Pencil sketch of a piece of French shrapnel by a German soldier1 drawn September 12, 1915. Shrapnel was an anti-personnel weapon, designed to kill and maim.
Translation (courtesy Thomas Faust):"Strange shape of an exploded French Shrapnel"Reverse:Message dated September 13, 1915
"We had 5 killed and 14 wounded during the day. Next day there were two outbursts of trench-mortar activity; and there was September 16th—a real hate by both sides the following afternoon.The wounds of this front are mostly multiple and often horrible, being nearly all caused by shell or mortar-bomb or grenade. One wonders how the Germans fare with their own bombs, so many of our wounded are the victims of our own bomb accidents."
Excerpt from the period September 14 to 16, 1915 from the writings — diaries, letters, and memoirs — of Captain J.C. Dunn, Medical Officer of the Second Battalion His Majesty's Twenty-Third Foot, The Royal Welch Fusiliers. Approximately 70% of soldiers killed in World War I were killed by artillery fire, including shrapnel shells, high-explosive shells, and gas shells.
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, page 148, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
1915-09-12, 1915, September, shrapnel, wound, artillery, artillery shell
