all stunned and bleeding. Eleven out of fourteen in the gunpit were injured. Gunner Finch was struck by a projectile held in readiness for the next shot and sent to hospital suffering from a supposed fractured pelvis. MELBOURE, January 13. Slattery states that Major M'Knight attended to the wounded. He was not injured as at first thought. The cause of accideut is not Known. Most of the men are still too dazed to form an opinion and the officers are very reticent. One suggestion is that in locking the breach the charge exploded bv concussion. But for the fact that the gun in descending was stopped find loaded two feet above the usual base, probably the whole of the men of tlie detachment would have been killed.

MELBOURNE, January 13. Lord Kitchener paid a visit of inspection to the forts and from aboard a steamer watched firing operations against a supposititious attacking fleet. Afterwards he visited the camps on land forces, keenly watching operations.