Kelly Miller's History of the World War for Human Rights

by Kelly Miller

It has been denied that dum-dum bullets, placed under ban by all civilized nations, have been used by the Germans, but there is no doubt that explosive bullets have been used. The report of the Belgian Commission, which investigated the horrors when the Germans first invaded King Albert's country, contains testimony which proves conclusively that such missiles were used. These bullets were, in effect, small shells containing an explosive chemical which was set off by contact. Photographs taken of wounds show the effect which these bullets produced.

More than that, the Russians charged that along the northern frontier the Germans fired glass bullets, although there is nothing to sustain the belief that such missiles were generally used. The dum-dum bullet is a soft-nosed missile which, when it strikes a bone, flattens out and splatters, creating a jagged wound which it is almost impossible to treat or heal. The Germans, in ordinary, use a steel jacketed bullet which possesses high penetrative powers, while the French at the beginning of the war were using the ordinary lead bullet.

AN AMERICAN BULLET.

Among the recent developments is a bullet which had its origin in one of the United States arsenals for manufacturing ammunition. This is a steel bullet covered with lead. The effect of such a combination on the penetrating quality of the bullet may be readily understood by anyone who has ever tried the experiment of driving an ordinary needle into a board through a cork. If the cork is placed on the board and the needle pressed down through the cork until it touches the board, a powerful blow from a hammer will force the needle into the board without breaking. In the application of this principle to the manufacture of the bullet, experiments proved that the soft lead acted as a guide or sustainer which permitted the inner steel to penetrate without deviation.

And just as these oddities of warfare have been created to meet arising situations, others have been created to care for the sick and injured—those who have fallen victims of the agencies of destruction. Who ever heard of a sand sled?

Such sleds have been used effectively on the Eastern fronts to carry wounded soldiers to the hospitals. They are long, staunchly constructed sleds similar to those used on the farms in America for hauling plows, cultivators and other agricultural implements across the fields which have been furrowed.

The sleds have broad runners which do not sink into the sands and can be drawn easily. In winter these same sleds have served to haul the wounded and sick over miles of snow and ice on the Russian frontier.

Then, though it is not a weapon of offense, there is the tractor plow which works at night. It is a war device to the extent that as England's need for food has been great and constant the tractor plow has been used to solve the problem of working the ground. On the estate of Sir Arthur Lee, the director-general of food production in England, great agricultural motors equipped with acetylene searchlights were kept at work in the fields day and night.

Dogs too have been ushered into the arena. No longer may the old English expression, "Let Slip the Dogs of War," be regarded as a mere figure of speech. The war dogs, and particularly the animals used by the Red Cross on the battlefields, have assumed a regular status in the armies of the world. In the European armies are thousands of dogs which have been trained to act as messengers or spies, or to seek out on the battlefields the wounded. The Germans use a canine commonly known as "Boxers." These animals are a cross between the German mastiff and the English bulldog, and on the fields of Europe they have proved to be "kings" among the Red Cross dogs. The animals are first taught to distinguish between the uniforms of the soldiers of their own country and those of the enemy. Then they learn that the principal business in life for them is to find and aid wounded soldiers.

The animals are trained to search without barking and to return to headquarters and urge their trainers to follow them with stretcher bearers. Sometimes the dogs bring back such an article as a cap, tobacco pouch or handkerchief. The dogs of the Red Cross carry on their collars a pouch containing a first aid kit, by means of which a wounded soldier may staunch the flow of blood or help himself until assistance arrives.