![]() |
Nov 4, 2014: Shrapnel
Brit Ronald Brown stepped on a mine (or booby trap) in 1944 war time France. When he died a couple years ago at age 94, his family had him cremated which produced six ounces(170 grams) of metal shrapnel mixed in with his ashes.
http://cellar.org/2014/shrapnel.jpg The Telegraph reported... Quote:
Quote:
|
Wow!
Thanks for posting this, Bruce. That's an impressive amount of shrapnel to be carrying around in your leg. |
Maybe he was just a really lousy carpenter.
|
Thanks for posting, Bruce.
When I've read of similar accounts in the past, it is often noted how pieces of shrapnel or glass would work their way to the surface for years thereafter. He must have been a tough old boy. |
That is impressive.
Makes one worry a little less about making sure you get all of the splinter out |
Technically, those are "metal fragments". Shrapnel (from the French), are pieces of the actual metal casing of the bomb or artillery round. In either case, they would cause major owiees in the wound site.
|
True, but as with everything else from the French, we made it more gooder. :haha:
|
I have a little trouble figuring out how all those pieces are only 6 ounces. In any case an awful lot of material to carry around for all those years.
In Vietnam, among the most devastating mines were Claymores, which put out a horizontal spray of fragments and were fired by command or trip wire. American Claymores were rectanglar, 4 or 5 inches by 12+, with a curved face and loaded with ball bearings. Chinese or Vietnamese or ? were usually round, dinner plate or pizza size and loaded with just the kind of junk in the photo, with the addition of pieces of cut up re-bar. When American soldiers were treated for little uniform round wounds, medics knew they were the victims of captured US mines. |
The newspapers said it was a mine, I added "booby trap". Looking at that pile of hardware, it looked to me more like a homemade device, than factory made ordinance. But I guess by mid-'44 their normal manufacturing capacity was greatly diminished, thanks to the RAF* and 8th Air Force.
Of course it could have been a French underground device, also. :confused: *Check out this diagram of one RAF raid on Dresden. |
756/762 is a pretty damn good survival rate, even for a night mission.
|
I really don't see how you could have all the crap in you and still function. How do your muscles slide by that stuff??! Hard to believe for me.
|
One of the comments in the NY Daily News article suggests the following:
Quote:
|
Quote:
TIM FARRELL said... Quote:
Bigjake (BigEgo) questions Browns honesty... Quote:
BUFFMUFFIN says... Quote:
Since the Brits are not ecologically diligent like us:biggrinlo, and insist of burning the coffins, it's possible some of the hardware might have been inadvertently from the coffin. Also, since British crematoriums have a magnet to remove ferrous metal from the ashes before they are returned to next of kin. Since the family specifically requested the metal be returned, it could be an accumulation of more than one cremation. The screws and tacks especially might be coffin hardware, although the odd bits of wire are curious. One piece of wire looks like a binder clip. Maybe it's stuff the army docs used to put him back together. |
Quote:
|
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 12:52 AM. |
Powered by: vBulletin Version 3.8.1
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.