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Originally posted by Zeld2.0
BTW on explodign shells I meant the type of artillery we see today - the older versions were honestly still either solid shot or the canister type shot a'la the American Civil War. As in not really exploding in terms of creating huge craters because honestly they didn't - more like a long ranged shotgun.
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Not quite true. During the age of Vaubain fortresses (those strange designs with triangular heaps of earth), the Dutch invented siege mortars that would fire an explosive shell over the walls, killing people there. These definitely exploded. During these days, armies also (eventually) developed exploding shells to blow up fortress walls in one go. These guns were used during the Franco-German war of 1870, to demolish some older forts. This prompted many nations to build concrete forts instead of the old brick ones. The German burrowing shell of WW1 era was able to destroy those things with ease.
Also, during the golden age of wooden sailing ships, the French developed exploding shells for their ship cannons, which did in fact explode on target, with devastating results.
But overall, it doesn't really matter when these things were invented - point is that they were used en masse during WW1, with an explosive power never seen before, to an extend never seen before, and with results never imagined before...
And yes, war sucks, especially between equally strong countries.