Need help with translation!

[Vardainzilwen]

I was reading 天人by 倪匡 the other day and suddenly felt like translating it (one of those spur of the moment things heh ). I finished about a page and I showed it to some English friends. They were really positive about it but I know that I need to work hard on the compromise between accuracy and fluency One of them suggested that I should make two changes:

1) 兩件事，發生的時間相隔三十年，地點相距幾萬里，事情發生時所在的人，也全然

不同，看來是全然沒有關聯的。唯一相同的是，兩件事同樣怪異，而且，深入了解之後

，就可以發現兩件事之間，有著千絲萬縷的關係。

I wrote: Two incidents, the times of occurrence of which are thirty years apart and locations several thousands of miles, even the people present at the two events are completely different.It seems like they are not connected at all, except that both are equally bizarre and that if you delve into the depths of them, you will find the countless links between them.

My friend said that the first sentence sounded wrong, with which I agreed, but I have no idea how I can change it. I know it's grammatically correct (right??) but it sounds so awkward

2) 每一次戰役，雙方都出動猛烈的炮火，死傷累累。

I wrote: Both sides sent out fierce and violent arms in every battle, resulting in mass death and injury.

He said that one cannot "send out" "arms", so I proposed to change the "sent out" to "used" but that was also rejected because apparently I cannot "use" "fierce arms" either.

I would be extremely grateful for any suggestions! ^_^ Thank you very much!

[TheYeti]

My English, especially grammar, is not something to write home about, but I like to give that a try.

(1) These two incidents occur thirty years apart and separated by tens of thousands of miles; even the people present were (entirely different)/(not the same).

(2)Both sides (employed their heavy artilleries)/(brought out their big guns)/(went all out in arms and men) in every engagement, causing massive casualties.

[Altair]

This is indeed tough stuff. Here are my proposals to build on what you two have come up with so far.

"There were two incidents, happening thirty years apart and separated by thousands of miles. The people present at the two events were completely different, and the incidents seemed completely unconnected. The only similar thing was that the two incidents were equally bizarre and that, upon close examination, you could find countless links between them."

"Each time they did battle, both sides started off with fierce artillery fire, causing massive casualties."