Shell (munition)

“ It is a shell much thinner than the ordinary shell, and filled with leaden bullets and a charge of powder sufficient to burst it, which is done by means of a fuze as with a common shell at any required distance. It is thus calculated to extend all the advantages of canister shot, to distances far beyond the reach of that projectile. It is fired both from guns and howitzers. ”

“ The improvement in shell fire is revolutionary enough of itself. Steadily the power of the guns has increased. What they may accomplish is well illustrated by the account of a German battalion on the Somme. When it was ten miles from the front a fifteen-inch shell struck in its billets just before it was ordered forward. On the way luck was against it at every stage of progress and it suffered in turn from nine-inch, eight-inch and six-inch shells, not to mention bombs from an aviator flying low, and afterward from eighteen pounders. ”

“ These ingots are the raw material of the shell casing only. The production of the explosive that serves as the bursting charge is an industry in itself, while the construction of the mechanism of the fuses requires almost as much skill as watch-making.
In the first year of the war, the critical period of the conflict, France led all the Entente nations in the production of shells. As was the case with guns, France had to supply her ally, Russia, with the munitions so necessary to the effectiveness of the armies fighting in Poland and the Carpathians. ”

“ Now, the larger the diameter of the shell, the greater will be its speed at the muzzle of the gun, because there will be a greater surface for the powder gases to press against. On the other hand, the larger the shell, the more will it be retarded by the air, because there will be a larger surface for the air to press against. It has been proposed by some ordnance experts that a shell might be provided with a disk at each end, which would make it fit a gun of larger caliber. A 10-inch shell, for instance, could then be fired from a 16-inch gun. ”

“ The only man of the detachment even partly exposed is the number one, while laying the gun, and in that position he is nearly covered by the gun and fittings. Common shell, shrapnel shell, and steel armor-piercing projectiles, have been approved for the 1101⁄2 ton gun. The common shell is shown in Fig. 3. Like the common shell for all the larger natures of new type guns, it is made of steel. ”

“ A pleasant ‘drawing-room’ voice is that of our beautiful little field-howitzer. It goes off with more of a puff than a bang, and the shell sails away with a soft whirring note which is lost in the distance long before the formidable crash of the burst is wafted back from the German lines.
An alarming sound that one used to hear earlier in the war, when ammunition was of a lower quality than it is now, was that [465] of a shell with a ‘stripped’ driving band. Such a shell will whirl through the air at any angle and will land, possibly base first, a mile or two short of its mark. ”

“ It is a curious fact, and one which greatly increases the efficiency of the shells, that owing to the bursting charge requiring a minute space of time to mature its ignition after the firing of the fuse by impact, the shell is enabled to travel four or five feet after striking an object before disruption takes place. Hence, therefore, it acts as a shot before it bursts as a shell. When it perforates a target the explosion may be seen to take place at a few feet beyond, and when it grazes it has time to rise, and may be observed to burst after clearing the ground. ”

“ A chum of ours died here. We were lying down for a time behind a hedge and one of the heavy shrapnel shells burst a little to the front of us, the forward sweep of the shrapnel landing the bullets right among us. When a shrapnel shell bursts the bullets sweep forward and obliquely to the ground, having a forward range of three hundred yards and a lateral zone of fifty yards. The three hundred odd bullets of the German shell fly like a fan. It will be seen that a shell may burst right over your head without injuring anyone, but the men three hundred yards or so to your rear are hit. ”

“ For this reason misgiving was felt as to the effectiveness of shell fire when carried out at considerable ranges against solid shot, and efforts were continuously made to correct all shell before issue.
Nor were the Americans inclined to view the shell gun with much favour; remembering, doubtless, what they owed to their long and powerful guns when they were opposed to our light guns and carronades in the war of ’12 and ’13. America was more cautious even than this country. But in ’41 the 8-inch shell gun appeared in American ships as an auxiliary to the long guns: four or so on each gun deck. ”

“ Anti-aircraft shell are of small caliber and are usually tracer-incendiary. Such shell are filled with pyrotechnic mixtures which ignite at the moment of firing, or by time fuse, and are effective against highly inflammable material. Shell filled with thermit which explode and scatter the molten iron have been used against aircraft and ground targets, but with rather poor results. Large shell, which burst upon impact and scatter units of burning materials, have been used with some success against ground targets. ”

“ In the centre of each shell is a small charge of powder, intended only to open the shell twenty-five yards or so in front of an enemy’s line, and let the leaden bullets with their initial impetus hurl themselves like hailstones into the faces of the troops. ”

“ In addition to the ordinary manœuvre period in which cavalry and infantry participate, artillery units go every year to a practice camp which is a special area set apart for the firing of live shells, with a view to giving officers and men alike training in the realities of their work. The so-called smokeless powder—which in reality is not smokeless—used on these occasions, together with the passage of a shell through the rifling of the gun, renders the cleaning of the bore an even more messy business than that incurred in firing blank ammunition during tactical exercises. ”

“ Men were in the whitewashed magazines, with felt slippers on their feet, handing out 6-inch shell and cartridge-cases. Others, rushing out from the darker ammunition passages, seized them, shoved them into little canvas bags bound with rope, and dashed back again to feed their own especial ammunition hoist. Hooking the bags to a rope which ran up the tube, passed over a pulley-wheel at the top and led down again, they hauled the shell and cartridges up to the 6-inch gun above them. ”

“ As the war progresses the French tend to use more and more of these explosive shells, which are used against infantry in the same way as are shrapnel. The only difference seems to be that they are made to burst a little lower. Their effect is very terrible. A heavy bursting charge is employed, and although the fragments are small they fly with such force that they make fatal wounds and even cut into the wood of rifle stocks. I observed the body of one German whose back had been pierced with about forty small particles of a shell which had burst close to him. ”

