502 
PENETRATION OF EARTH AND MASONRY. 
Instance of 
the evil 
effects of too 
long delay. 
Long delay 
objection¬ 
able. 
Shells 
breaking up, 
Effect de¬ 
pends little 
on velocity 
of impact. 
Increase of 
effect gaim < 
by large 
shell. 
A remarkable instance of the evil attending the use of too long a 
delay in fuze action occurred at Lydd in 1888, when firing at a small 
field magazine with an 8-inch howitzer. After many ineffective rounds, 
largely due to ricochet, a shell, striking in exactly the right place, 
penetrated the overhead cover into the interior of the magazine, 
ricocheted from its floor, passed up a little flight of steps, grazing the 
edges of each, and went out through the small hatchway at the top, 
bursting in the air beyond. Such results lead to bad shooting and 
false conclusions, the place where the shell strike is not seen, but the 
explosion some way further on is seen. A slightly less delay would 
have blown up the magazine. 
On the whole long delay action fuzes are objectionable, and shells, 
with but slight delay fuzes, give the best average results. Long delay 
no doubt occasionally shows to advantage in shells fired at very high 
angles of elevation, but even then there is a danger that the shell may 
plunge too deep before the fuze acts and be smothered. 
Shell from high velocity guns sometimes break up on striking earth, 
1 and especially sand, owing to the walls of the shell not receiving suffi¬ 
cient support. 
It has been already mentioned that the effect of shell in earth 
depends but little on the velocity of impact. It follows that heavy 
high velocity guns are not economical for earth attack, unless the slope 
opposed to them is very steep, while they are very seldom available for 
an attack on masonry, though very effective against it, as masonry is 
generally in fortifications defiladed from direct fire. Howitzers, by which 
term is meant light guns, throwing a large shell at a moderate velocity, 
have been found to be the best all-round weapons for the attack of 
both earth and masonry under the conditions presented by fairly 
modern fortifications, that is to say they produce generally a far larger 
effect with the expenditure of an equal weight of ammunition and 
labour. Howitzers have been supplemented in siege trains with guns 
of comparatively high velocity, probably because good man-killing 
effect is not obtained by howitzer shrapnel—but with the development 
of high explosive shell they will prove to be more effective all-round 
weapons for all purposes, men, even protected by earth, can be reached 
by these shell, whose effect, unlike shrapnel, does not depend on the 
velocity of their flight. 
There is another consideration, not always thought of sufficiently, 
but which is very important in its bearing on the economical emplo}^- 
ment of shell fire in the destruction of materiel . Experience has 
shown that, no matter whether earth or masonry is attacked, an increase 
in the size of the projectile and consequently in the size of its bursting 
charge, is followed by an increase in the effect far greater than the 
proportional increase in weight. A shell containing 30 lbs. bursting 
charge, for instance, may easily perform a task which could not be 
accomplished by any reasonable number of shell containing 15 lbs., 
though the larger shell may not be double the weight of the smaller. 
The smaller shell may go nearly as deep into earth as the larger one 
and be smothered every time. Even suppose that neither shell are 
smothered, one shell succeeding another partly fills in the crater made 
