Bucesti trench bullroarer, July 1917

In July 1917, in the village of Bucesti just behind the Siret line, a few of the old madcaps of the Romanian Army invented a toy: a shingle slat tied to a string. Whirled in the air it gave the exact shriek of a shell in flight — and the recruits, the memoir says, ran like mice for the dugouts. For one summer of the war the world's oldest whirring instrument served as the front's cruellest practical joke.

Când o învârteau în aer, șindrila scotea un zgomot ca de proiectil... Recruții... fugeau ca șoarecii la adăposturi.

When they whirled it in the air, the shingle made a noise like a projectile... The recruits... ran like mice for the shelters.

Alexandru Pelimon's memoir, in Ilie, Muzeul Național XXIX (2017), p. 132

Particulars

Object

A shingle slat tied to a single string, improvised in camp; whirled in the air it shrieked like a shell in flight.

Function

Soldiers' improvised toy and prank, July 1917: old hands whirled the shingle so its projectile-whistle sent the recruits diving for the dugouts.