France, 1943-1944, tank equipped with "whizz-bang" rockets. Although the term was used widely by Allied (most often British and Commonwealth) servicemen to describe any form of German field artillery shells, the 'whizz bang' was originally attributed to the noise made by shells from German 77mm field guns. In all cases however the name was derived from the fact that shells fired from light or field artillery travelled faster than the speed of sound. Thus soldiers heard the typical "whizz" nois