Posted on 10/19/2012 9:24:40 AM PDT by Steelfish
Weighty Memento: War Veteran's Secret Revealed After His Death The family of a war hero only discovered the full weight of his bravery after his death when his cremation left behind a huge pile of shrapnel. [Pic in URL]
The bag contained a whopping 6oz of bomb shrapnel, roughly two handfuls, that Mr Brown had been carrying around for 60 years 18 Oct 2012 Ronald Brown stepped on a land mine while on a mission in France in August 1944. The blast peppered his left leg with red-hot fragments and he was forced to crawl two miles to safety.
But because of medical conditions of the day it was thought safer to leave shrapnel in his body. He survived the war but only ever told his family the basic story and said the accident had left him with a 'bad knee'.
Mr Brown told loved ones he still had a 'bullet' in his leg and asked his grandchildren not to sit on his knee because of the pain it caused. But when he died last week aged 94 his family had him cremated and were stunned when staff handed them back a big bag of shrapnel.
The bag contained a whopping 6oz of bomb shrapnel that he had been carrying around for 60 years. Daughter Jane Madden, 55, of Exeter, Devon said her father told her there was a bullet in his knee from the war, never mentioning the pile of fragments. She said: "I don't think he ever realised all that was in his leg - it weighed about six ounces.
(snip) "But when we went to scatter his ashes we asked whether the bullet had been found and they gave us this bag full of metal.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
I would think you’re right on the casket. The mass of the spent wood would probably be more than the human remains. I’m just trying to think of an alternative source, than his body for the bulk of it.
Thanks for the response. Yes, your friend’s story does sound like what I would expect here.
Take care.
I tried to think of a wire source too. Perhaps something to wrap something like a box or casket. In your box scenario, it would seem the wire would blow in all directions if it was a wrapping. If the wire had been previously cut, I could see it blowing out, but it seems like that would have been in all directions too.
Some of those long pieces, couldn’t have entered the skin and remained inside. They could have been picked out of the resulting wound with little problem. They wouldn’t imbed at length submerged so as to be out of reach of forceps or another tool.
Doesn’t look like bomb shrapnel at all. More like surgical material to fix broken bones.
Not intending any disrespect.
Phillips head screws were around during WWII?
No offense taken.
Go down to the fourth paragraph here. In it, you’ll note they give Henry Phillips credit for the invention of the Phillip’s head screw in the early 1930s.
How broadly they were used outside motor vehicle plants, or over in Europe during that period is unkown to me.
http://inventors.about.com/od/sstartinventions/a/screwdriver.htm
Also referenced here: Cadillac adopted useage...
http://jalopnik.com/5913060/cadillac-was-a-screw-pioneer
Okay, I dug some more. Here is a link to a site that claims the introduction of the Phillip’s head screw to Europe was during WWII. U. S. military equipment introduced these screws to Europe.
My take is that these screws would probably not have been plentiful enough in Europe to be used in an IED design, or by the Germans. This may be incorrect, as it’s only my take on it.
http://www.marfas.com/phillips.shtml
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.