Note 42 — Chapter V · THE CAPTURE OF BERNAFAY WOOD, AND THE BATTLES FOR TRONES WOOD July 1916

The “creeping barrage” does not creep—it really jumps. At Longueval the line of the barrage moved forward 50 yards at a bound. To a distant observer, however, the barrage did seem to creep forward, hence the name.

During this Somme Battle the use of the creeping barrage became universal by the British Army in all its attacks. Shrapnel was generally used, but the Ninth Division, having taken to H.E. and having found it successful, stuck to it. Which was the better of the two was controversial to the end of the war. In the Ninth the opinion was that the H.E. barrage had greater moral effect, was easier to follow, and did not throw such a strain on the artillery that the setting of fuses for a shrapnel barrage necessitated.