Such faces I did not think could be worn by human beings; they were orange with lyddite smoke.
The first shells that hit the German position raised huge clouds of smoke and dust, and nothing could be seen but the green fumes of lyddite and the spouting columns of red earth.
One lyddite shell blew a house bodily into the air; while others, exploding amongst the brick stacks, wrought awful havoc amongst the enemy.
One day some artillerists were engaged in their favourite pastime of burning out unexploded lyddite shells, when one of the shells burst, killing three men.
Ours was slight, but one lyddite shell burst over a group of horses and killed twenty.
Only those who have witnessed the fierce storms of the tropics can form an idea of the awful unending roar of the lyddite guns as they belched forth one continuous shrieking mass of projectiles into the defenders' trenches.
He said they were lying in wait for the second armoured train, which was expected to pass to Mafeking that very night, carrying the howitzers so badly needed there, and some lyddite shells.
Here a corner of one of the massive entrance pillars had been sharply severed off by a British lyddite shell.
Wanst th' field was r-red, now 'tis a br-right lyddite green.
Wanst a man wint out an' died f'r his counthry, now they sind him out an' lyddite dyes him.
Major Lydditetied th' scoor be nailin' a scrubwoman on th' top iv a ladder.
My dear," she said, "whenever I see a pretty girl fooling about with a primitive man I always think of a sweet little monkey I once knew, who used to have great sport with a lyddite shell.
Considering what it is to be exposed to lyddite and shrapnel fire (the absolute hell of din and concussion besides rain of bullets), one doesn't wonder that it leaves marks on young faces.
The effects of the explosion of a lyddite shell are as follows:--Any one within 50 yards is obliterated, blown clean away.
Meanwhile the battle continued raging fiercely, and a good many lydditebombs were straying our way.
The other side had some howitzers, which began to spit about lyddite indiscriminately.
At last, however, "Long Tom" commenced operations, but the artillerymen in charge had omitted to put the powder in a safe place and it was soon struck by a lyddite shell which set the whole of it on fire.
British shells to the right of him, shells to the left of him bursting and spluttering, lyddite shrapnel fuming and fizzing and making the splinters fly.
Their big lyddite guns sent over huge shells, which mowed down all the trees on the kopje, while about fifty field pieces were incessantly barking away from a shorter range.
It seemed as if General Buller were determined to annihilate all the Boers with his lyddite shells, so as to enable the soldiers to walk at their leisure to the release of Ladysmith.
The British, who had taken an important position from which they could cover us with their fire, sent us some lyddite shells from a howitzer in the station fort.
The hills around rolled with the thunder of the guns, while the faint echoes of the lyddite explosions on the distant ridges formed a piano accompaniment.
Our heavy artillery on the right bank of the Tugela now began to shell the hill, which was quickly covered by the smoke and dust of the lyddite explosions.
They had done magnificently, but there is a limit to human endurance, and no longer would these peasants face the bursting lyddite and the bayonets of angry soldiers.
To right to left, behind and before, the British shells burst, lyddite and shrapnel, crashing and riving.
In vain the great gun exploded its huge shell with its fifty pounds of lyddite over the ridges, in vain the smaller pieces searched every cleft and hollow with their shrapnel.
It was just five o'clock in the morning when the naval guns began to bay, and huge red dustclouds from the distant foothills showed where the lyddite was bursting.
Up there where the shrapnel was spurting and the great lyddite shells crashing they could dimly see a line of bearded faces and the black dots of the slouch hats.
The effect of the lyddite shells from the heavy guns had been terrible; indeed the Chinese looked upon lyddite as a sort of death–dealing magic.
The English, with their well known predilection for a flank attack on every possible opportunity, halted for an hour, and shelled our positions with Lyddite and other guns.
I must describe here the fearful havoc that one lyddite shell wrought.
Another Lyddite shell so severely wounded two brothers, named Wolfaard, Potchefstroom burghers, that we almost despaired of their lives.
Not a day passed but two of their Lyddite guns dropped shells amongst us.
We were told in graphic language of every space in the laager being torn and rent by the deadly fire of more than fifty field guns, of the trenches being enfiladed and the green fumes of Lyddite rising up from the doomed camp.
From this point the flashes of the guns above Modder River were visible, and the dull boom of Lyddite was borne to our ears.
Some correspondents have described with evident glee how Boer prayer-meetings have been broken up by Lyddite shells.
Joe Chamberlain" loosed off a Lyddite shell at the Magersfontein trenches.
He was standing near one of the 47 guns which was firing Lyddite shells at the enemy's trenches.
As each shot strikes, dense volumes of brown smoke arise, the lyddite shells being thus quite distinguishable from ordinary shrapnel shells.
Their acquaintance with lyddite shell is said to have induced them to place less confidence in the rocky crests of the kopjes and to resort to trenches on lower ground, but the principle remains the same.
