Wound Ballistics

In serching for something else, I stumbled onto this site. It is a report on wound ballistics from WWII put together by the Medical Department of the U.S. Army.

From a historical perspective it is definitely interesting, to say the least, [pun]although the term "morbid" should be noted as being applicable, as well[/pun].

For instance, you had a very poor chance of survival if you were wounded in the abdomen in the New Georgia and Burma campaigns.

From the Bougainville report

Wounds ascribed to the mortar at Bougainville in many instances were actually produced by the grenade discharger. Mistakenly called the knee mortar, this weapon, because of its accuracy and efficiency, had earned the respect of the American combat troops and was more feared than any other Japanese weapon. If the "knee mortar" was grouped with the other types of captured mortars, it was found to constitute approximately 90 percent of the total. Among the conventional mortar types, the ratio of the 81 mm. to the 90 mm. was about 3 to 2. A total of 96 mortars were captured, only one of which was the 90 mm. Model 97 (1937).

Warning some of the photographs, although in black and white, are still somewhat gruesome.

history.amedd.army.mil...



[edit on 21-2-2006 by HowardRoark]

[edit on 21-2-2006 by HowardRoark]

I voted this Way Above because of the use of an official military history site. Most people quote crap from blogs that don't make any sense - this is, well, way above that.

Anyway, from my understanding, it is more desireable to grieviously wound somebody instead of kill them. When someone is seriously wounded and has a chance of living if he gets immediate medical attention, two to four fighting soldiers will stop fighting, help the medic stabilize and transport him back. If you kill one soldier, no one can help him, and so no one will. If you wound one soldier, five will stop fighting.

I got this information from a book written by a Marine in the 1st Marine Division that fought at the Chosin Reservior in Korea. I think it's called "Breakout" and the guy's last name was Russ.

EDIT:

Anyway, I do commend the military for posting this information on the provided link. It shows the true horror of war - nothing is hidden or "covered-up" as many people claim. Even though the pictures are B&W, they make you sick. If you saw these wounds happen to real people - especially your friends, it would be quite traumatic indeed. Hats off to every soldier who was risked himself to this kind of a death.


[edit on 21-2-2006 by Ralph_The_Wonder_Llama]

For more recent information concerning the wound ballistics of small arms, here is a handy reference:
www.firearmstactical.com...