Noise during bombardment

[neutrino]

Just reading Tommy and one quote which was something like imagine the sound of the loudest clap of thunder you have heard and then imagine that sound becoming continuous.

From a British soldier trying to describe the sound of a German bombardment.

And another quote from a German prisoner saying that the noise from a German bombardment was in no way as loud as that from a British Bombardment.

I've walked through the tunnels in the museum under Albert Cathedral and of course while the sound /noise that they give out is probably nowhere near as loud as an actual bombardment and you only endure it for five to ten minutes it is still loud enough.

So does anyone have any idea in say db's how loud a bombardment may have been, actually.

[Alec McCudden]

Neutrino

A German soldier once said that enduring a bombardment in a dug-out was a bit like this;

Tightly cover your ears with your thumbs and drum on the back of your skull with your fingers!

Alec

[Robert Dunlop]

I don't know what the noise level would be in DBs. However, you have to take into account the concussion effect as well. Explosions set off a rapidly travelling blast wave. Hence the concept of drumming on the back of the skull as a description. The Germans referred to bombardments as Trommelfeuer - literally 'drumfire'. Concussion waves can even rupture ear drums, as well as concuss/kill.

Shrapnell shells would add to noise level, even though they were timed to burst in the air. Gleichen describes coming under fire from the Germans just after the battle of Mons:

'The Dorsets were rearranging their line so as not to be cut off, and I was standing with Bols (commanding Dorsets) and a few of his officers by the estaminet when a shrapnel burst with a tremendous crack close over our heads, bringing down branches and leaves in showers.'

Robert

[neutrino]

Alec, that seems to underestimate the noise.

On my skull anyway

[Alec McCudden]

Neutrino

I agree it isn't much more than an irritating thudding. However, if you persist drumming on your skull for some minutes it begins to feel a bit oppressive (it does to me anyway). I think what the guy was attempting to replicate was how it feels to be at the bottom of a deep, probably concrete dugout during a bombardment.

It's probably just me but it feels strangely authentic

Alec

[truthergw]

Just reading Tommy and one quote which was something like imagine the sound of the loudest clap of thunder you have heard and then imagine that sound becoming continuous.

From a British soldier trying to describe the sound of a German bombardment.

And another quote from a German prisoner saying that the noise from a German bombardment was in no way as loud as that from a British Bombardment.

I've walked through the tunnels in the museum under Albert Cathedral and of course while the sound /noise that they give out is probably nowhere near as loud as an actual bombardment and you only endure it for five to ten minutes it is still loud enough.

So does anyone have any idea in say db's how loud a bombardment may have been, actually.

Even with the use of soundmeters, it is very difficult to correlate subjective impressions of noise. Hi-Fi buffs will know that the whole area of personal perception of audio is a minefield. The percieved noise would vary with intensity and pitch according to where the hearer was in the dugout. That is not to mention the variation in hearing of the individuals being subjected to the noise. Far too loud for far too long probably describes it well enough.

[Ozzie]

I asked this question somewhere else and from all the replies I came to this conclusion.

Imagine being caught outside in the worst thunderstorm directly overhead, then quadruple it, add flying debris and whistling, for days on end.

Cheers

Kim

[ian turner]

Neutrino

I remember my grandfather describing a fortnight's long bombardment. 'Gradually you became used to the noise, but when it stopped, the silence hurt your ears...'

Henry Williamson brilliantly describes he noise of bombardment - so loud that any messages had to be bawled directly into your ear, and even then it might not be heard correctly. No idea of the level of German rifle/machinegun fire during a bombardment, save to notice the sandbags on the parapit spurting with the unheard bullet rounds hitting.

He also describes climbing up to the belfry of his local church to be present when the peel was rung, so as to try and re-create the level of noise of a bombardment (The Wet Flanders Plain).

Ian

[neutrino]

Neutrino

A German soldier once said that enduring a bombardment in a dug-out was a bit like this;

Tightly cover your ears with your thumbs and drum on the back of your skull with your fingers!

Alec

Just read that quote in 'The Kaiser's Battle' by Martin Middlebrook.

[uncle bill]

Junger also talks about this, I quote from memory so it's far from exact. He says that the effects of a barrage felt like being tied to a post and having a madman flailing a club around you.

