aramsay Posted 10 February , 2004 Share Posted 10 February , 2004 While walking the fields and lanes around La Vacquerie, near Cambrai, I couldn't help but notice the amount of flint stones in the earth, and I reckoned that in addition to normal shrapnel, some of these stones getting shattered / split by shell-fire could make a nasty mess............ Does anyone recall seeing any accounts of injuries being casued by this ? Btw....I'd be interested to converse with anyone else who has done any investigation into actions in this area, esp. Welsh Ridge, Dec. 1917 ? Fyi....I've attached a pic. of a German pill-box located roughly the area of the Emden support trench.......rather well camouflaged now, and well below the ground level of 14-18, I imagine ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Parker Posted 10 February , 2004 Share Posted 10 February , 2004 I've read accounts of soldiers being wounded by flying bone before. I suppose unless the flint was still imbedded in the wound it would have been classed as shrapnel. Geoff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon R Posted 10 February , 2004 Share Posted 10 February , 2004 Flint is crypto-crystalline silica, which is a bit like glass. Considering that some palaeolithic implements were sharper than surgical steel, I wouldn't imagine that being bombarded with 'flint shrapnel' would be particularly pleasant. Flint dust is thought likely to have caused prehistoric flint miners to regularly cough up blood and may have induced silicosis. Not pleasant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeppoSapone Posted 10 February , 2004 Share Posted 10 February , 2004 While walking the fields and lanes around La Vacquerie, near Cambrai, I couldn't help but notice the amount of flint stones in the earth, and I reckoned that in addition to normal shrapnel, some of these stones getting shattered / split by shell-fire could make a nasty mess............ Does anyone recall seeing any accounts of injuries being casued by this ? "Wrong" war I know.... However, I have read of Allied soldiers being wounded by fragments of stone in WW2, don't know if this was flint though. In the fighting in the rocky hills around Monte Cassino, sometimes the shell and mortar fire caused the soldiers to be wounded with fragments of stone, as well as/instead of shell splinters. One man told me that the government tried to get out of paying a pension to a friend of his, as he was "only" wounded by stone fragments. I don't know if this is true though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul guthrie Posted 10 February , 2004 Share Posted 10 February , 2004 This must happen anywhere it's rocky such as Vosges, alps in Italy & Carpathian Alps in WW1. Hills on Salonika front too such as Grand Couronne. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salientpoints Posted 10 February , 2004 Share Posted 10 February , 2004 However, I have read of Allied soldiers being wounded by fragments of stone in WW2, don't know if this was flint though. There is a bit in the film 'Blackhawk Down' where they are fighting in the streets and this topic comes up (not sure which characters involved) one of the soldiers points out they are trained to move through the middle of a street to save getting injured / wounded by shot up masonry...think it was one of the delta force to Ewan Mcgregors character who was a desk clerk (with a gun). Some factual basis in a holywood film - well well well.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeppoSapone Posted 10 February , 2004 Share Posted 10 February , 2004 However, I have read of Allied soldiers being wounded by fragments of stone in WW2, don't know if this was flint though. There is a bit in the film 'Blackhawk Down' where they are fighting in the streets and this topic comes up (not sure which characters involved) one of the soldiers points out they are trained to move through the middle of a street to save getting injured / wounded by shot up masonry...think it was one of the delta force to Ewan Mcgregors character who was a desk clerk (with a gun). Some factual basis in a holywood film - well well well.... I don't think they would have lasted 10 minutes in WW2 streetfighting! I believe that you lived longest if you kept off the street. The "trick" in heavy streetfighting was to capture the first house and then tunnel your way along a row of houses, using a pickaxe etc to get into the next house along, and so on. I believe they called it "mouseholing". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desmond7 Posted 10 February , 2004 Share Posted 10 February , 2004 Flint is some tough stuff - cut you to the bone with slightest pull. Regarding injuries from bone etc. there are a number of well documented incidents where someone is shot in the face and his teeth are carried like a projectile elsewhere,causing injury. Especially in Waterloo style line/square formation. Re: Black Hawk Down - Mogadishu is NOT the place to street fight in. Frankly, Mad Max people. VAST number of weapons - respect for life minimal. Clans and sub-clans within tribes. Uncle hates Uncle ... and change sides at any minute. And that was before the events of the eyesight-destroying movie. God only knows what that place is like now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Somme1916 Posted 11 February , 2004 Share Posted 11 February , 2004 I don't think they would have lasted 10 minutes in WW2 streetfighting! I believe that you lived longest if you kept off the street. The "trick" in heavy streetfighting was to capture the first house and then tunnel your way along a row of houses, using a pickaxe etc to get into the next house along, and so on. I believe they called it "mouseholing". Or any streetfight for that matter! Don’t you just love Hollywood? Your right on the money, staying out of sight and in cover is the best option. Yes the hole blown in building wall so you can move from building to another other is very often called a mouse hole. Jon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Dunlop Posted 12 February , 2004 Share Posted 12 February , 2004 Preferably starting at the top of a house and then working down, before creating the next 'mouse hole'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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