The Lee-Enfield Rifle

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXIII, Issue 7372, 21 November 1898, Page 3

The Lee-Enfield Rifle

General Kitchener's marvellously successful campaign in the Soudan is of interest (says Engineering), as affording the first occasion on which the new high-explosive shells have been used In actual warfare. Much experimental work has, of coarse, been carried out at Home, and is still going on, in the hope of discovering an entirely satisfactory delayed-action fuse. At present it is stated that the shells are more useful against men than material. Another novelty tried in the campaign is the Woolwich bullet, which has been devised with a view to increasing the stop? ping power of the LeerEnfield rifle, whilst at the same time avoiding the inflicting of an extremely severe wound at a shorb range. Thus the Spaniards' bullet. Apparently this object has been obtained, as, in the recent battle, the Egyptian and Soudanese troops were armed with MartiniHenry rifles, whilst the British troops had the Lee-Enfield. Accounts of the battle state that the dervishes succeeded in getting closer to the native than they did to the white troops. In discussing these small-bore bullets It has to be remembered that the type originally used, which is practically Identical with those still employed on the Continent, was capable of inflicting an extremely severe wound at a short range. Thus the Spaniards were at one time accused of using explosive bullets before Santiago, the character of the wounds inflicted with the Mauser rifle giving rise to this charge, which further investigation proved to be quite baseless. Up to a range of 300 yds the extremely high velocity of the modem small-bore bullet causes quite an explosive effect , when entering a soft body.