Drumfire D-1

[Renau Sheard]

Ihave always wondered what a constant artillery barrage sounded like from a great distance, say like the ones that could be heard in England, when the wind 'was in the right direction'. Did it sound like distant thunder rumbling or did it have its own unique sound? I have heard some artillery from across the waters at a similar range, but not of the scale of a pre offensive constant barrage.

Drumfire was the name for a bombardment which they were receiving and was very widely used inall of the German accounts of front line It's a term which I have rarely, if ever, seen in writing in English. This tends to indicate its acceptance and approval by Germans in the front line. I believe that distance tends to merge sounds and the collective sound of artillery fire would sound different - louder and quieter (obviously) with distance. I would guess a rumble in the south of England and from memorythat seems to be the term used fairly generally in the UK.

Drum-fire is a term you do read in British commentary on the subject, notably used by journalist Philip Gibbs in some of his accounts. I've always understood the term to best describe the effect which develops during sustained bombardments of all calibres. Weather conditions at the time also play a part in the created sound effect. As the gunners get going a subtle difference develops over the point of fire of each gun and when they are strung out, in many cases for miles, as they were on the Western Front, then as the rounds are let off it creates a distinct effect of one very swiftly after the other, over whatever the distance happens to be. Many accounts tell how utterly incredible the sound could be of a massed barrage, added to by the sound of in-coming, with associated detonations. Many times it was impossible to even shout one to another and yet I've read one particular account relating to the Somme where the weather was attributed to the gun-fire being strangely muted.

Drumfire is surely a direct translation of the German 'Trommelfeuer' ? I've read a description, can't remember where, that the effect can be reproduced by putting your hands over your ears, fingers to the rear, and tapping rapidly on the back of your head.

It is right - a translation of Trommelfueur. I did say rare if ever - not 'not seen, - since I knew that the comment would be a hostage to fortune. The comments from b3M surprised me - both the words usage in a paper in Oz and that it is not infrequently used in accounts - I guess its because I have read very few Australian accounts apart from the splendid 'The Distant Drum' (F E Noakes - recently republished) which must rank very high amongst other-ranks accounts in the English language (which I thoroughly recommend) A drum role sound I think fits drumfire very well, the sound of being under long and close fire for a very long time - it well and must have been the source of the word I would have thought. It's a very long time since I read any Gibbs - a much underrated observer. I would welcome a precise reference (book page) if anyone has the patience to find it

From 'Battles of the Somme' by Gibbs, one of the references referred to above, is written by Gibbs in 1916 concerning the opening days of the Somme offensive. The chapter is entitled 'The attack on the left.' He says: The enemy's guns kept up a bombardment from 7.30 till midday, like an incessant roll of drums......

On the same subject however, he offers a much more evocative insight into what a bombardment was like further into the book in the chapter entitled: 'The attacks on Thiepval.' He writes: Then suddenly, as though at the tap of a baton, a great orchestra of death crashed out. It is absurd to describe it. No words have been made for modern bombardment of this intensity. One can only give a feeble, inaccurate notion of what one big shell sounds like.

My mother has told me about the artillery barrage at Tali-Lhantala which was suppose to be more intense than any Great War barrage. She came from north of the battle and could hear is 160km's away, and describes the sound as like "distant drums" at the start, She ended up quite close to the front, where it was deafening, but says the most shocking thing was the silence when the guns stopped.

I've no doubt that 'drumfire' comes from the German 'Trommelfeuer', and indeed I generally use 'drumfire' when translating 'Trommelfeuer' in German documents, as there doesn't seem to be another English term. Or is there? 'Trommelfeuer' is used to describe incoming bombardments as well as outgoing ones .... so what did English-speakers call such rolling gunfire? I think there is also scope for discussing and citing examples of the kind of bombardment/barrage described as 'drumfire/Trommelfeuer'.

Just confirming that 'DRUMFIRE' appears in The Sun (NSW) in 1918 (April) as part of a headline. I would have a snapshot for you, only the State Library's dodgy microfiche/USB set up failed as we were being herded out at closing.

Drumfire is referred to by, Ernst Yunger in Storm Of Steele as a particular type of munition. Shaped somewhat like a rolling pin and shot in huge numbers from a special rotating device, he says they looked like huge flying sausages flipping over end in a high arc to rain down in German trenches.

The Australian Defence Academy have hosted a number of excellent WW1 artillery presentations and if my recollection is correct, they defined drumfire as an artillery barrage where the rate of fire was sufficient so that the sound of each individual explosion is indistinguishable from the next one.

From the comfort of peacetime firepower demonstrations, bursting shells are incredibly loud on their own or when 3 or 4 land on target and I simply cannot imagine being in the middle of drumfire. It must have been a nightmare scenario ...

I thought this website was called Wall Decal Studios?

Welcome to Wall Decal Studios.com. This website is dedicated to making your house and work place look awesome. Wall Decal Studios is a division of Drumfire Graphics LLC. Drumfire was founded in 2009 by Mike Gholson. We are a small direct to consumer e-commerce company. To be frank we make stickers out of garage and sell them to you online.

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In a 565 square foot garage in Mike's back yard. Located in Indianapolis, IN. (United States). We try to stay pretty transparent so you know what you are getting. Showing you Mike's little junk garage is the real deal. Low overhead cost lowers the cost of products. We pass the savings on to you!

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Our team consists of three very important members. Mike, our systems coordinator, completes all of our custom design work and quality control. Jeremy, our production manager. Completes most of our production work and shipping. Last but not least Butch, our logistics coordinator, very generously volunteers his time to assist with daily task such as making our boxes and instructions.

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He saved up a bunch of money and took two months off and figured out how he was going to start a sign business. It was a great time in his little honda civic. He went from Indy to Chicago through South Dakota. He was able to see the "Bad Lands and Mt. Rushmore" then went through Wyoming where he saw his first real mountain. He was kicked out of a camping ground just south of Yellowstone National Park. He was told after setting up his campsite he was illegally camping. Mike stayed in Denver with some friends for a week then went through Roswell, New Mexico and through the great state of Texas. He had to visit "Gholson, Texas" which is named after his family. Not much was there but it's still cool to see his last name on everything. Mike eventually made his way to his new home Tampa, Florida.

Once Mike made it to Tampa he finally figured out the name. Back in the 1800's there were a couple of Indian Tribes that lived around Tampa Bay. They use to use the phrase "Drum" for Thunder and "Fire" or "Fire Sticks" for Lighting. At the time Tampa was the lightning capital of the world. So he thought to himself Drumfire (Thunder and Lightning) fits the bill. After a year of living in Tampa and starting up his business he had a lot of work coming from his home town of Indianapolis, Indiana. Mike decided to move back and get to work.

Work he did, for 5 years Mike went out on his own and learned many things about the sign industry. He had experience in the sign industry for 15 years prior but owning your own business is a whole other monster. Once 2014 came around he discovered Etsy. He also discovered the need for homeowners wanting custom wall decals. Mike knew he was fast and efficient so he thought he would give it a try while doing all his other sign orders. Ten months later Etsy took over his workflow. It literally became 90% of the work that was coming in. Mike started turning local sign customers away because of all the online wall decal orders. Once he got to this point he decided to just focus on "Custom Home Wall Decor". That is how Drumfire started and got its name.

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