Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1915-07-16

After Vimeiro little is recorded of
| the use Of shrapnel unsil the battle
of Waterloo, following which histor-
ic engagement Wellington said to
Shrapnel, then a colonel of artillery,
that the shell that bore lis name had
played most important part in the
battle.
Napoleon, after ths battle of VIM
GIRO, issued orders that all unexpIoded
British shells found Oh the field
should be carefully examined, but in
some way, never fully explained, the
order was apparently not carried out,
and Napoleon lost a secret that might
have prolonged his power for years.
The secret of the she'll was ALSO
lutely unsolvable by the French.
In the Crimean war British artillery
declined to use shrapneI, despite the
fact that 1t had turned the day at
Waterloo. The French made a spar
ing use Of 1t, while the Russians, who
had never then heard Of it, naturally
trusted to the effectiveness OF the old
time missiles. In the Civil war both
the Union and Confederate armies
used shrapnel, but it was not until
1866 that the development of the mis-
sile to its present deadly effectiveness
may be said to have got definitely IN
der way.
1t was the Prussians who started 1t,
and they continued to improve the
missile until by the time the Franco
Prussian war began 1t was one Of the
Prussian army's most effective weap-
ons. The Prussian shrapnel did ire
mendous execution against the French,
especially at Sedan
In the Russo-Japanese war both Of
the contending armies used shrapnel
with great effect, and again in the
Balkan wars Of 1912, the striking sue
cesses Of the Serbians, Bulgarians and
Greeks were largely due to their splen-
did French shrapnel-fring field pieces.
There are several types of shrapnel
shells, among them the percussion
shrapnel," used for defense at short
range and in fire for adjustment. It's
effect depends upon the range and
the nature of the ground. 1t is
effective against troops lodged In tall
timber. Masks, branches of trees.
etc., frequently cause the premature
bursting of these projectiles. On
striking, the projectile cuts a furrow
in the ground and bursts two or three
meters beyond
Percussion shrapnel to be effective
must burst Immediately in front Of the
target. Its most effective employment
is against standing targets. They are
also more effective at long range than
is tie time-shrapnel Soft ground
newly plowed fields, terrain covered
with snow or underbrush, or rising
slope diminish the fire effect When
the angle of fall is ten degrees or
more, half of the bullets penetrate the
| ground, and the remainder ricochet
and pass on at greatly reduced We
| locity.
On the other hand time-shrapneI is
| fairly independent of the terrain. The
bullets in this type are imbedded in a
smoke-producing substance, making 1t
| comparatively easy to observe the
burst for purposes of adjustment. The
extreme range at which this projectile
can be employed is fixed by the IA
cility of observing the fire and by the
remaining velocity of the shrapnel bull
lets, both of which diminish as the
range increases.
Shrapnel is most effective against
prone skirmishers at ranges from l.
900 to 5000 meters, when burst 28
to % meters short of the target, and
against standing skirmishers ats the
same ranges when burst Sc to As me-
tiers short of the target. Black also
points out that a single shrapnel from
light field howitzer produces a great
er number OF hits when the point of
burst is favorably situated than one
fired from field gun.
Shrapnel is also playing most i'm
portant part In aerial warfare, and Of
these antiaircraft shrapnel. all Of
which embody the same general es-
sentials. there is perhaps none more
effective than that known as "Ehr-
hardt antiaircraft shrapnsl"
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