adinetuse Posted 19 May , 2006 Share Posted 19 May , 2006 Reading RFA diaries for 1917, I find my RFA soldier was killed when their battery's bivouac was "crashed" twice in one day. I also find the word used elsewhere in the diary and not always by the same officer. Did this have any specific meaning, or was it just a slang expression for bombardment? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coldstreamer Posted 20 May , 2006 Share Posted 20 May , 2006 Hello That sounds a likely answer to me Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philary Posted 21 May , 2006 Share Posted 21 May , 2006 Hi In a letter home from my Great Uncle, a Gunner with 242 Field Army Artillery Brigade, he wrote of "bumping" the Hun! I have always presumed that to mean his battery had been in action wih the shells! Hilary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adinetuse Posted 21 May , 2006 Author Share Posted 21 May , 2006 Thanks for your interest Nimrod Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coldstreamer Posted 21 May , 2006 Share Posted 21 May , 2006 Hello Im pretty sure "bumping" is still a phrase used in the modern infantry with regards to making contact with the enemy Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
essdee Posted 22 May , 2006 Share Posted 22 May , 2006 Nimrod As far as I can determine a crash seems to be an Artillery slang term for concentration. Concentration, neutralisation, calibration, registration etc are all specific artillery actions. Concentrations, as the name suggests, were carried out by multiple batteries onto the same target. The number of rounds fired per concentration varies, 7 appears a popular number. A crash appears to be a specific type of concentration, e.g. one round per gun. Crashes also appear to be carried out at various levels, battery, brigade and even corps, the latter is quite unimaginable. Crashes were used on ration dumps, roads, houses, communication trenches, billets and other infrastructure. I’ve read of crashes being called against an enemy battery which suggests they had accurately registered a British gun position. The unsettling and arbitrary nature of a crash, e.g. 20+ rounds landing on your doorstep without warning, appears also to be used not only to destroy a target but to slow down the process of the other side to wage war. Crash the ration dump and then harrassing fire on the road trying to resupply is one instance I have read of. Stuart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adinetuse Posted 24 May , 2006 Author Share Posted 24 May , 2006 Many thanks for this extra detail Nimrod Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stu Posted 26 May , 2006 Share Posted 26 May , 2006 I have a diary written by a 2nd Lt in the RGA,he often used the term,he described it as a very heavy sudden bombardment of short duration to neutralise hostile batteries. Regards. Stu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Compo Posted 27 May , 2006 Share Posted 27 May , 2006 I wonder if "crashing" just meant blowing up with high explosives generically. I met the term with my grandfather's MC. He was with an AA battery technically RGA, so artillery. The citation read that he was awarded the MC for among other things "crashing" two enemy planes. Crashing, in this context, could mean he made the pilot crash but perhaps it just meant busting a shell in close enough proximity to blow him up. Regds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron Nelson Posted 28 May , 2006 Share Posted 28 May , 2006 Hi, Just my two cents worth. I have the war diary for 330th Brigade RFA, this covers a period of nearly two years. In that diary crashing is never mentioned. It does however describe the units fire programmes in some detail. this would indicate that crashing was a slang term, as opposed to an official fire programme term. It all depended on who was making the diary entry. for example, at one stage the enemy in the diary is mentioned as "bosche" however the majority of the time they are mentioned as "enemy" . cheers Aaron. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Compo Posted 28 May , 2006 Share Posted 28 May , 2006 According to the Australian Nat University dictionary of WW1 slang: "Crash" To suffer misfortune. Seems it was generic for anything that went wrong! Regds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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