This map is for the assault on the Drocourt-Quéant Line, 2-3 September 1918. By 1917-1918, complicated and detailed artillery fire plans preceded and accompanied all major battles. The creeping barrage supported the advancing infantry troops. The curtain of shells, indicated here by the tight cluster of thin vertical lines, moved forward, in this case from left to right, in a series of 100-yard lifts (about 91 metres). It was intended to clear enemy barbed wire and to suppress defending troops. If the attackers stayed close to their own barrage while advancing, they might arrive at the enemy's line having suffered few casualties, and before enemy troops had emerged from their protective shelters.
George Metcalf Archival Collection
CWM 19880001-836
Canada and the First World War
