Developments in artillery techniques

Paper giving details of the artillery bombardment that would precede the attack on Gavrelle Trench. (DUL ref: Lowe Papers File B2)

Map showing the details of the creeping barrage that would accompany the attack on Gavrelle Trench. (DUL ref: Lowe Papers File B2)

Before any attack on the enemy trench, the artillery would start a bombardment in an attmpt to destroy the barbed wire and damage the trenches. This was only of limited use, partly because it gave the enemy advance warning of an attack. By 1916 the artillery was starting to develop the idea of a ‘creeping barrage’ in which the shells would land just in front of the infantry allowing them to advance more safely.

Find out more about the concept of the ‘creeping barrage’ by using the sources to answer the following questions. A transcript and enlarged versions of the sources are available.

1. Look at sources 1 and 2. How many brigades and batteries are involved in this bombardment? What would be the advantage of this?

2. What do you think the numbers used in the two sources (ie 0 to 0 plus 3 etc) mean? What does this tell us about the attack?

3. The first few lines of the barrage are very closely spaced. What would this mean for (a) the artillery and (b) the infantry?

4. Why was an intermediate lift (AA) put in the timetable? Does this tell us anything about fighting in the First World War?

5. Read source 3. How useful was the concept of the creeping barrage?

6. What impact did the developments in artillery techniques have on the First World War?

Now find out more about the development of signals during the war.