http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/new...or-weapon-of-the-Somme-battle-discovered.html
Secret terror weapon of the Somme battle 'discovered'
Unleashed at the start of the Battle of the Somme, it produced a terrifying effect
the like of which had never before been seen on a battlefield.
By Jasper Copping / Published: 8:30AM BST 09 May 2010
The devastatingly effective flame-thowers were credited with helping the British capture the German trenches
with comparatively few losses. Here is one being tested.
The 'weapon of terror' spewed flames over a range of 300 feet
From a small, concealed nozzle on the surface, the "weapon of terror" spewed flames over a range of 300 feet.
As the nozzle pivoted, the jet raked along the German front line, pouring blazing oil onto the enemy position.
Four of these vast, top secret weapons were assembled in shallow tunnels beneath the mud of no-man's-land
to be deployed on the first day of the Somme battle, on July 1 1916.
Two were destroyed by German shells in the build-up to the attack and could not be operated.
Two others were deployed on the morning of the assault and were credited with helping the British in those areas to capture
the German trenches with comparatively few losses.
But despite their success, their contribution to the ill-fated offensive has been largely forgotten.
Now, however, a team of historians and archaeologists believe they have found the last remaining machine, still buried beneath the mud of northern France.
This week they are to start digging for the device with the hope of removing and preserving it.
Peter Barton, a historian and author involved in the project, said: "The idea was to fill the enemy with terror. It was a weapon, not of mass destruction,
but of mass terror, pure and simple.
The idea was to force the Germans to keep their heads down long enough for your infantry to cross no-man's-land.
"They were meant to scare the Germans. It didn't kill that many people. The idea was just to make them so frightened of this horrific thing.
The effect of the flame was utterly stupendous.
Where they were used, the British captured the German lines with very little loss at all."
Built at a factory in Lincoln, the devices were called Livens Large Gallery Flame Projectors, after their inventor, William Howard Livens, an officer in the Royal Engineers.
To the men who operated them, the 56ft long, 2.5 tonne machines were called "Squirts", and "Judgements", by more senior officers.
Of all the experimental weapons deployed in the First World War, including tanks, gas shells and aircraft, few had greater impact on their first use,
and yet none have remained so little known or as secret.
They were operated by a crew of eight men from the Royal Engines Special Brigade "Z" company but took 300 men to assemble them underground,
each component part being taken into the shallow tunnels, known as "Russian Saps", in sequence. The devices then had to be filled with oil,
taken underground in hundreds of cans.
The strange-looking, tubular weapons were only 14 inches wide and worked like a large syringe. A piston was pushed by compressed gas into
a long chamber containing the fuel. This was then forced out through the nozzle on the surface, from where the jet of flame was projected.
For all the hours they took to assemble, the devices could only be fired three times, with each blast lasting only ten seconds.
The team involved in the recovery operation, which includes members of Glasgow University's Archaeological Research Division (GUARD),
is confident it has located one of the four, at Montagne de Cappy, just south of Mametz, by studying private diaries, trench maps, mine plans,
aerial photographs and official accounts of the battle.
They have also conducted geophysical studies of the site, using ground penetrating radar, which have indicated the presence of metallic objects,
thought to be the remains of the weapon.
They are to start digging next week and expect the project to last three weeks. While excavating the sap, the team also have to scan
for possible unexploded ordnance in the area, and are also mindful of the possibility of finding human remains.
The buried Livens projector is thought to be the only remaining machine left in existence.
According to a war diary entry, it was "lost beyond recall" on June 28 two days before the battle commenced
when a German shell collapsed the sap onto in.
Another one damaged in shelling was stripped of salvageable parts for spares. The other two, which fired successfully,
were later removed.
Although some were provided to the Russians, after the Somme, the weapon was only deployed once more by the British,
in 1917 during an offence near Diksmuide, in Belgium.
As part of a television programme, for Channel Four's Time Team and the History Channel, the team are
also planning to construct a new Livens Large Gallery Flame Projector, to test the technology and recreate
its terrifying impact.
