Grape (ammunition)
In weapons technology, a cartridge ( colloquial diminutive of cartridge , compare English cartridge ) is an artillery projectile with a shotgun charge . This is also called a hail of grapes , grape ammunition or hail of grapes , depending on the design .
development
If shot from chopped lead , iron or nails was shot without any container , it was not a grapeshot, but so-called hail . This was known at least since the early 15th century, but was only effective at a very short distance, for example in boarding battles on ships or when deployed in the field on closely spaced rifle lines or battle lines.
The cartridge was invented around 1449 at the latest and consisted of a paper or fabric container (similar to a non-metallic cartridge that is also fired) that was filled with small stone or metal balls. Loads with many small spheres were referred to as bag cartridges , with a few large spheres as grape cartridges . The container had a wooden sabot . At the end of the 16th century, sachet cartridges appeared in which the balls were stuck in tied twin sachets . The pouch cartridges were held in place by a (central) spindle in the center of the mirror. In the case of the grape or pine cone potatoes , larger and smaller balls were glued to the mirror with pitch and covered with canvas or a previously sewn canvas sack was placed over the spindle and then filled with balls. In both cases the outer canvas was tied like a net with a strong thread for stabilization. Finally, the canvas was impregnated ("baptized") with a mixture containing pitch, in order to make it long-term storable (weatherproof), which was especially necessary in maritime use.
The leather cannons , made famous by the Swedish troops at the time of the Thirty Years' War, were intended exclusively for firing hail of grape ammunition.
Since the 17th century, the container in the field artillery was made of sheet iron or zinc ( rifle cartridge ). Inside these containers the balls were embedded in a mass of plaster of paris , wax or sulfur . Cartridge containers in the form of a multi-part wooden sabot are known and some have been preserved to this day. A particularly noteworthy form of the grapeshot has been preserved in large numbers in the collections of Forchtenstein Castle in Austria. They consist of wicker baskets woven in caliber (comparable to the shape of bulwarks ), which are closed at both ends with wooden discs. The actual charge consists of almost spherical sections of glass (“glass hail”). Bag cartridges were used in the fortress artillery for another two centuries.
In the late 19th century, shrapnel , or the garnet brush , which was often used in the early stages of World War I , appeared. With these projectiles, the bullets are only ejected in the target area by a propellant charge towards the target. They were particularly effective against unprotected land targets.
During the Second World War , grapeshots were also available for some medium- caliber guns for close defense of the gun emplacement.
The importance of the grape rifle declined in the 19th century with the widespread introduction of rifled barrels in infantry rifles and the resulting increasing combat distance. With the development of shrapnel and machine guns , grapeshots were almost completely displaced. A modern weapon based on this principle is the American 120 mm M1028 cartridge for combating close targets in cities. This shoots about 1150 tungsten balls from a smooth barrel cannon. Such ammunition is also available for 155 mm caliber artillery. After a flight distance previously set using the time fuse, this emits several thousand small, flipper-stabilized arrows of around 2.5 mm in diameter, which are then distributed over a certain area and aimed at so-called "soft targets" such as. B. Infantry are effective.
commitment
Grapeshots are used by the artillery against uncovered people, so-called soft targets . This could be attacking troop units or other population gatherings. In fortresses, trenches could be effectively covered with it. A rikoschett shot had a particularly devastating effect : the grapeshot was shot against the ground at a shallow angle in front of the attacking troops. The bullets ricocheting off the bursting container in all directions caused more wounded and dead than a single bullet that hit directly. The effective range is 300 to 600 meters. At a shorter distance the scattering is too small, at too great a distance the penetration power and fire resistance decrease.
Well-known uses are for example:
- Battle of Breitenfeld (1631)
- Battle of Waterloo
- Battle of Solferino
- Battle of Gettysburg ( American Civil War )
- June uprising 1848
The derogatory epithet "Kartätschenprinz" was given to Prince Wilhelm of Prussia , later King and first German Emperor Wilhelm I, by Maximilian Dortu in 1848 because of his demand for decisive military force to suppress the March Revolution .
swell
- Mariano di Jacopo (called Taccola): De rebus militaribus. Around 1449, Bavarian State Library, Munich, clm 28800
- The 1420 fireworks book
- Hans Georg Schirvatt: Art and artillery book. Southern Germany 1622
literature
- Alfred Geibig: Explosive and scattering devices, cutting and debris projectiles . In: The power of fire - serious fireworks of the 15th – 17th centuries Century in the mirror of its neuter tradition . Art collections of the Veste Coburg, Coburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-87472-089-2 , p. 177-226 .
- Militair-Conversations-Lexicon, 1834
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/m1028.htm Description and pictures