“ Machine-loaded shells with suitable charges for snipe can be bought for about $1.40 a hundred, and will answer all purposes very well. There is room for discussion as to the proper charge. I should say 23⁄4 or 3 drams of powder and 1 ounce of either No. 8 or No. 9 shot is a good load for a 12-bore gun. The smaller shot is best for flock shooting. In the sketch is represented a section of a shell showing the position and kind of wads, and there is also shown a light home-loaded shell to kill crippled birds. ”

“ Even the soldiers did not realize a few years ago how important the supply of shells was going to be. The rifle has fallen from its old place of importance while the gun and the shell have risen to the first place. ”

“ Percentage of German Gas Shell in Enemy Dumps.—A test of the importance attached by any army to the different types of ammunition which it uses can be made by examining the percentage of such types of shell in a number of ammunition dumps assembled behind the front line for some specific operation, or part of a campaign. An examination of German production from this point of view is very interesting, and also brings out a significant point. ”

“ If it became necessary to resort to the expedient of blowing up the gun, it would be done by placing a shell in the breech of the chamber, the breech closed, another shell inside the muzzle, the lanyard fastened to the firing lever and strung out of the front pit door for a distance of 25 or 30 feet to a large tree standing at our rear, fastened to the tree, and when retreating pull it from there, blowing the gun and the gun pit into as many pieces. ”

“ A shell can be heard coming. Experts claim to identify the caliber of a gun by the sound the shell makes. Few live long enough to become such experts. In Gallipoli the average length of life was three weeks. In dug-outs we always ate our meals, such as they were, to the accompaniment of "Turkish Delight," the Newfoundlanders' name for shrapnel. We had become accustomed to rifle-bullets. When you hear the zing of a spent bullet or the sharp crack of an explosive you know it has passed you. The one that hits you you never hear. ”

“ These guns actually do sag a little, and when the shell is fired through the long barrel it straightens up the gun, making the muzzle "whip" upward, just as a drooping garden hose does when the water shoots through it. ”

“ A number of shell would be fired at regular intervals, say four or five per minute, so that the observer would know which shell belonged to the gun in question.
There are different kinds of shell. Some will explode on the instant of contact with the earth. These are meant to spread destruction over the surface. There are other shell which will explode a little more slowly and these penetrate the ground to some extent before going off; while a third type has a delayed action and is intended to be buried deep in the ground before exploding, so as to destroy dugouts and underground positions. ”

“ More small shell is now made in a fortnight than formerly in a year, and the increase in output of heavy shell has been still larger. Equally striking results have been attained in [pg 110] the production of machine guns, aeroplanes motor bodies, and the other war supplies, for which demand and replacement have necessarily grown with the demand for guns and shells. To these have to be added the ships and the anti-submarine and anti-aircraft machines and devices that have been demanded by the enemy's method of warfare. ”

“ We may take it, then, until further evidence (which may possibly exist) is produced, that explosive shell were first used in large numbers and with good effect in 1588.
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CHAPTER XV
IGNITERS Charges of incendiaries and explosives confined in guns, shells, mines, &c., are not fired directly: for convenience and safety they are ignited by means of some intermediate agent, or agents, such as priming powder, fuzes, &c., which are themselves in turn ignited by some other agents. These collective agents are here called Igniters. ”

“ This absolutely new and original invention at first met the fate of many other new inventions—it was long disregarded.552 Not until 1803, when England was in grave danger, did the authorities bestir themselves about it: a trial of Shrapnel’s shell was then ordered, and the Ordnance Committee reported in their favour.553 How great an invention these shell were may be measured by their inextinguishable 212vitality: they outlived official apathy; they overcame endless objections; they survived countless modifications; they adapted themselves to rifled guns ”

“ The big 14-inch guns will carry a shell weighing 1,400 pounds, propelled by a 365-pound charge of smokeless powder which will drive it through the air at an initial speed of nearly half a mile a second—enough momentum to carry it through at least 5 feet of wrought iron. ”

“ I have got one myself—a Hun rifle. The original owner, who was buried with it—probably by a shell—happened to lie exactly where we dug our trench, and we were obliged to move him elsewhere. I brought his rifle home and put it over the door of my dug-out. That was early this morning. But the enemy have been putting shrapnel over us (in reply to a good 'strafing' by our guns) , and one piece has gone clean through the stock.
"Our artillery are going great guns nowadays. It certainly feels as if the shell supply was all right—or nearly so. ”

“ The loading operation of the huge shells was also interesting, for it must be remembered that some of the missiles weigh nearly a ton. After the tremendous rebound of the gun, the breech block was opened, the opening mechanism being so arranged that the cartridge shell would be extracted automatically, thus preparing the gun for the next shell. ”

“ The big 16-inch guns that protect our coasts fire a shell that weighs 2,400 pounds. Nine hundred pounds of smokeless powder is used to propel the shell, which leaves the muzzle of the gun with a speed of 2,600 feet per second. ”

“ The Germans had guns ranging from fifteen pounds to the gigantic howitzers hurling a shell of 1,800 pounds, with an unlimited supply of ammunition.
It is a well-known fact that for months the average per gun was about six shells per day. Ah! many a gallant lad might be alive today if he had been properly covered by artillery in those days! ”

“ It must have been a big howitzer shell, or perhaps a very large trench mortar bomb, which was making them. Gradually most of our artillery in the background to the left of us seemed to be converging upon this village. Suddenly, at a little before 4 p.m., there lashed on to the place the shrapnel from three or four batteries of British field guns. They seemed to be fired as fast as they could be served. Shell after shell laid whip strokes across the dry earth as swiftly as a man could ply a lash. ”