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Shrapnel was less hazardous to the assaulting British infantry than high-explosives – as long as their own shrapnel burst above or ahead of them, attackers were safe from its effects, whereas high-explosive shells bursting short are potentially lethal within 100 yards or more in any direction. Shrapnel was also useful against counter-attacks, working parties and any other troops in the open.
ammunition. shrapnel, originally a type of antipersonnel projectile named for its inventor, Henry Shrapnel (1761–1842), an English artillery officer. Shrapnel projectiles contained small shot or spherical bullets, usually of lead, along with an explosive charge to scatter the shot as well as fragments of the shell casing.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Apr 19, 2018 · Developed at the end of the 18th century by Henry Shrapnel, a serving officer of the Royal Artillery, it combined features of the three garden-variety munitions of the day. Like round shot, it was a means of inflicting casualties at distances between 500 yards and 1,500 yards. Like common shell, it carried both a gunpowder charge and a simple ...
Shrapnel was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1804, less than a year after making major. There were numerous improvements made in the Shrapnel shell between the final defeat of Napoleon and the phasing out of Shrapnel shells during World War I. Shrapnel's round ball evolved into an artillery shell that looked very much like a modern shell and was manufactured in much the same way.
Feb 20, 2020 · The shrapnel round was an iron- or steel-encased artillery projectile filled with numerous lead balls that exploded in flight from a time fuze and bursting charge. When the projectile burst in the air, the .5-inch-diameter lead balls (270 in a 75mm round; 800 in a 155mm round) were sprayed at high velocity over the target in a cone-shaped area much larger than the normal bursting radius of a ...
- World War II Magazine
Shrapnel was born in Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire , the youngest son in the family of nine children of clothier Zachariah and Lydia Shrapnel. He was raised at the Midway Manor House in Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire. A month after his 18th birthday, he began a life-long military career with the Royal Artillery, serving in various places around he ...
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Managed by a timed fuse shrapnel was designed to explode while in mid-air above the enemy's trench positions. The rapid dispersal of the shell's contents, be it lead or steel, was designed to cause maximum casualties with minimal artillery effort; in essence a modern-day equivalent of the previous century's grapeshot.
