Development
The moving barrage was developed during the Boer War, one of several tactical innovations instituted under command of General Redvers Bullers. It was a response to Boer defensive positions, notably at Turgela Heights, and effective long range rifle fire.
Artillery usually fired over open sights at visible targets, until the Second Boer War when indirect fire started to be used. The largest unit accustomed to firing at a single target was the regiment or brigade, of up to about 25 guns. Trench warfare led to a necessity for indirect firing through the use of observers, more sophisticated artillery fire plans and an increasingly scientific approach to gunnery. Gunners had to use increasingly complicated calculations to lay the guns. Individual guns were aimed so that their fall of shot was co-ordinated with others to form a pattern; in the case of a barrage, the pattern was a line. The term “barrage” was first used in Workd War I in English in the orders for the battle of Neuve Chapelle in 1915.
A lifting barrage was a development in which the barrage lifted periodically to a target further back, such as a second line of trenches. This was countered by the defenders infiltrating troops and machine guns into no-man's land or the areas between their own trench lines, so it was found necessary to comb the entire area of the advance with artillery fire. A creeping barrage (also called a walking barrage)
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