Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written,rec.arts.sf.fandom
Path: ...!weretis.net!feeder6.news.weretis.net!news.misty.com!news-vm.kithrup.com!kithrup.com!djheydt
From: djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt)
Subject: Re: Babel
Message-ID: <sCD222.IBI@kithrup.com>
Date: Mon, 22 Apr 2024 20:25:14 GMT
References: <us5st0$485$1@panix2.panix.com> <mcko0jlcbol6djm4mtvdgtsqldb3rpkea7@4ax.com> <sBC1Ey.1up3@kithrup.com> <v06629$12h02$2@dont-email.me>
Organization: Kithrup Enterprises, Ltd.
X-Newsreader: trn 4.0-test77 (Sep 1, 2010)
Bytes: 1869
Lines: 28

In article <v06629$12h02$2@dont-email.me>, BCFD 36  <bcfd36@cruzio.com> wrote:
>On 4/2/24 13:40, Dorothy J Heydt wrote:
>> In article <mcko0jlcbol6djm4mtvdgtsqldb3rpkea7@4ax.com>,
>> The Horny Goat  <lcraver@home.ca> wrote:
>>> I distinctly remember the line "You know the
>>> 'rockets' red glare? the bombs bursting in air? Well those were OUR
>>> rockets and OUR bombs - but we don't advertise that much to our
>>> American friends these days!"
>> 
>> [Hal Heydt]
>> Congreve rockets and mortar rounds with the fuse cut too short,
>> repsectively.
>
>Would the fuses have been too short if they were trying for air bursts 
>to kill the guys on the walls?

[Hal Heydt]
Probably.  They were--generally speaking--trying for as close to
ground contact detonation as possible.  I think the air bursts
they got were way short of trying for shrapnel kills on the
walls.  

The mortars in question were "double firing" type.  First the
gunner lit the fuse of the shell, then he light the propellant
charge.  It was later that it was determined that the gases from
burning propellant would go around the shell sufficiently to
light the shell fuse when the mortar was fired.  With a double
firing design, you *really* didn't want to get distracted after
light the shell fuse.