Roy Howard writes of Briquessard that “we experienced all the discomfort and deprivation normally only endured by the PBI (poor bloody infantry)…we suffered considerable bombardment from enemy ‘Nebelwerfer*’ (multi barrelled mortar) and normal mortars, pre-set to explode in the form of air-bursts to shower down on our trenches.” (From ‘Beaten Paths are Safest’ by Roy Howard, Brewin Books 2004)
*‘Nebelwerfers’ meaning ‘smoke mortars’ were misnamed to suggest they only created a smoke screen – in fact they were developed before the war to deliver poison gas, smoke or highly explosive shells. The Americans in Sicily nicknamed them ‘Moaning Minnies’ because of their loud, shrill howling noise. They also gave off a streak of smoke on firing, making them vulnerable to riposte, and had to rapidly re-locate after use.
“Mornings and evenings we were subjected to salvos of shells from German Nebelwerfers, a multi barrelled gun whose shells made a weird noise. We called them “moaning minnies”. They made you wish the trench was a foot deeper. Our divisional artillery Essex Yeomanry returned fire from their gun Howitzers whose shells made an equally scary noise when they descended from a great height. A German motorcyclist came nightly into Briquessard and we greatly enjoyed calling for fire on him. The cooks brought food up to us at night and it must have been hard work carrying it so far.” (Extracts from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)
Sandy Handley remembered:
“Our Corporal and four men were in a scooped out trench twenty yards or so to our front, which meant they were nearer still to the enemy. This was nerve racking. The Germans fired their mortars (Nebelwerfers) - we could hear the crack as they fired. These Nebelwerfers, as they were called, would really scream a horrible sound going up and on the way down. And did we get down in these slit trenches! These were really frightening. At the outset of the enemy firing his mortars, our twenty five pounders at the rear used to open up - what a racket. If it wasn’t mortars it was a series of short bursts from their machine guns (Spandau – 1,000 rounds per minute), much faster than our Bren gun with 600 rounds per minute. Anyway if anything was flying about, our guns or theirs, we kept well down.” (From Ex Trooper S Handley’s ‘61 Recce - Memories of Normandy 1944 – 1945’, unpublished)
Don Aiken notes a particular attack:
"The main problem was that we were a good target for the German NebelWerfers ( this multi-barrelled launcher fired mortars whose bombs made a horrible wailing, or howling sound as they made their way through the air before exploding with a loud crunch somewhere in the wood) . Our Regimental Field H.Q. had been set up in the middle of the wood. This received a direct hit one night and quite a number of casualties ensued." (Extract republished from ‘Establishing a Foothold in Normandy’ by kind permission of Don Aiken)
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