Sound Recording of Gas Bombardment

[PhilB]

Reproducing Traces of War: Listening to Gas Shell Bombardment, 1918 | Sounding Out! (soundstudiesblog.com)

I`m not aware it`s been posted before but this is an interesting recording though some doubt has been expressed as to its veracity. Ex-artillerists may care to comment. There is this accompanying photo of a German soldier listening in. Sound location?

[Gunner 87]

Thanks Phil. That's absolutely fascinating. Gunner 87.

[ianjonesncl]

My thoughts are that the recording did not coincide with sounds I heard over the years. However, the recording was made over 100 years ago on what would have been new technology. And time may have altered my recollections. 

It was good to hear the fire orders at the beginning and hear them being relayed on the gun for it to be layed with the appropriate firing data. At 14 secs + it sounds like the order is for one round HE charge 4". At 24 secs it sounds like a detachment commander ordering load. Two metalic sounds... ram round.... close breach. Then fire. However, that may be questionable if the guns were not actually firing. 

The bangs do not sound like my memories, but modern equipment may sound different. For me, it was a loud bang followed by a sound I describe as 'ching'.

The narrative outlying "distinctive whiny whistle of a gas shell across no-man’s-land" does sound like a shell in the air, but that would be some distance from the gun and not an immediate whistling noise as the shell leaves the muzzle. Certainly, a whistle after the gun goes off is not something I remember. It was the reverberation of the explosion of the gun firing, no whistle. Plus, the whistle on the recording sounds like a penny whistle... not a shell whistle.

The firing sequence is also seems a little strange. The firing of guns individually is a drill I would recognise as 'Battery Right'. This is used when there were inconsistencies with guns firing in different places, when all the rounds should be together. The guns are then fired individually to see which gun (s) is not firing correctly. The firing sequence does not seem quite right, the firing is 4 / 2 / 1 / 3 / 2 / 1 / 3 / 2 / 1, and I am not sure why. It may be something to do with gas shells (which were not part of the British Army's capability in modern times) or some other method of fire. 

Personally, I would "File under Fake" as a historical recording of artillery fire. 

The comments about Major C.J.C. Street, I think may give thought to the fact that the record may not be an be an actual recording of guns firing. 

“Its realism,” he wrote, ”took my breath away… I played the record many times… finding at each attempt some well-remembered detail.” He didn’t say so in his article, but Street – an artillery officer, a novelist and a propaganda man for the intelligence agency MI7 – was in fact the impresario of the record. 

MI7 being a branch of the British War Office’s Directorate of Military Intelligence with responsibilities for press liaison and propaganda. The recording was intended as propaganda to raise money for war bonds, so its primary purpose was not a historical record. 
 

[PhilB]

What about the chap with the large “ear trumpet” gents?

[ianjonesncl]

1 minute ago, PhilB said:

What about the chap with the large “ear trumpet” gents?

Sound ranging works with microphones along a base recording sound waves which are analysed to locate enemy artillery. A technological solution.

This chap looks to be listening for a specific noise, and I do not think it is artillery. 

An infantry listening post? 

The two other soldiers look like they are awaiting to engage in an ambush. In the shell hole, listening for movement, and able to engage an enemy moving forward.