MODERN WEAPONS OF WAR.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 16, 20 January 1915, Page 4

MODERN WEAPONS OF WAR.

It has l>ccii calculated by an officer of ;i mathematical turn of mind that the weight of bullets required to kill a man in tin's war is something like 1 (581 b., more than the weight of the average man himself. This in spite of the immense improvements in rnodi ern weapons as compared with those in' use in previous great wars. In the first line of defence or attack a soldier often fires 400 cartridges in a day. In Napoleon's wars a bullet seldom hit an enemy more than 200 yards distant. A marksman with the Lee-Enfield or Lebel rifle can bring down man after man at 1000, or even 2000 yards, under favorable conditions—but the conditions seldom are favorable. Napoleon's Old Guard considered 25 cartridges a reasonable equipment for a whole campaign. In 1870-1 the German average consumption was 65 per man for the entire war. Many German soldiers fired 4000 cartridges apiece in the first month of this war, and the German waste of rifle ammunition has been colossal. In the Russo-Japanese war it was calcinated that a life was lost for every 3000 bullets fired, and the number of bullets fired in this war per life taken will certainly be much higher. It is estimated that on this western front the Germans have fired at least 25 shells for every life lost to the Allies or the civilian population from every cause, not exclusively shell-fire, and perhaps 100 for every life lost by shell-fire alfine. So that modern war- ' faro is not so deadly as it seems by any means.