GDG- Arty Anti-personnel Effectiveness

[Batrinque at aol.com]

In a message dated 11/28/06 4:56:58 AM Pacific Standard Time, 
Batrinque at aol.com writes:

> In a message dated 11/27/06 8:29:21 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
> rkadas at sbcglobal.net writes:
> 
> >It was my understabding that standars U.S. cannister rounds were loaded 
> >with spherical iron or lead submunitions averaging 1.5 inches in diameter. 
> 
> Actually, I believe they started out with canister balls about 1 inch in 
> diameter, and this got smaller as the war went on (the desire being to 
> increase 
> the number of balls). 

Researching a bit further, it seems that at the beginning of the war, 1.5 
inch was standard for  canister for 12-pound smoothbores, with about an inch for 
3--inch rifles.  As the war went on,  these shrank down to .69 musket balls.

Bruce Trinque
Amston, CT