WHAT ARE DUM-DUM BULLETS?

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 3, Issue 253, 4 December 1914, Page 1 (Supplement)

WHAT ARE DUM-DUM BULLETS?

FIRST MADE AT THE WOOLWICH

OF INDIA

The origin of the name and the cause which led to the invention of dum-duin bullets lorm a story which seems to be little known, but which is of peculiar interest in view of the fact that the Germans are accusing the Allies of using them in contravention of tho articles of warfare laid down by The Hague Convention, which prohibits the uso ol solt-uosed or explosive bullets. To quote tho actual words of the rule relating to dum-dum bullets, " Tho Powers agree to abstain from the. use of bullet* with a hard envelope which does not entirely cover the core, of is pierced with incisions. " It was the British troops in India that first brought into uso the dum-dum bullets. In tho petty wars on the northwest frontier of India our soldiers were often exposed to night attacks in camp by fanatic swordsmen known as Ghazis, or fighting Dervishes, and it was found that the rush of men of this sort at closn quarters was not to be stopped by tho needle-prick of the modern rillo bullet, and that it was absolutely necessary to niako the bullet more effective ill these special circumstances. This was done bv removing a portion of tho nickel mantle that covers it. Tho effect of this was to make the lead spread out from the diameter of a lead pencil to that of an old-fashioned musket ball, and had a sufficiently stopping effect. The British troops, however, never used the bullets .anywhere except in tho circumstances related. , 1 The name dum-dum was derived from tho town ot Dum-Dum. four and a hall miles from Calcutta, where the bullet* 'were first manufactured. Dum-Dum. which has been described as the Woolwich of India, and was for a long tiuio the headquarters of the Bengal Artillerv, was, it is interesting to note, the centre of' the first open manifestation against greased cartridges in the Sepoy Mutiny in lSof. I It is pointed out, however, bv Mr. I'. (.' Selous, the famous l,ig-gaine hunter, [whose knowledge of rilhs and shooting I is probably unequalled, that the newpointed bullet, itself a German invention, and now lor the first time employed in waifare in Western Europe, inllicts at short ranges more grevjous wounds tlrnn any form of soft-nosed oipandnig bullet. . , These pointed bullets, it seems, are apt to turn sideways on striking a man or an animal at short range, with the result that although the hole caused by tho entry of the bullet is small, round, and clean-cut, the skm is often torn open where they pass out on the other side. Mr. Selous relates how ou several occasions ho has found one ol these long, solid pointed bullets, absolutely mumpa red in shape, lying broadside under the skm of an animal, through whose bode it had torn a largo lacerated wound. At long range, however, when ' the velocity of tho bullet has slowed down, they do not cause such eeiiuus wounds.