THE DEADLY EFFECTS OF SHRAPNEL SHELL.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 130, 25 November 1905, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE DEADLY EFFECTS OF SHRAPNEL SHELL.

One of the most effective of modern projectiles is the shrapnel. It is one of the forms of case shot. The others were the old-fashioned grape and canister. A case shot may be said to be a collection of missiles in a case, which breaks up either in the gun or at some point in flight, thus setting free its death-dealing particles. As soon as the case is broken, each of these particles goes on a separate path, and it’s a sorry day for the man struck by one of them. All of these falling upon a piece of level ground would mark out aa irregular oval, whose area varies with differing conditions. It has been found that the best point to burst the shrapnel is about six yards above and fifty in front of the enemy. Colonel Shrapnel, a distinguished officer, first invented shrapnel shell in 1903. This early form consisted simply of a spherical shell filled with bullets and a bursting charge of powder in the spaces between. This was a crude invention, which scattered the fragments too much, and was liable to go off when not expected, and not to do so when desired.

The modern shrapnel is considered the most dangerous of all life-destroying projectiles. It consists of three parts—the tube, the base, and the head. The powder charge is in the base, which is firmly attached to the body either by electric welding or by screwing. Leading from the base through the centre of the body is a tube which is also filled with powder, which is ignited by the fuse at the point of the shrapnel, and larries the fire to the main charge. Between two hundred and three hundred bullets rest upon a diaphragm just over the powder charge. These are held in place by a matrix of resin, which is melted and poured upon the bullets when in place. A skeleton case of cast iron containing receptacles for each bullet is sometimes used instead cf the resin.

Against men in battle formation the shrapnel is the more effective, It s■« nds a perfect shower of missiles which, falling ,in the midst of a company, would almost annihilate it. Many tests have been made to show this.

Shrapnel shells fired from a gun a mile away in one instance, and a mile and two thirds iff the other, were made to strike a board target one inch thick. The fuses were set off by the contact, and burst the projectile into two or three hundred parts, each of which was capable of dealing death to any living thing in its path. Screens were placed at indicated distances behind the target. These may be considered as representing a battalion of infantry in column of companies. From the number of hits upon all of them the efficiency of shrapnel fire against close order formation may be judged. In one shot 152 hits were made by a single shrapnel. In another 215 are recorded, but these are not so well scattered. Imagine, then, the effect of a wellplaced shrapnel upon a group of men or a battalion in column formation.

The reader can readily understand why wars are now waged at greater distances and why hand-to-hand conflicts are almost unheard of. Napoleon said that Providence is on the side of tlie heavier battalions. Battalions are heavier not only by reason of more men, but in having a better armament, for instance, a more bountiful supply of shrapnel.