SHELL FIRE.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 8, Issue 118, 19 May 1916, Page 6

SHELL FIRE.

An interesting demonstration of the effects of shell fire on barbed wire entanglements took place at Miramar on Saturday morning. A gun detachment under Lieutenant Person fired half-a-dozen,rounds of 35-pounder shrapnel and four rounds of a special shell invented by a resident of Dunedin, and manufactured by the Defence Department. Colonel Allen (Minister of Defence) Bri-gadier-General Robin (Commandant of the Forces) and Major Roberts (Director of Ordnance) witnessed the snooting". The test was carried out at short range but this, while it introduced some difficulties in the matter of bursting the shells correctly owing to the fuse having a minimum setting, did not effect the test as against wi(re. The entanglements, designed on th« linos of those regularly used on the Continent, suffered much damage from the shrapnel and the special shell, which burst correctly in front of the target and tore a hole big enough to make an easy passage. The demonstration was a useful contri- , bution to the knowledge of the airtiller- ! iests present and showed the means that ' are coming to t-he fore for superseding | the' difficult work of cutting through by hand.