A Ton of Shot to Kill a Man.
* Nearly all tbe wounds in war are inflicted by the rifle Shells don't seem to do a' great dial of barm, though whea they hita man he doesn't soon forget .it. Some curious examples of the harmlessness of shells during the great sieges of the past century are recorded. At the siege of Gibraltar 258,387 heavy shot and shell were thrown iuto the garrison during a period of 10 months, and oaly 1341 petßons were kill«d or wounded, the gre&ter number being very slightly injured, When the Germans besieged Mesiores in 1870, they threw 193,000 larpe projectiles into tho town, or at the rate of 210 an hour. Tho town contained 65.000 inhabitants, and only 300 were killed, or one for each 643 shot or shell. At Trouville two people were killed by 30,00^0 shells, or otia person for each' 15,000; aud at Lorgny 30,000 shells did not succeed in wouuding asiiiijle individual. It is different .iv the field. Bursting shells sometimes kill and wound- large numbers, especially when the ground is hard aud the shells glance back from its o surfacb. Bub even ia the best-fought wars ib .takes, according to a military proverb, a ton of shot to kill a man. '
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Bibliographic details
Otago Witness, Issue 2209, 2 July 1896, Page 52
Word Count
211A Ton of Shot to Kill a Man. Otago Witness, Issue 2209, 2 July 1896, Page 52
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