"DRUMFIRE"

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 35, 5 November 1917, Page 4

"DRUMFIRE"

A rurions point, was made V one contributor to flip newspaper discussion on tho sound of the pons. This is. that it is the German and not riic British Runs that are heard in England. A scientist, -who had had eighteen months' experience at the front asserted that the sound is projected from the muzzle or the sun in much the same way as tho l'!?ht of a searchlight is thrown forward.He cites, a« proof, the origin of tho word "drumfire" ffreflnently mentioned in the German official reports). This t-orm (trommel feueri -was first used by the Germans to describe the effect of our nrtillcrv on nn unprecedented scale on the Somtne. "Now. to tiio British, who were, of course, Vhind tho direction in ■which their artillery wm firinjr. this term would never have occurred. for behind o British bombardment. there is but little resemblance to a drummer's tattoo, the whole sound l>ein« mcTued into a dull and heavy roar of Runs; but to the Boches behind their lines every 6hot from the British gun? would stand out as a sharp staccato note, the whole combining to Rive the impres. sion of the 'rat-a-tat-tat of a, mighty tattoo."