Barrage
As barrage is called a massive artillery bombardment in a particular area. The detonations of the impacting grenades turn into a booming thunder, individual impacts can no longer be heard. The artillery is not used against point targets , but should achieve an area effect. That is why the guns are reloaded as quickly as possible and then fired again immediately. The barrage was a reaction to the tactics of the infantry to entrench themselves in trenches, they wanted to either destroy or at least demoralize them with a massive fire.
Although of little strategic military use, the barrage had an enormous psychological effect on the morale of the soldiers who suffered from it. It was largely responsible for failures caused by war neuroses , which were based on psychological stress from barrels that lasted for hours or even days.
The first barrages were used during World War I as part of trench warfare. They usually heralded larger attack operations. During the Second World War , the barrage was intensified by bomb carpets from the corresponding Luftwaffe .
In modern warfare , barrage is no longer an essential element, since today it is more about the selective targeting and the front lines are usually not clearly defined. Nevertheless, even today, in the event of a conventional military conflict between two large armed forces, the first attack operations can be initiated by strong artillery and rocket fire (see Second Gulf War , Iraq War ).
During the First World War, the barrage reached its climax at the Battle of Verdun (1916) and in the same year at the Battle of the Somme . Millions of artillery shells of all calibres were fired within a short time and in a confined space.
The historically largest barrage was probably used in the battle for the Seelow Heights . In 1945 around 16,000-20,000 Soviet artillery pieces and rocket launchers were used here.
