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Livens Projector
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The Livens Projector was a type of mortar that was used by the Allies in World War I for chemical warfare.
as created by the British army officer Captain William H. Livens of the Royal Engineers. Later, in World War II he worked on petroleum warfare weapons such as the flame fougasse and various other flame throwing weapons.
Prior to the invention of the Livens Projector, chemical weapons had been delivered either by "cloud attacks" or chemical-filled shells fired from howitzers.
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Encyclopedia
The Livens Projector was a type of mortar that was used by the Allies in World War I for chemical warfare.
History
It was created by the British army officer Captain William H. Livens of the Royal Engineers. Later, in World War II he worked on petroleum warfare weapons such as the flame fougasse and various other flame throwing weapons.
Prior to the invention of the Livens Projector, chemical weapons had been delivered either by "cloud attacks" or chemical-filled shells fired from howitzers. Cloud attacks were made by burying gas-filled cylinder tanks just beyond the parapet of the attacker's trenches, and then opening valves on the tanks when the wind was right. This allowed a useful amount of gas to be released, but there was a significant danger that the wind would change and the gas would drift back over the attacker's own troops. Chemical shells were much easier to direct at the enemy, but could not deliver nearly as much gas as could be contained in a cylinder tank.
Livens was in command of Z company - the unit charged with developing and using flame and chemical weapons. Flame throwers and various means of dispensing chemicals had proven frustratingly limited in effectiveness. One day, during an attack on the Somme, Z company encountered a party of Germans who were well dug in. Grenades did not succeed in shifting them, so Livens improvised a sort of giant Molotov cocktail using two 5 gallon oil drums. When these were thrown into the German positions they were so effective that Livens's comrade Harry Strange wondered whether it would be better to use containers to carry the flame to the enemy rather than relying on a complex flame thrower.
Reflecting on the incident, Livens and Strange considered how a really large shell filled with fuel might be thrown by a mortar. Livens went on to develop a large, but simple, type of mortar that could throw an entire 3 gallon drum of oil which would burst when it landed, spreading burning oil over the target. Livens came to the attention of General Gough who was impressed by his ideas and "wangled" everything that Livens needed for his large projector.
On 25 July 1916 at Ovillers-la-Boisselle during the Battle of the Somme, Z Company used 80 projectors when the Australians were due to attack Posieres. The early versions had a short range and it was necessary to place the projectors 200 yards out in no-man's-land. The resulting barrage was highly successful in neutralising the German machine-gun posts.
Z Company rapidly developed the Livens Projector, increasing its range, first to 350 yards and eventually an electrically triggered version with a range of 1,300 yards. This version was successfully used at Messines Ridge in June 1917.
The Livens Projector was then modified to fire canisters of poision gas rather than oil. This system was trialled in secret, at Thiepval in September 1916 and Beaumont-Hamel in November. The Livens Projector was able to deliver a high concentration of gas a considerable distance. Each canister delivered as much gas as several chemical warfare artillery shells and without the need to reload a barrage could be launched quickly, catching the enemy by surprise. Although each projector could be fired just once during an attack, the weapon was sufficiently inexpensive to be deployed in hundreds or even thousands.
The Livens Projector was also used to fire other substances. At one time or another the drums contained high explosive, oil and cotton-waste pellets, thermite, white phosphorous and "stinks". The "stinks" were malodorous but actually harmless substances such as bone oil and amyl acetate used to simulate a gas attack that compeled the enemy to put on thier cumbersome masks on occasions when gas itself could not be safely employed.
The Livens Projector remained in the arsenal of the British army until the early years of the Second World War.
Combat use
The Livens Projector was designed to combine the advantages of both gas cylinders and shells by firing an actual cylinder tank at the enemy.
The Livens Projector was a simple 8 inch metal pipe that was set in a ground at a 45 degree angle. A drum 7.6 inches in diameter and 20 inches long containing 30 lb (13.61 kg) of gas was shot out with an electrically initiated charge, with a range of about 1,500 metres. On impact with the target, a burster charge would disperse the chemical filling over the area.
It was also used to project flammable oil, as with 1,500 drums before the Battle of Messines in June 1917. Oil was also tried on 20 September 1917 during the Battle of Menin Road with 290 projectors in an attempt to capture Eagle Trench east of Langemarck, which included concrete bunkers and machine gun nests, but the drums did not land in the trenches and hence failed to suppress the German defenders there.
As a rule, the projectors were sited out in the open some little way behind the front line, so that digging, aiming—either by direct line of sight or by compass—and wiring up the electrical leads were easier. When camouflaged skilfully the positions were not known to the enemy beforehand, so that although the enemy was able to recognise the direction from which the flash of discharge came he was uncertain of the range. Of course, these installations could only be carried out at night. The digging of the narrow trenches did not involve much labour, and later in the war the projectors were only buried to a depth of about a foot, instead of up to their muzzles.
The projectors was somewhat unreliable. In order to safeguard friendly forces from 'shorts' an area immediadly ahead of the projector battery was cleared of troops before firing. This area allowed for the possibility of drums reaching only 60% of the estimated range, and of being diverted laterally 20 degrees from the central line of fire by the wind or from some other cause.
The projectors was also inaccurate:
- "It was distinctly laid down as a principle that, owing to the inaccuracy of the weapon, the most suitable targets were areas which were either strongly held or which contained underground shelters in which the occupants were safe against artillery fire."
A British training manual of 1940 summarised thus:
- "The projector is a simple weapon which does not aspire to great accuracy. Its range is limited to about 1,800 yards; the noise of firing is very loud, and at night is accompanied by a vivid flash.
- Projectors are the principal armament of C.W. companies, RE."
The drawbacks of unreliability and inaccuracy were more than made up for by the weapon's principle advantages: it was a cheap, simple and ab extremely effective method of delivering chemical weapons. Typically, hundreds (or even thousands) of Livens projectors would be fired in unison during an attack in order to saturate the enemy lines with poison gas.
Surviving examples
See also
General references
- LeFebure, Victor.
- General Sir Martin Farndale,
- Palazzo, Albert. Seeking Victory on the Western Front: The British Army and Chemical Warfare in World War I. University of Nebraska Press, 2002 ISBN 0-8032-8774-7.
- United States Department of War. (1942) Livens Projector M1 TM 3-325
Official documents
Further reading
External links
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