TOPIC:

While browsing through the archives of the South Wales Daily News, I came across the following interesting little item, which I thought may be of interest.
Dated 20 th January 1900; p.6:

"WHERE BULLETS STRIKE."

"In what part of the body are our soldiers mostly hit by the Boer rifle fire?
The answer to this question is supplied by a surgical writer at the front in the following analysis of the wounds of 24 officers and 285 non-commisdioned officers and men at the battle of the TUGELA on December 15th:- Head,19; face,7; neck,3; back and spine,20; upper extremity,76; lower extremity,118; other wounds,6. The wounds in the lower extremity thus greatly predominated.
Only eight of the 309 were returned as shell wounds, the rest being without exception caused by Mauser bullets. These bullet wounds are described as " humane in the extreme," and"haemorrhage was conspicuous by it's absence."

Interesting. I have read somewhere that Mauser bullets were of unusually narrow diameter and hence passed through the body more easily with less danger of hitting something vital - hence more humane? Also the entrance and exits holes they created were smaller resulting in less bleeding or haemorrhaging.

Have just measured the length and diameter of my lower and upper extremities which leads me to believe my lower extremities present a target at least 33% larger than my upper extremities which appears in line with your reported stats.

I have also, in the last few months, seen an article on the comparison of entrance and exit wounds of three rifles. It could well have been on the ABW forum, but memory fails me at present!
The article showed photos of skulls with a wound from a Lee Metford, which took a golf ball sized section out with the round and also a Mauser, which exited with a very small and fairly neat hole.

The article referred to above can be found here:

THE WAYS OF A BULLET

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