Shrapnel

For larger guns which had lower velocities, correspondingly larger balls were used so that each individual ball carried enough energy to be lethal. The other factor was the trajectory. To make maximum use of these distances a flat trajectory and hence high velocity gun was required. The pattern in Europe was that the armies with higher-velocity guns tended to use heavier bullets because they could afford to have fewer bullets per shell.

The important points to note about shrapnel shells and bullets in their final stage of development in World War I are:. A firsthand description of successful British deployment of shrapnel in a defensive barrage during the Third Battle of Ypres , During the initial stages of World War I , shrapnel was widely used by all sides as an anti-personnel weapon. It was the only type of shell available for British field guns pounder , 15 pounder and pounder until October Shrapnel was effective against troops in the open, particularly massed infantry advancing or withdrawing.

However, the onset of trench warfare from late led to most armies decreasing their use of shrapnel in favour of high-explosive. Britain continued to use a high percentage of shrapnel shells. New tactical roles included cutting barbed wire and providing "creeping barrages" to both screen its own attacking troops and suppressing the enemy defenders to prevent them from shooting at their attackers. In a creeping barrage fire was 'lifted' from one 'line' to the next as the attackers advanced. Lifting meant that time fuzes settings had to be changed.

The attackers tried to keep as close as possible as little as 25 yards sometimes to the bursting shrapnel so as to be on top of the enemy trenches when fire lifted beyond them, and before the enemy could get back to their parapets.

• .
• A Year of Samantha;
• Chasing Trouble (#7, Texas Trouble) (Texas Trouble Series);
• ?
• ;
• shrapnel (n.)!
• Selected Stories (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics).

While shrapnel made no impression on trenches and other earthworks, it remained the favoured weapon of the British at least to support their infantry assaults by suppressing the enemy infantry and preventing them from manning their trench parapets. This was called 'neutralization' and by the second half of had become the primary task of artillery supporting an attack. 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 yards or more in any direction.

Shrapnel was also useful against counter-attacks, working parties and any other troops in the open. It prescribed the use of shrapnel for wirecutting, with HE used to scatter the posts and wire when cut. However, there were constraints: Shorter ranges meant the flat trajectories might not clear the firers' own parapets, and fuzes could not be set for less than 1, yards.

1. ;
2. Shrapnel shell;
3. Lessons in Love (A School Ties Novella).
4. Shrapnel - Wikipedia?
5. Linvention de la France: Atlas anthropologique et politique (NRF Essais) (French Edition);
6. !
7. .

The guns had to be overhauled by artificers and carefully calibrated. Furthermore, they needed good platforms with trail and wheels anchored with sandbags, and an observing officer had to monitor the effects on the wire continuously and make any necessary adjustments to range and fuze settings. Shrapnel provided a useful "screening" effect from the smoke of the black-powder bursting charges when the British used it in "creeping barrages".

One of the key factors that contributed to the heavy casualties sustained by the British at the Battle of the Somme was the perceived belief that shrapnel would be effective at cutting the barbed wire entanglements in no man's land although it has been suggested that the reason for the use of shrapnel as a wire-cutter at the Somme was because Britain lacked the capacity to manufacture enough HE shell [11].

Navigation menu

This perception was reinforced by the successful deployment of shrapnel shells against Germany's barbed wire entanglements in the Battle of Neuve Chapelle , but the Germans thickened their barbed wire strands after that battle. As a result, shrapnel was later only effective in killing enemy personnel; even if the conditions were correct, with the angle of descent being flat to maximise the number of bullets going through the entanglements, the probability of a shrapnel ball hitting a thin line of barbed wire and successfully cutting it was extremely low.

The bullets also had limited destructive effect and were stopped by sandbags, so troops behind protection or in bunkers were generally safe. Also steel helmets, both the German Stahlhelm and the British Brodie helmet , could resist Shrapnel bullets and protect the wearer from head injury:. If I had, as had been usual up until a few days previously, been wearing a cap, then the Regiment would have had one more man killed.

A shrapnel shell was more expensive than a high-explosive one [ citation needed ] and required higher grade steel for the shell body.

Keep Exploring Britannica

They were also harder to use correctly because getting the correct fuze running time was critical in order to burst the shell in the right place. This required considerable skill by the observation officer when engaging moving targets. An added complication was that the actual fuze running time was affected by the meteorological conditions, with the variation in gun muzzle velocity being an added complication. However, the British used fuze indicators at each gun that determined the correct fuze running time length corrected for muzzle velocity.

With the advent of relatively insensitive high explosives which could be used as the filling for shells, it was found that the casing of a properly designed high-explosive shell fragmented effectively [ citation needed ]. However, this fragmentation was often lost when shells penetrated soft ground, and because some fragments went in all directions it was a hazard to assaulting troops. One item of note is the "universal shell", a type of field gun shell developed by Krupp of Germany in the early s. This shell could function as either a shrapnel shell or high explosive projectile.

Shrapnel | weaponry | www.newyorkethnicfood.com

The shell had a modified fuze, and, instead of resin as the packing between the shrapnel balls, TNT was used. When a timed fuze was set the shell functioned as a shrapnel round, ejecting the balls and igniting not detonating the TNT, giving a visible puff of black smoke. When allowed to impact, the TNT filling would detonate, becoming a high-explosive shell with a very large amount of low-velocity fragmentation and a milder blast. The artillery shell was in use by the 15th century, at first as a simple container for metal or stone shot, which was dispersed by the bursting of the container after leaving the gun.

Explosive shells came into…. Grapeshot , cannon charge consisting of small round balls, usually of lead or iron, and used primarily as an antipersonnel weapon. Typically, the small iron balls were held in clusters of three by iron rings and combined in three tiers by cast-iron plates and a central connecting rod. Ammunition, the projectiles and propelling charges used in small arms, artillery, and other guns.

Ammunition size is usually expressed in terms of calibre, which is the diameter of the projectile as measured in millimetres or inches. In general, projectiles less than 20 mm or. Projectile, powder, and fuze development by Shrapnel In Henry Shrapnel. Help us improve this article! Contact our editors with your feedback.

Henry Shrapnel

You may find it helpful to search within the site to see how similar or related subjects are covered. Any text you add should be original, not copied from other sources. At the bottom of the article, feel free to list any sources that support your changes, so that we can fully understand their context. Internet URLs are the best. University of Kentucky Press.



• Shrapnel | Definition of Shrapnel by Merriam-Webster.
• .
• Shrapnel shell - Wikipedia.
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
• Barking Up the Family Tree: Kids and Their Animal Kinships!
• shrapnel - Wiktionary;

The Journal of the American Medical Association. Archived from the original on 3 June Lost Houses of Southampton. Retrieved 22 June Retrieved from " https: Views Read Edit View history. In other projects Wikimedia Commons. This page was last edited on 24 September , at