Drumfire

[Khaki]

I have always wondered what a constant artillery barrage sounded like from a great distance, say like the ones that could be heard in England, when the wind 'was in the right direction'. Did it sound like distant thunder rumbling or did it have its own unique sound? I have heard some artillery from across the waters at a similar range, but not of the scale of a pre offensive constant barrage.

Any opinions

khaki

[David Filsell]

Drumfire was the name for a bombardment which they were receiving and was very widely used inall of the German accounts of front line It's a term which I have rarely, if ever, seen in writing in English. This tends to indicate its acceptance and approval by Germans in the front line. I believe that distance tends to merge sounds and the collective sound of artillery fire would sound different - louder and quieter (obviously) with distance. I would guess a rumble in the south of England and from memorythat seems to be the term used fairly generally in the UK.

[b3rn]

David, I saw this term this evening used on the front page of The Sun (Sydney, NSW) in 1918; I am sure I have read it in many personal diaries too. So it's usage must have been widespread in English.

[GRANVILLE]

Drum-fire is a term you do read in British commentary on the subject, notably used by journalist Philip Gibbs in some of his accounts. I've always understood the term to best describe the effect which develops during sustained bombardments of all calibres. Weather conditions at the time also play a part in the created sound effect. As the gunners get going a subtle difference develops over the point of fire of each gun and when they are strung out, in many cases for miles, as they were on the Western Front, then as the rounds are let off it creates a distinct effect of one very swiftly after the other, over whatever the distance happens to be. Many accounts tell how utterly incredible the sound could be of a massed barrage, added to by the sound of in-coming, with associated detonations. Many times it was impossible to even shout one to another and yet I've read one particular account relating to the Somme where the weather was attributed to the gun-fire being strangely muted.

David

[squirrel]

"Drumfire" - a heavy barrage sounding like a continuous drum roll perhaps?

[paulgranger]

^{Drumfire is surely a direct translation of the German 'Trommelfeuer' ? I've read a description, can't remember where, that the effect can be reproduced by putting your hands over your ears, fingers to the rear, and tapping rapidly on the back of your head.}

[David Filsell]

It is right - a translation of Trommelfueur. I did say rare if ever - not 'not seen, - since I knew that the comment would be a hostage to fortune. The comments from b3M surprised me - both the words usage in a paper in Oz and that it is not infrequently used in accounts - I guess its because I have read very few Australian accounts apart from the splendid 'The Distant Drum' (F E Noakes - recently republished) which must rank very high amongst other-ranks accounts in the English language (which I thoroughly recommend) A drum role sound I think fits drumfire very well, the sound of being under long and close fire for a very long time - it well and must have been the source of the word I would have thought. It's a very long time since I read any Gibbs - a much underrated observer. I would welcome a precise reference (book page) if anyone has the patience to find it

[GRANVILLE]

It's a very long time since I read any Gibbs - a much underrated observer. I would welcome a precise reference (book page) if anyone has the patience to find it

David.

Certainly in 'The Battles of the Somme' by Gibbs, which I'm currently working my way through. Will see if I can relocate some specific quotes.

David Upton

[GRANVILLE]

From 'Battles of the Somme' by Gibbs, one of the references referred to above, is written by Gibbs in 1916 concerning the opening days of the Somme offensive. The chapter is entitled 'The attack on the left.' He says: The enemy's guns kept up a bombardment from 7.30 till midday, like an incessant roll of drums......

On the same subject however, he offers a much more evocative insight into what a bombardment was like further into the book in the chapter entitled: 'The attacks on Thiepval.' He writes: Then suddenly, as though at the tap of a baton, a great orchestra of death crashed out. It is absurd to describe it. No words have been made for modern bombardment of this intensity. One can only give a feeble, inaccurate notion of what one big shell sounds like.

When hundreds of heavy guns are firing upon one small line of ground and shells of the greatest size are rushing through the sky in flocks, and bursting in masses, all description is futile."

He goes on, and I can only recommend his work for further reading.

David

[CarylW]

David Filsell posted "It's a very long time since I read any Gibbs - a much underrated observer I would welcome a precise reference (book page) if anyone has the patience to find it"

​I found a few:

. The ​Germans on The Somme ​ Philip Gibbs (page 27)

​​.......The British varied their times of attack. At dawn, at noon, when the sun was reddening in the west, just before dusk, in pitch darkness even, the steady regular bombardment that had never ceased all through the days and nights would concentrate into the great tumult of sudden drum fire.......

[b3rn]

David, you've got me second-guessing myself. I can't point you to The Sun front page as I was speeding through 1918 on microfiche. And a diary I've been working through uses only "kettle drum".

Intense “Kettle drum" bombardment in evening. (17 September 1916)

http://mosman1914-1918.net/project/allsop-browser-03/MLMSS-1606_Item3_view03.html#a3147003

[MartH]

My mother has told me about the artillery barrage at Tali-Lhantala which was suppose to be more intense than any Great War barrage. She came from north of the battle and could hear is 160km's away, and describes the sound as like "distant drums" at the start, She ended up quite close to the front, where it was deafening, but says the most shocking thing was the silence when the guns stopped.

