WHO ARE THE HUNS?

The Use of Dum-Dum Bullets. 77'
against this kind of warfare, which, thanks to the methods
of our opponents, has become the most barbarous known to
history." 1
The full confirmation of the Imperial reproach is shown
in the following document:
Two English officers at present in German hands have in
1
The following notes on the nature of these projectiles are taken from
the Bavarian Military Museum:
"The genuine Dum-Dum bullet is of English origin; it is called after
the cartridge factory of the same name at Calcutta, and was first used in India.
The jacket reached only to the beginning of the egg-shaped point, and was
in part furnished with lengthwise grooves. This first variety did not
prove satisfactory. So a projectile with a hollow point was adopted. This
was given a thinner jacket and only the base of the forward hollow was lined
with an alloy of copper, tin and nickel. Used in the battle of Omdurman
(Soudan Campaign, 1898). The frequent mushrooming of the lead core through
the jacket remaining stuck in the riflings, led to the adoption of a harder
lead core (with a greater proportion of antimony alloy, M/95).
This kind of Dum-Dum projectile has not been employed by the French
in the present campaign, but a bullet subsequently hollowed out. For this
purpose the old type M/98 and M/03 with a jacket of nickel-plate and a core
of hard lead were used. By means of machines, and (as the rough work on
some of the examples before us shows) sometimes by hand, the point of the
projectile was removed and the bullet drilled out to a depth of 6 mm and
a diameter of 5 mm.
This alteration naturally led to a considerable diminution of the trajectory
and the power of penetration, but in contrast to the modern slender
and polished French bullet with its penetrating copper point, it is able to
inflict wounds which are a disgrace to all modern civilization. That this projectile,
contrary to international law, had full official sanction is shown by the
package now in the hands of the Munich Military Museum which bears the
stamp :
ETUIS MEL B 90 MEL
POUDRE BF AM MEL
* A VIS 1914
8 CARTOUCHES
DE STAND M LE 1906
LOT 121