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Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 280, 30 August 1915, Page 7

Most devastating of all are the new Skoda shells of th e Germanic allies, which ar e seventeen inches in diameter and weigh 2,800 pounds, says the “New York American.” The Skoda howitzer shoots at a high angle, and its shell penetrates twenty feet into soft eafth before exploding two seconds after striking. These howitzers do not resemble the Krupp mortars of the same calibre, to which they are said to be superior in every way. When a Skoda shell hits it means death to everything within a radius of 150 yards, anj even farther off. The mere pressure of its gas rips open the bombproof shelters and catches those who escape the metal fragments and flying debris. This ,gas enters • the body cavities and tears flesh asunder, sometimes stripping the men of their clothes. Of course the men in the immediate neighbourhood cf the explosion are annihilated. So fierc e is the heat of the explosion of the she'll that it melts rifle barrels as if they had been struck by lightning.