THE LEBEL BULLET.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CV, Issue 12536, 25 June 1901, Page 2

THE LEBEL BULLET.

The writer of an article in the “Echod* Paris,” referring to "certain disadvantages offered, as alleged,.' by the British magazine rifle bullet, argues that the bullet fired by the Lebel rifle renders all the services required, and does net stand’ in need of improvement or of any inch modi* fications os those introduced in the dum* duxn bullet. At 3000 metres the Lebel bullet traverses the fleshy portions of the human body and shatters the bones of the limbs. The; penetrating force of the bullet is. enormous. During the Dahomey campaign a-Lebel bullet was found to have passed through a tree and through the five natives who had taken refuge behind it. The French officers who have been able to observe th« effects of the bullkt in Dahomey, Tonkin, and Madagascar, declare that ’ the men struck by the Lebel bullet in full trajectory, fell at once after a convulsive leap. When the camp of General Dodds, during his march on Abomey, was the object of°a surprise attack, the terrific effectiveness of the Lebel bullet was proved in the niefst signal fashion. ' The assailants received the bullets almost immediately after they had left the rifles, and entire files of the native warriors were seen to have fallen, one on top of the other, traversed by the. same projectile. If the bullets had not stopped the natives forthwith General Dodds’s forces < would have been wiped out. Occasionally, no doubt, a man struck by a Lebel bullet is not. put hors de combat immediately, but this even is rare, and such caEes notoriously occurred in the past when bullets, of larger dalibro were in use. . ■ , The writer concludes by saying that th* French have no reason to feel alarmed at the complaints made.of the ineffectiveness, under certain conditions o! the British magazine rifle bullet of small calibre. _ If the Lee-Metford rifle,”,he says, “has given unsatisfactory results the blame does not lie with the Email calibre.bullet.”