With 2015 being the 100th anniversary of the second year the First World War entered, there has been much media reporting and renewed interest. In addition, it is also the centennial of the Gallipoli landings on April 25th, 1915. Within this wave of media coverage, a number of social media sites have been releasing this picture of “Two bullets collided in mid-air”. All sorts of people are raving about it on Twitter and Facebook, and it even has an Imgur, and Reddit page. The whole premise is that the rounds collided with each other in mid air, thus saving the lives of two combatants and so forth (among other crazy assertions). However, take a look closer at the picture. It’s quite obvious that yes, one round collided with another. But the round on the left doesn’t have any rifling on it whatsoever, whereas the round on the right does. They collided alright, it’s just that the round on the left probably wasn’t moving as fast as an actual speeding bullet. Maybe it was part of a clip on an ANZAC soldiers webgear as he was in an attack, or some other bizarre reason. But this most certainly wasn’t the intersection of two trajectories between the lines.

Unlike some faux internet sensation, these minie balls actually did meet in mid air, at the battle of Petersburg, or “The Crater” in the American Civil War. Projectile velocity and proximity of combatants was much slower and closer back then.

Regardless of the facts, the picture itself is very compelling and is interesting to ponder on, given the juxtaposition of both of these rounds, regardless of how they got there. And of course, the Gallipoli anniversary this past month and the fact that these are apart of a private collection in Turkey.

Some more examples of collided rounds. But somehow, these aren’t as emotionally compelling as the quality in the main picture.