This is picture of a piece of shrapnel (shown in comparison to a dime) that embedded itself in my water canteen in the hedgerows of Normandy, France.
I reached for a drink of water, during a lull in the shelling and heard this rattling noise in my canteen. It was this piece of shrapnel. It is from a German artillery 88 howitzer.
This happened about June 10,1944.
You will notice how sharp the edges are. When a shell lands, it explodes into all these small pieces of very hot steel, that scatter all over and if they hit you, they tear a bad wound in your body. This is what injures or kills soldiers and civilians.
I was very lucky that it hit my canteen and stopped in it. If it had hit a little lower or higher, I would have been seriously injured or killed.
I carried this piece of shrapnel in my pocket throughout the war and keep it as a souvenir.