MAP of the trenches :
http://lt1.mcmaster.ca/ww1/wrz4mp.php?grid=62d&map_id=32&view
Secret terror weapon of the Somme battle 'discovered'
Unleashed at the start of the Battle of the Somme, it produced a terrifying effect
the like of which had never before been seen on a battlefield.
By Jasper Copping / Published: 8:30AM BST 09 May 2010
The devastatingly effective flame-thowers were credited with helping the British capture the German trenches
with comparatively few losses. Here is one being tested.
The 'weapon of terror' spewed flames over a range of 300 feet
From a small, concealed nozzle on the surface, the "weapon of terror" spewed flames over a range of 300 feet.
As the nozzle pivoted, the jet raked along the German front line, pouring blazing oil onto the enemy position.
Four of these vast, top secret weapons were assembled in shallow tunnels beneath the mud of no-man's-land
to be deployed on the first day of the Somme battle, on July 1 1916.
Two were destroyed by German shells in the build-up to the attack and could not be operated.
Two others were deployed on the morning of the assault and were credited with helping the British in those areas to capture
the German trenches with comparatively few losses.
But despite their success, their contribution to the ill-fated offensive has been largely forgotten.
Now, however, a team of historians and archaeologists believe they have found the last remaining machine, still buried beneath the mud of northern France.
This week they are to start digging for the device with the hope of removing and preserving it.
Peter Barton, a historian and author involved in the project, said: "The idea was to fill the enemy with terror. It was a weapon, not of mass destruction,
but of mass terror, pure and simple.
The idea was to force the Germans to keep their heads down long enough for your infantry to cross no-man's-land.
"They were meant to scare the Germans. It didn't kill that many people. The idea was just to make them so frightened of this horrific thing.
The effect of the flame was utterly stupendous.
Where they were used, the British captured the German lines with very little loss at all."
Built at a factory in Lincoln, the devices were called Livens Large Gallery Flame Projectors, after their inventor, William Howard Livens, an officer in the Royal Engineers.
To the men who operated them, the 56ft long, 2.5 tonne machines were called "Squirts", and "Judgements", by more senior officers.
Of all the experimental weapons deployed in the First World War, including tanks, gas shells and aircraft, few had greater impact on their first use,
and yet none have remained so little known or as secret.
They were operated by a crew of eight men from the Royal Engines Special Brigade "Z" company but took 300 men to assemble them underground,
each component part being taken into the shallow tunnels, known as "Russian Saps", in sequence. The devices then had to be filled with oil,
taken underground in hundreds of cans.
The strange-looking, tubular weapons were only 14 inches wide and worked like a large syringe. A piston was pushed by compressed gas into
a long chamber containing the fuel. This was then forced out through the nozzle on the surface, from where the jet of flame was projected.
For all the hours they took to assemble, the devices could only be fired three times, with each blast lasting only ten seconds.
The team involved in the recovery operation, which includes members of Glasgow University's Archaeological Research Division (GUARD),
is confident it has located one of the four, at Montagne de Cappy, just south of Mametz, by studying private diaries, trench maps, mine plans,
aerial photographs and official accounts of the battle.
They have also conducted geophysical studies of the site, using ground penetrating radar, which have indicated the presence of metallic objects,
thought to be the remains of the weapon.
They are to start digging next week and expect the project to last three weeks. While excavating the sap, the team also have to scan
for possible unexploded ordnance in the area, and are also mindful of the possibility of finding human remains.
The buried Livens projector is thought to be the only remaining machine left in existence.
According to a war diary entry, it was "lost beyond recall" on June 28 two days before the battle commenced
when a German shell collapsed the sap onto in.
Another one damaged in shelling was stripped of salvageable parts for spares. The other two, which fired successfully,
were later removed.
Although some were provided to the Russians, after the Somme, the weapon was only deployed once more by the British,
in 1917 during an offence near Diksmuide, in Belgium.
As part of a television programme, for Channel Four's Time Team and the History Channel, the team are
also planning to construct a new Livens Large Gallery Flame Projector, to test the technology and recreate
its terrifying impact.
MAP of the trenches :
http://lt1.mcmaster.ca/ww1/wrz4mp.php?grid=62d&map_id=32&view
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