Bullets That Shoot Through Steel 



Medieval armor was revived, but it now 

 bids fair to become once more obsolete 



A BRITISH sniper lay behind his 

 shield of quarter-inch hardened 

 steel at the Ypres salient and 

 smiled when a bul- 

 let from a vigilant 

 German sniper 

 crashed against the 

 protection. He 

 knew that nothing 

 less than a couple of 

 shells from some far- 

 off field gun could 

 bother him. When 

 the next shot came, 

 the smile faded from 

 his lips. After dark 

 he crawled painfully 

 back to his trench- 

 line, shot through 

 the left shoulder. In 

 the shield, which 

 would turn a bullet 

 at the very muzzle, 

 there was a neat 

 round hole, less than 

 one-quarter of an 

 inch in diameter and 

 therefore smaller 

 than the service bul- 

 let of the German 

 rifle. From the 



shoulder the sur- 

 geons took the mis- 

 sile, a bullet made of solid steel, boat- 

 shaped, with sharp point and tapered 

 tail, and harder than glass. From other 

 bullets of the sort, fired by the Germans 

 for special occasions, the British were 

 able to reconstruct the whole bullet. 



Inside the German bullet, with its cus- 

 tomary mild steel jacket — instead of the 

 copper-nickel jacket used by the Ameri- 

 cans and British for the same purpose — 

 and inside a coating of lead, there lay a 

 miniature bullet of steel, which the sur- 

 geons took from the sniper's shoulder and 

 which had gone through the supposed 

 bullet-proof shield. 



Fired from the Mauser rifle of the Ger- 

 man, the mild steel jacket and the lead 

 covering of the steel bullet inside, yielded 



Effect of Armor-Piercing Bullets 



The revival of medieval armor as a protective 

 measure has been one of the interesting sidelights 

 in the present war. The first serious adoption 

 was the steel shrapnel helmets, and since that 

 time armor has been used more and more. 

 Now, however, means have been discovered to 

 pierce it and it would seem that it is about due 

 to be once more relegated to the limbo of 

 obsolete things. What w-ill the next revival be? 



enough to take the rifling of the barrel, 

 and the bullet flew through the air like 

 any other bullet. When it struck steel, 

 the leaden covering, 

 and the thin steel 

 jacket supported the 

 sttel point of the 

 bullet within for a 

 short instant, then 

 they spattered into 

 a spray of molten 

 lead and fragments 

 of jacket, and the 

 steel bullet traveled 

 on alone through the 

 steel plate. 



This is the prin- 

 ciple of the armor- 

 piercing bullet that 

 is coming to be so 

 common among the 

 fighting armies of 

 the world. 



The corresponding 

 American bullet is 

 the Clay, invented 

 by Captain W. L. 

 Clay of our Ord- 

 nance Department. 

 It is superior to any 

 of the armor piercers 

 made abroad. 

 Through the con- 

 struction of its point it will not glance off 

 even the most inclined hardened steel 

 surfaces, for armor surfaces are sloped 

 when possible, to avoid a direct hit on the 

 armor, and to make the bullet glance off 

 harmlessly. 



The Clay bullet has the jacket cut away 

 for the last eighth of an inch at the point, 

 exposing the soft lead. This in turn 

 smashes down on striking, changing the 

 shape of the point and making the bullet 

 "bite" on the hard, inclined surface. 

 Then the hard steel bullet within comes 

 smashing through, while the lead and the 

 jacket fly off in spray and fragments, 

 their work done. The actual killing or 

 wounding is done, of course, by the little 

 steel bullet inside of the ordinary one. 



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