Wire cutting HE Shrapnel

[Guest Standtoo]

Hi Guys

Old Tom prompted me in asking this because its botherd me. The stories of troops being told that the wire would be cut by excessive bombardment etc. This theory of wire cutting by High explosive shrapnell must have been trialed. However I understand that many shells were filled with lead shot. This I believe was ideal for killing men and horses in the open but useless at cutting barbed wire. Am I right in thinking that many of these shot filled canisters were fired towards the enemy in the hope that it distroyed the wire or was it a case of any shell will do as long as it goes bang.

Cheers Bob

[Robert Dunlop]

Any shell would not do. HE shells with delayed time fuses would bury themselves in the ground under the wire, explode pushing the wire into the air, whereupon the wire would fall back into the crater creating, if anything, a worse obstruction. There is a detailed analysis of the wire-cutting before the Battle of the Somme here:

http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/i...ndpost&p=373019

Note the mention of the forthcoming instantaneous fuse, which enabled HE shells to be used to against wire.

Trench mortars played an important role in wire cutting. The few histories of TM batteries that I have come across often refer to this role.

Tanks were a big advance. Cambrai illustrated how, with adequate artillery protection, massed tanks could easily create gaps in very wide barbed wire entanglements, thereby avoiding the need for wire-cutting with artillery. Wire-pulling tanks and engineers were needed to make gaps sufficiently wide and safe for cavalry horses to cross. Their lower legs were very vulnerable to the effects of barbed wire on the ground.

Robert