HIGH EXPLOSIVE SHELLS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16022, 14 September 1915, Page 4

HIGH EXPLOSIVE SHELLS.

FEARFUL DAMAGE CAUSED. FRENCH ARTILLERY PRAISED. Concussion," was the laconic reply of , Corporal J. McGeeban, a Hamilton memr , of , the Auckland Infantry, when fv 4 " at the cause of his leaving ♦ " ' r V*. » ' day aft-er he trod seen j two months fighting a huge shell burst : ucar , me:, out "away" from him. It ,kiUed two en outright and injured ■ others, and the force of the explosion ; him senseless. The corporal was • unconscious for a time, and in the hos- : pital his shattered nerves made a slow ! recovery. The sea voyage, he said, had ; helped him, hut he is still far from well. ,As was natural in the circumstances. ! Corporal McGeehan had a good deal to I say about the effect of artillery fire. The . high explosive shells wrought fearful . damage. "At Cape Helles." he said " I | saw the French lose 50 horses lolled outI right by the explosion of two shells and | on another occasion a shell exploded' near ; a group of Auckland men and killed five of them. I'saw a good deal of the work ;ot the French artillery. It is magnificent, ! iho r.-nch seventy-fives are simplv won- ' derful. ' j Five hours of unconsciousness was the ' experience of Private N. Matheson. of the 1 Waikato Infantry. After he -had been ashore 16 days a shell burst near him. Asked to describe the circumstances more clearly, he thought for a moment, and then said that what he remembered most clearly was that someone had 'pinched* his belt while he was unconscious. When he recovered from the paralysing effect of the explosion he returned to the front, but 18 days afterwards an exploding bomb caused injuries to his thigh thai made his return to New Zealand neces- " sary. <•