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Archiver > GREATWAR > 2006-08 > 1155297566


From: "Peter Thomas" <>
Subject: RE: Turkish weaponry in 'The Great War'
Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2006 21:30:20 +0930
In-Reply-To: <380.9d33cd5.320cbc07@aol.com>


GW wrote: "I am puzzled by the use of the word 'pick' as it means
'pickaxe' to me ..."

Could it mean something simpler, perhaps resembling an ice-pick, such as
a stiletto ? Some French bayonets of WW1 were very long stilettos, and
cruciform in cross-section.

Before antibiotics, many wounds, which we would now consider survivable,
resulted in slow death from infection.

I have read that early in the war, gunshot wounds that fractured the
femur resulted in 40% fatalities. A Canadian, Major THOMAS, invented a
splint that reduced this figure to 4%, saving hundreds or perhaps
thousands of lives.


Peter THOMAS
Darwin, AUSTRALIA
<>



-----Original Message-----
From: [mailto:]
Sent: Friday, 11 August 2006 2:13 AM
To:
Subject: Turkish weaponry in 'The Great War'


Dear Listers,

I have heard a terrible tale (now told about third hand, but originally
from
an eye-witness) about a Turkish soldier striking a British officer with
a
'pick' that went in and through the body, fatally wounding him. I am
puzzled by
the use of the word 'pick' as it means 'pickaxe' to me and I didn't
think
that the Turks would have used these in battle. Could I have misheard
this or
could my informant (and her informant) have been misinformed? (I was
also told
that the officer was shot by a fellow officer to put him out of his
misery,
there being no chance that he would live).

Yours, etc.

Geoffrey Woollard in Cambridgeshire.


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