[SiegeGunner]

I've no doubt that 'drumfire' comes from the German 'Trommelfeuer', and indeed I generally use 'drumfire' when translating 'Trommelfeuer' in German documents, as there doesn't seem to be another English term. Or is there? 'Trommelfeuer' is used to describe incoming bombardments as well as outgoing ones .... so what did English-speakers call such rolling gunfire? I think there is also scope for discussing and citing examples of the kind of bombardment/barrage described as 'drumfire/Trommelfeuer'.

[CarylW]

The ​Germans on The Somme ​ Philip Gibbs (page 27)

​​.......The British varied their times of attack. At dawn, at noon, when the sun was reddening in the west, just before dusk, in pitch darkness even, the steady regular bombardment that had never ceased all through the days and nights would concentrate into the great tumult of sudden drum fire.......

More from the above (pages 7 & 8)

​.......On 7.30 a.m. on July 1st the British Infantry left their trenches and attacked on the right angle southwards from Gommecourt, Beaumont Hamel, Thiepval, Ovillers and La Boiselle, and eastwards from Fricourt, below Mametz and Montauban. For a week the German troops -Bavarians and Prussians had been crouching in their dug-outs listening to the ceaseless crashing of the British "drum-fire".....

[CarylW]

More from ​The Germans on the Somme (​page 23)

.......They were always in fear of British infantry sweeping behind them suddenly behind the "Trommel-feuer" rushing their dug-outs with bombs and bayonets......

The quotation marks are as used by the author in the book

More drum-fire from Gibbs. ​From Baupame to Passchendaele 1917 ​

.....​Some of the garrisons had not stayed in the boockhouses until our troops had reached them. Perhaps the concussion of our drum-fire was worse inside those concrete walls than outside.......

Some contemporary usage. The Germans at Passchendaele ​ ​Jack Sheldon

​Page 67

'.........shortly after the drum fire began, Bermpohl was hit by a shell splinter which pierced his steel helmet and his forehead....'

​The Great War 1914-1918 Peter Hart

'.......The German gunners certainly enjoyed themselves in delivering the drumfire they had endured so often from the British.....'

1918 A very British Victory Peter Hart

'......All the time the dull thud, thud, thud, of detonations and drum fire.....'

I'll quit there before I bore everyone!

The invisible woman

​

[b3rn]

It is right - a translation of Trommelfueur. I did say rare if ever - not 'not seen, - since I knew that the comment would be a hostage to fortune. The comments from b3M surprised me - both the words usage in a paper in Oz and that it is not infrequently used in accounts - I guess its because I have read very few Australian accounts apart from the splendid 'The Distant Drum' (F E Noakes - recently republished) which must rank very high amongst other-ranks accounts in the English language (which I thoroughly recommend) A drum role sound I think fits drumfire very well, the sound of being under long and close fire for a very long time - it well and must have been the source of the word I would have thought. It's a very long time since I read any Gibbs - a much underrated observer. I would welcome a precise reference (book page) if anyone has the patience to find it

Just confirming that 'DRUMFIRE' appears in The Sun (NSW) in 1918 (April) as part of a headline. I would have a snapshot for you, only the State Library's dodgy microfiche/USB set up failed as we were being herded out at closing.

[Guest]

Drumfire is referred to by, Ernst Yunger in Storm Of Steele as a particular type of munition. Shaped somewhat like a rolling pin and shot in huge numbers from a special rotating device, he says they looked like huge flying sausages flipping over end in a high arc to rain down in German trenches. 

[David Filsell]

Certainly not my reading of numerous German frontline accounts, including Junger, of the term drumfire. All other uses I have seen apply it to heavy, long lasting, artillery fire

[WhiteStarLine]

The Australian Defence Academy have hosted a number of excellent WW1 artillery presentations and if my recollection is correct, they defined drumfire as an artillery barrage where the rate of fire was sufficient so that the sound of each individual explosion is indistinguishable from the next one.

 

From the comfort of peacetime firepower demonstrations, bursting shells are incredibly loud on their own or when 3 or 4 land on target and I simply cannot imagine being in the middle of drumfire.  It must have been a nightmare scenario ...

[David Filsell]

That seems a very appropriate definition

[Peter Le Duc]

On 20/08/2013 at 16:40, paulgranger said:

^{Drumfire is surely a direct translation of the German 'Trommelfeuer' ? I've read a description, can't remember where, that the effect can be reproduced by putting your hands over your ears, fingers to the rear, and tapping rapidly on the back of your head.}

 

Thanks Paul, I’ve just tried this and the effect is exactly how I imagined drumfire to be. (Without the associated terror and much louder of course). 

 

[David Filsell]

Sorry, but it sounded to me just like covering my ears and tapping rapidly on the back of my head. Felt like it too!😊