From N. R. CLITHEROW
The term ‘whizz-bang’ arose in the First World War, referring to guns
firing shells faster than the speed of sound. The recipient heard the whizz
of the shell before the bang of the gun.
Master Gunner Ian Hogg, in his brilliant ‘Barrage: The Guns in Action’,
which is part of Purnell’s History of the Second World War, points out that
it is possible to hear first the detonation of the shell, then the sound
of its arrival and finally the sound of the gun firing it.
N. R. Clitherow Gayton, Wirral