[doogal]

Neutrino

However, if you persist drumming on your skull for some minutes it begins to feel a bit oppressive (it does to me anyway).

Alec

One must also add the fear, which would "increase" or add to the effect of the noise in many ways that are probably beyond description. Junger does attempt to describe this a few times, and I've read other attempts - but somehow, that final factor seems to escape words. Not from experience I might add, but no matter what metaphors or similes are used, for me, I can't imagine they ever really get close to the event itself.

as an aside - Alec, this thumbs in ears, drumming on the back of your head thing --- are you doing this in public???

regards

doogal

[Desmond7]

I think it is also worth mentioning in this context that there are many accounts from men on both sides who stated that a long and continuous bombardment had the effect of inducing a state of tiredness which often saw men fall asleep.

There is probably a psychological term for this.

Des

[Bernard_Lewis]

I saw Journey's End' in London in October and was struck by the loud sound effects of 'shells' screaming in before exploding. Though obviously theatrical it registered quite unlike anything I had experienced in films.

Very effective and quite moving in the context too (the officer and men having left the single set dugout to face the German attack of 21 March 1918. You had no doubt of their fate after the first explosion...)

Bernard

[J T Gray]

He also describes climbing up to the belfry of his local church to be present when the peel was rung, so as to try and re-create the level of noise of a bombardment (The Wet Flanders Plain).

If he says that that gave a good idea, you can climb the Loughborough Carillon (a WW1 memorial in itself) while the carillon is being played - you begin to see where the idea that sound could do damage came from, though of course up there you don't need to wonder which one has your name on...

ADrian

[bob lembke]

I think it is also worth mentioning in this context that there are many accounts from men on both sides who stated that a long and continuous bombardment had the effect of inducing a state of tiredness which often saw men fall asleep.

There is probably a psychological term for this.

Des

At the Battle of Verdun, when the Germans advanced after 1 1/2 days' bombardment, in some sectors they found French soldiers who seemed to be asleep. The bombardment was not that long, but included a high proportion of heavy guns, including quite a few 12" mortars and 16.5" howitzers. The French positions were primitive, and in the assault many flame throwers were used, so I imagine that, in summation, it was not a fun couple of days for the defenders.

Bob Lembke

[DaveBrigg]

I can support Bernard's comments about 'Journey's End'. There are dull explosions at several points, but the play closed with a deafening series of shell bursts. I found myself wishing it would stop, and then considering leaving. I've been in loud nightclubs, but although the volume was probably similar, the effect couldn't have been more different.

... and we only had it for a minute or two, with none of the danger...

[Guest JWS]

Perhaps I can a little to this thread!.

My grandfather, a gunner in the RGA siege battery, once remarked that in the latter

part of the war most conversations by the gun crew was more akin to asking the

speaker to repeat what he was saying, "whats that...what did you say, say that again,

can you repeat that, heh!, hey!, what! and what did he say!........he reckoned that very

little conversation was actually held, and for the rest of his life most of us had to repeat

ourselves when talking to him.

When asked why they never covered his ears when the gun fired, he would say they

did not have the time and their hands were busy doing something else.

Just try to imagine a group of men sitting around all saying eh, what etc, if the circumstance

they were in was not so tragic, one can almost imagine such a scene in a comedy movie

made by Mel Brookes................

JWS.

[neutrino]

JWS,

I was just going to reply that being in the RFA, RGA, or the RHA must have been worse in respect of the noise than being on the receiving end.

Except of course that being on the receiving end you didn't know if the next one would be your last.

[Guest JWS]

Hi Neutrino.

Yes indeed, better to be a little deaf than dead, and better to be hearing them go

rather than arrive!!!

JWS.

[Ozzie]

Downing gives some good accounts of it in To the Last Ridge. And he was there as well.

Cheers

Kim

[Robert Dunlop]

I was just going to reply that being in the RFA, RGA, or the RHA must have been worse in respect of the noise than being on the receiving end.

Except of course that being on the receiving end you didn't know if the next one would be your last.

Bearing in mind that RFA, RGA and RHA were often on the receiving end as well, especially during the likes of Third Ypres.

Robert