In that capacity, they were kept well behind the crest of the ridge and avoided casualties during the opening French bombardment.
An hour later, at 0100 hours, the opening bombardment of Blücher-Yorck began, augmented with poison gas.
At first, however, Bylandt's brigade was placed in front of this ridge, fully exposed to any opening bombardment.
As the opening bombardment turned to a "lifting" barrage at 4:50am, the British and Indian infantry advanced and quickly broke through the Ottoman lines.
On 24 July 1944, some 1,600 bombers flew in support of the opening bombardment for Cobra.
McBryde was present at the opening bombardment of Fort Sumter, South Carolina.
Such was the intensity of the fighting that during the attack on 24 November, the supporting US artillery fired a total 62 different fire missions including the opening bombardment of the attack.
Southard participated in the opening bombardment of Florida Island, then joined the minesweeping force in a sweep to the south of Gavutu Island and through Lengo Channel.
That was the second day of the opening bombardment of the Ottoman Turkish forts guarding the entrance to the Dardanelles and the ship immediately joined the attack.
As far as I can gather the German batteries made virtually no reply to this opening bombardment.