Shrapnel and shell fragments accounted for a large proportion of those killed and wounded in WW1. Those blown into the ether by high explosive to one side, artillery accounted for around 70% of casualties. These six balls were recovered from the Thiepval Redoubt on the Somme and are German in origin. Thiepval was a slaughterhouse on the first day of the attack and, despite early success, took a savage pounding from German counter-fire.
The Battle of Thiepval. The view looking toward Thiepval on morning of attack and showing German barrage. (IWM)
These two cartons arrived in the mail today, all the way from the U.S. I expect you won’t be that excited by them but finding unopened cartons of wartime Japanese Nambu ammunition is almost unobtainium. Getting them into Canada from the States is a painful experience as any ammunition export from the US requires Department of the Interior approval. These two cartons are marked almost identically. The star marking is for the Tokyo First Arsenal. The first line of characters is “ju-yon-nen-shiki-ken-ju-jip-po” which translates to “Type 14 Handgun Ammunition”. The second row is “ju-go-hatsu” meaning “15 rounds”. On the underneath of the cartons are the stamps for “sho” meaning Showa Year and 19.11, which translates to November 1944. These are perfect for my 1944 Type 14 Pistol 
The other day I bought a 
This round was used specially by the Hungarians in their Steyr M95 infantry carbines such as this one 
I have a Canadian made Enfield No4 MkI* rifle 
