The other factor was trajectory. Shrapnel bullets were typically about 300 yards (270 m) of normal field guns after bursting and more than 400 yards (370 m) of heavy field guns. In order to make maximum use of these distances, a flat trajectory and therefore a high-speed gun were required. The trend in Europe was that armies with high-speed guns tended to use heavier projectiles because they could afford to have fewer bullets per shell. [10] Moderate shrapnel injuries sometimes involve significant scarring, long-term effects of infection, and other problems that categorically separate them from minor injuries. This type of injury is much more serious and usually has a much greater negative impact on a veteran`s daily life, even decades after the first injury. Moderate shrapnel injuries are often a combination of an entry and exit injury, which can affect them more severely to a Veteran`s long-term mobility. Shell casings empty shell shells in Sanctuary Wood, Belgium In the 1870s, William Armstrong delivered a design with the brilliant charge in the head and wall of the steel shell, much thinner than previous cast-iron shell walls. While the thinner wall of the shell and the lack of a central tube allowed the shell to carry many more bullets, it had the disadvantage that the bursting charge separated the bullets from the shell by pulling the holster forward while slowing the bullets as they were ejected through the base of the shell. instead of increasing their speed. Britain adopted this solution for several smaller calibers (less than 6 inches),[6] but few, if any, shells of this type remained until World War I. These sample phrases are automatically selected from various online information sources to reflect the current use of the word «shrapnel.» The views expressed in the examples do not represent the views of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us your feedback. If you are a veteran suffering from the long-term effects of a shrapnel injury, you may be eligible for significant disability benefits from Veterans Affairs. The VA provides monthly disability benefits to veterans with a service-related disability, including a shrapnel injury. In this article, we will discuss how VA evaluates shrapnel injuries and how to get a higher VA disability rate if you get too low. Although not strictly shrapnel, a 1960s armament project produced Splintex shells for 90mm and 106mm recoil rifles and 105mm howitzers, where it was called «hive» ammunition. Unlike the bullets in shell-bursting grenades, splintex shells contained darts. The result was the M546 APERS-T 105mm ammunition (anti-personnel plotter), first used during the Vietnam War in 1966. The bowl consisted of about 8,000 one-and-a-half-gram darts, arranged in five stages, a timed fuse, body shear igniters, a central lightning tube, a smokeless propellant charge with a color marker contained in the base and a tracer element. The grenade worked like this: the time fuse would go off, lightning would pass through the lightning tube, the shear fuses would fire, and the front body would split into four pieces. The body and the first four levels were dispersed by the rotation of the projectile, the last stage and the visual marking by the powder charge itself. Darts propagate, mainly due to rotation, from the point of bursting into a constantly expanding cone along the projectile`s previous trajectory before bursting. The ammunition was complex to make, but it is a very effective anti-personnel weapon — soldiers reported that after hive projectiles were fired during an overflow attack, many enemy dead nailed their hands to the wooden rods of their rifles, and these dead could be dragged by rifle to mass graves.
It is said that the name hive was given to the type of ammunition because of the sound of darts moving through the air, similar to that of a swarm of bees. C1. General attributives, such as (in sense 1) shrapnel barrier, shell bullets, etc., (in sense 2a) shrapnel wounds, shrapnel wounds, etc. Cf. sense 1a. The use of the term «shrapnel» has changed over time to also refer to the fragmentation of shells from grenades and bombs. This is its most common modern use, which differs from the original meaning. The design was improved and crossed around 1852 by Captain E.
M. Boxer of the Royal Arsenal when cylindrical shells were introduced for rifled guns.[2] Lieutenant Colonel Boxer adapted his design in 1864[4] to produce shrapnel shells for the new muzzle-loading rifled (RML) guns: the walls were made of thick cast iron, but the gunpowder charge was now in the base of the shell with a tube passing through the center of the shell to transfer the flashing ignition from the time fuse in the nose to the gunpowder charge in the base. The powder charge shattered both the wall of the cast iron cartridge and the bullets. [5] The shattered shell wall continued mainly forward, but had little destructive effect. The system had major limitations: the thickness of the iron shell walls limited the load capacity available for the projectiles, but offered few destructive capabilities, and the tube through the center also reduced the space available for bullets. [6] At the beginning of the First World War, shrapnel was used as an anti-personnel weapon on all sides. It was until October 1914 the only type of shell available for British field guns (13 pounder, 15 pound and 18 pounder). Shrapnel was effective against open troops, especially against massed infantry (advance or retreat). However, the onset of trench warfare from late 1914 led most armies to limit their use of shrapnel in favor of explosives.
Britain continued to use a high percentage of shrapnel shells. The new tactical roles were to cut barbed wire and provide «creeping barrages» to monitor their own attacking forces and remove enemy defenders to prevent them from firing on their attackers. Although shrapnel did not impress trenches and other earthworks, they remained (at least) the British`s preferred weapon to support their infantry attacks by suppressing enemy infantry and preventing them from maneuvering their trench parapets.