Creeping Barrage (Military Tactic)

creeping barrage military tactic World War one a creeping barrage also known as the rolling barrage was an artillery tactic of World War one it included the gradual advance of artillery fire in order to provide cover for the infantry pushing forwards towards the enemy trenches however it was difficult to carry out in practice it wasn't until the great war that our Tillery was employed on such a large scale and with such great firepower any kind of military attack was practically impossible to imagine without artillery being used in support for all the combatants artillery was the key in overcoming the stalemate of trench warfare a standard tactic of employing artillery was by firing a massive bombardment on the enemy position the aim was to completely destroy the enemy's defensive capabilities along with inflicting maximum casualties after the barrage was stopped sometimes even after a few hours of shelling the infantry were ordered to charge across no-man's land and seize the undefended enemy trenches this however only seemed to work in theory and was almost never achieved in reality the problem with a standard barrage was that the enemy bunkers solid enough to withstand the shelling were built already in the early stages of the war they allowed soldiers to stay safely protected and able to wait for the barrage to cease once the shelling had stopped it was their cue to rush outside as quickly as possible to repel the advancing enemy infantry also even if the shelled area was destroyed the defensive army had time to send replacement forces into the area to defend the position the charging party meanwhile often had no sufficient time to cross the distance of no-man's land before the enemy man their defensive positions this would leave them standing as sitting ducks in the middle of the space between the two trench lines even if they managed to reach the other side barbed-wire defenses were often undamaged and would slow them down in late 1915 and early 1916 an idea emerged that the tactic the creeping barrage might work in overcoming the stalemate situation it was the British who first tried to use it however the tactic was not their invention it was first used by Bulgarian units in the first Balkan war during the 1913 siege of the Turkish city of Eden a ancient adrianople the Bulgarians used the tactic to cover their troops that were charging the city defense lines it was exactly what the British and French needed the main idea of the creeping barrage was to commence shelling on no-man's land and then gradually increased the range in pre-arranged paces until the enemy's positions were reached the usual creeping pace was 54 yards or 50 meters per minute but if needed it could be increased or decreased the main aim of the tactic was not to destroy the enemy's defenses but to provide cover for the charging infantry once the infantry was near enough however damage to the enemy's defenses was possible the pace of the creeping barrage was planned to be followed by infantry their task was to walk just behind the dropping shells in front of them explosions and smoke would cover their advance and prevent the enemy from effectively engaging against them once the barrage passed over the enemy trenches it would stop an infantry would be in a good position at just a few yards away in this state the enemy had no time to get out of their bunkers to organize the defense of their positions there was also a variation of the tactic called the fire waltz once the barrage reached the enemy positions and went beyond them it would then reverse its course just to catch enemy soldiers running out from their bunkers the creeping barrage was a very risky tactic since soldiers were dangerously close to exploding shells it was therefore of greatest necessity that this tactic was thoroughly planned before it was put into action in order to coordinate infantry and artillery accurate barrage maps were created withdrawn in zones for bombardment and scheduling a fire if the infantryman failed to keep up with the pace of the brush they be left far from enemy trenches once the shelling had stopped on the other hand if the infantrymen were too hasty they would catch up with their own artillery fire and get blown to pieces the same went for artillery in order to make the creeping barrage sustainable infantryman and artillery men had to be well coordinated especially as there was no easy communication between them it was a tactic that required a lot of training for which Allied troops had no time to properly prepare the poor coordination between infantry and artillery became obvious during the first time the creeping barrage was applied on a large scale this was during the Battle of the Somme from July 1st to November 18th 1916 forces led by General Sir Henry Sinclair horn at the honour of testing the creeping barrage tactic once the barrage started to roll infantrymen were constantly at a distance from the dropping shells whether the artillery was moving too fast our soldiers were afraid of getting hit once the barrage stopped British soldiers were in the middle of no man's land they were far away from the enemy positions they were supposed to reach and too distant from their own positions to retreat standing unprotected on the field they were massacred by German machine guns on the other hand during the Battle of Vimy Ridge the Canadians applied to tactic on a much smaller scale than at the Somme the battle began on Easter Monday April 9th 1917 at 5:30 a.m. with the creeping barrage applied at a pace of 100 yards / 3 minutes which was much slower than normal the barrage pace was perfectly maintained to the end and was closely followed by the Canadian infantryman it became known as the Vimy glide the flawlessly conducted creeping barrage allowed the Canadians to capture several well-protected German lives and to end the battle in just three days taking everything into consideration the creeping barrage tactic did have some successes it was especially the case when belligerence began using the tactic for smaller scale battles however successful or not the tactic failed to fulfill the initial demands of commanders in bringing a decisive victory and it could be devastating to infantry as the failures in the Battle of the Somme and the Battle of Bellevue spur show it became more successful as war planners learned to use it effectively at battles like those at Messines and gravan STOVL spur in 1917 after the war was over and warfare changed the creeping barrage tactic declined he hadn't used occasionally during World War two such as the battles of El Alamein Monte Cassino and even at Normandy the Soviets also used it on a large scale in any case by the time of world war ii the creeping barrage tactic became obsolete the development of radio allowed soldiers to be in constant connection with artillery and to call and fire exactly where and when they needed it [Music] you hey guys check out this 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Channel: Simple History

Views: 1,500,500

Keywords: simple history, animated history, educational, education, creeping barrage, salvo, military tactic, ww1, Rolling barrage, Great War, defensive, strategy, tactics, trenches, allied, barbed wire, First Balkan, fire waltz, Barrage, Somme, Henry Sinclair Horne, British, Vimy Ridge, Vimy Glide, Canadian, artillery only, infantry, cannon, howizter, communication, mathes, maths, Barrage Maps

Id: 978LQpgsAPI

Length: 7min 58sec (478 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 14 2019