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There was some use of shrapnel by the British in the campaigns in East and North East Africa at the beginning of the war, where 18-pdr and 4.5-in (114 mm) howitzers were used. By World War II shrapnel shells, in the strict sense of the word, fell out of use, the last recorded use of shrapnel being 60 pdr shells fired in Burma in 1943.
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
Bullet wounds could break bones and become infected, but they were relatively neat compared to shrapnel wounds. Shrapnel wounds were caused by shards of ripped metal, fragments of exploded bombs. Where a bullet bored through a body, shrapnel smashed and tore, often driving filthy fragments of clothing deep into a wound, meaning that infection ...
Although shrapnel was used to cut down enemy barbed wire it was generally regarded as unsatisfactory for the task. The wide deployment of shrapnel as a weapon during the First World War mandated that the light cloth caps as worn by infantrymen in 1914 be replaced by steel helmets which afforded at least some protection against the rain of steel ...
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 ...
60% of the battlefield casualties in WWI were caused by artillery shells exploding. Shrapnel wounds were particularly brutal for soldiers. The word ‘shrapnel’ comes from the small lead balls placed in an artillery shell that would spread out over the battlefield when exploded. It was named for English officer Henry Shrapnel, who invented ...
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As the Western Front stagnated into static trench warfare, shrapnel shells, designed to kill and maim troops in open formation, were found to be ineffective against fixed defence works. Here the requirement was for high explosive shells that could blast their way through barbed wire entanglements. At first local engineering companies grouped ...
