The method in which “curtains of fire” are laid down is very clearly
described.
“While I was at the front I had opportunity to observe three distinct
types of barrage-fire, the ‘box,’ the ‘jumping,’ and the ‘creeping.’
The ‘box,’ I have already described to you, as it is used in a raid.
The ‘jumping’ plays on a certain line for a certain interval and then
jumps to another line. The officers in command of the advance know
the intervals of time and space and keep their lines close up to the
barrage, moving with it on the very second. The ‘creeping’ barrage
opens on a certain line and then creeps ahead at a certain fixed rate
of speed, covering every inch of the ground to be taken. The men of
the advance simply walk with it, keeping within about thirty yards
of the line on which the shells were falling. Eight-inch shrapnel
and high-explosive shells were used exclusively by the British when
I was with them in maintaining barrage-fire. The French used their
‘seventy-fives,’ which are approximately of three-inch caliber. Of
late, I believe, the British and French have both added gas-shells for
this use when conditions make it possible. The Germans, in establishing
a barrage, used their ‘whiz-bangs,’ slightly larger shells than ours,
but they never seemed to have quite the same skill and certitude in
barrage bombardment that our artillerymen had.
“To attempt to picture the scene of two barrage-fires, crossing, is
quite beyond me. You see two walls of flame in front of you, one where
your own barrage is playing, and one where the enemy guns are firing,
and you see two more walls of flame behind you, one where the enemy
barrage is playing, and one where your own guns are firing. And amid it
all you are deafened by Titanic explosions which have merged into one
roar of thunderous sound, while acrid fumes choke and blind you. To use
a fitting if not original phrase, it’s just ‘Hell with the lid off.’”
The wound that ended McClintock’s career with the Canadian forces was
received at the battle of the Somme. Major Lewis, in command of that
section, sent for him:
“‘McClintock,’ said he, ‘I don’t wish to send you to any special
hazard, and so far as that goes we’re all going to get more or less of
a dusting. But I want to put that machine gun which has been giving us
so much trouble out of action.’
[Illustration:
_Drawn by Joseph Cummings Chase._