In filling the shell great precautions are necessary to prevent the melted lyddite (picric acid) from coming in contact with certain materials such as combinations of lead, soda, &c.
The base end of lyddite shell is made solid to prevent the possibility of the gas pressure in the gun producing a premature explosion.
Except for the means adopted to ensure detonation this shell is practically the same as the lyddite shell.
English service, are simply forged-steel common shell filled with lyddite and having a special nose fuze and exploder.
Their effect between decks is generally more far-reaching than lyddite shell, but the purely local effect is less.
We have also a five-inch lyddite gun (Clements brought it), which sent up huge clouds of brown dust where the shell struck.
Shrapnel burst all along the ridges, and presently lyddite shells were planted on the hills.
The day's action was ended by a kind of feu de joie of lyddite shells, which struck the two forts and the surrounding hills.
But thelyddite shells were certainly the most interesting.
Far away to the left the smoke of lyddite shells, and the curious speck of the war-balloon high in the clear air, showed that the centre was engaged.
Then some larger gun placed a lyddite close to the big fort, sending up an enormous column of red dust and making a huge report.
Presently to their rescue went the invaluable naval guns, snorting vengeance, and determining to show that, though the Field Artillery became outranged and impotent, there was laudable lyddite to save the situation.
Before dusk, more lyddite and shrapnel were concentrated on the huge hill south of Pretoria, and on part of the main ridge which had been shelled all day.
Lyddite burst over the feebly demonstrating Boers and damaged them, and showed them, that if they asked for it, there was more to come.
Three lyddite shells from the howitzer batteries were placed in the western fort, and a fierce and continuous fire from the 4.
While the British artillery was attempting to destroy these fortresses it was also hurling lyddite shells into the trenches.
Shortly after this bombardment started, the German trenches were covered by a great cloud of smoke and dust and a pall of green lyddite fumes.
The burghers were told that all who did not surrender would be shot as rebels when captured, that the pass, higher up the mountains, was guarded by twenty-five lyddite guns, so that every exit was cut off by the enemy.
Here, just before sunset, the gallant Captain Rautenbagh was blown to pieces by a lyddite shell, which exploded in front of him.
There is hardly any food, the remaining bags of biscuits are yellow from the lyddite fumes, so is everything, damp and yellow.
In haste they killed them and started to skin them desperately; but they had half done when a lyddite shell bursting close to them turned the mutton yellow with its fumes and it had to be abandoned reluctantly.
For at the base of the mountain are natural forts and grottoes, against which lyddite shells would spend their force in vain.
To have postponed it by twenty-four hours would have done no man any harm and would have spared the nation the sorrow of learning that many Boers had been killed by lyddite shells while engaged in prayer and worship.
But as the Boer trenches were in sandy soil where the lyddite shells would do little damage, and as the gunners had great difficulty in locating their exact whereabouts, it is most improbable that the enemy suffered heavily.
The enemy redoubled his fire; the big 45-pounders fired shrapnel and shell with all possible rapidity; and it was not until the naval 4·7's were able to answer them with lyddite that they were held in check.
The column struck out to the north-east, deployed its guns, and opened a tremendous fire with lyddite shells and shrapnel upon the Magersfontein kopjes.
The slopes and ridge of that eminence were torn with projectiles of all kinds; the usual method being first to fire a couple of lyddite shells and then a half-dozen of shrapnel in a terrific volley.
Stories went round the camp to the effect that the slaughter wrought by the lyddite shells and shrapnel had been awful, whole commandos being "wiped out.
With the dense green fumes which the lyddite projectiles scattered as they exploded, it seemed as though the hill had broken bodily into flame and was being consumed by subterranean fires.
Their fire was incessant, one vessel alone firing 1000 lyddite and shrapnel shells.
A 6-inch lyddite shell struck her just below the bridge.
A curious feature of this action was the terrific damage done by 12-inch lyddite shell.
Every few feet of the difficult country was searched out by the destroying lyddite of the Allies' shells, until it seemed that not a living creature could have survived.
Everything was burnt, and there was the base of a 6-inch lyddite shell lying close by them; one of our ships' shells which had set the place on fire during the bombardment.
Then the after turret of the Achates opened fire, and with her second round landed a lyddite shell square on one corner of the fort--brick dust and masonry going sky-high.
But "W" beach, and the scooped-out gully which led upwards to the high ground, and the cliffs at each side of it were hidden in dense clouds of lyddite smoke and by a thick morning haze which lay on the water.
The trenches were smothered in a yellow smoke and dust from the bursting lyddite from the ships, that almost obscured from our view the enemy's position.
At the same time, they landed the forty-pounder guns on an island but a short distance from the town, and thence opened fire with lydditeshells upon it.
The wall of the great granary had been breached, by some of the lyddite shells, and the grain had poured out into the street.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "lyddite" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
