William Howard Livens, (28 March 1889 – 1 February 1964) was an English engineer, a soldier in the British Army and an inventor particularly known for the design of chemical warfare and flame warfare weapons. Resourceful and clever, Livens' successful creations were characterised by being very practical and easy to produce in large numbers. In an obituary, Sir Harold Hartley said "Livens combined great energy and enterprise with a flair for seeing simple solutions and inventive genius."
Livens is best known for inventing the Livens Projector, a simple mortar-like weapon that could throw large drums filled with inflammable or toxic chemicals. In World War I, the Livens Projector became the standard means of delivering gas attacks and it remained in the arsenal of the British army until the early years of the Second World War.The Use of Gas in the Field, 1940
Early life Livens' parents were Frederick Howard Livens (1854–1948) and Priscilla Abbott. They married on 9 October 1886 at the Upton Congregational Church. Frederick Howard Livens was Chief Engineer and later Chairman of Ruston and Hornsby in Lincoln. Frederick and Priscilla had three children, William Howard and two younger daughters.
In 1903, Livens was sent to Oundle School, a famous public school located in the ancient market town of Oundle in Northamptonshire, England. While there, he enrolled in the Officer Training Corps (OTC) wherein he served with the rank of sergeant.Application for commission
On leaving school in 1908, Livens went to Christ's College at the University of Cambridge from 1908 to October 1911. There he enrolled in the college OTC and served with the rank of private. He was captain of the Cambridge rifle team, he was a crack shot and made a record score in a competition with a team from Oxford University; he was also an excellent shot with a pistol.Obituary, by Dr Edward Hindle. The Times newspaper, 5 February 1964 p.15 column C.
Livens trained as civil engineer, and was for a while an assistant editor for Country Life magazine. But, when the First World War started, he joined the British Army.
First World War
Entry into service On 4 August 1914, on graduating from the Officer Training Corps, Livens applied for a commission in the Royal Engineers. He was enrolled as a second lieutenant on 30 September 1914 and he was given a clerical post in the Motorcycle signalling section at Chatham. Livens' experience of the OTC and his enthusiasm for target shooting prepared him well for at least some aspects of Army life:
Weapons designs Beginnings Army life did not suppress Livens' creativity and he turned his mind to the problem of making better weapons. On his own initiative, he fitted out makeshift laboratories at his Chatham barracks bedroom and in the officers' garage. For a firing range he used vacant land near one of the old forts which overlooked the Thames estuary. Here he worked on developing flame throwers and small mortars to throw oil and gas.Awards to Inventors, 1922, p. 5
Livens' inventive work was prompted by thoughts of revenge for perceived German atrocities. According to Simon Jones' book World War I Gas Warfare Tactics and Equipment, on learning of the sinking of the luxury liner RMS Lusitania in May 1915 with loss of 1,100 lives including, apparently, his wife, he vowed to kill an equal number of Germans. It was to this end that he began experimenting with gas and flame projectors of various types and continued in his work even after hearing that his wife had not, after all, been on board the Lusitania. This account cannot be literally true because Livens did not get married until 1916. Charles Foulkes, who became Livens' commanding officer and who later wrote Gas! The Story of the Special Brigade, mentions "a strong personal feeling" connected with the sinking of the Lusitania without being more specific. According to Who's Who in World War One by John Bourne, it was the first use of poison gas by the Germans at the Second Battle of Ypres on 22 April 1915 that prompted Livens' vengeful ambitions. This alternative account is consistent with Livens' later statement that he began his experimental work at the end of April 1915.
Special Gas Companies Late in August 1915, Livens left Chatham to join one of the newly formed Royal Engineer Special Gas Companies where he was one of very few officers to have a background in engineering rather than chemistry. At the time, gas warfare was very primitive: heavy cylinders of poison gas were manhandled to the front trenches and their contents simply vented out through metal pipes relying on a breeze to carry the toxic cloud over the enemy trenches. But the wind could be fickle and change in its direction: the first British gas attack at the Battle of Loos was a disaster. Livens developed the use of long rubber hoses to carry the gas to an optimum location for release and of a manifold that reduced the number of parapet pipes by connecting four cylinders to a single pipe, these improvements helped make the system more reliable. Major-General Foulkes described him as a "go getter", but also as unfamiliar with military protocol; Foulkes later recalled Livens' part in the preparation of a gas attack on the Hohenzollern Redoubt:
Livens was soon put in charge of Z Company, a special unit that was given the responsibility of developing a British version of the German flamethrower that had recently been deployed on the Western Front.Foulkes 1934, p. 95. Four of Livens' massive fixed flame projector – the "Livens Large Gallery Flame Projector" – were to be used on 1 July 1916 at the start of the Battle of the Somme.Work of Trench Warfare Section 5 on flame projectors, sprayers, etc. from June 1915 to March 1916 – MUN 5/385. The Catalogue, The National Archives Constructed in underground chambers two were knocked out by German artillery before the offensive. The other two were effective in demoralising the German defenders. Impressive as it was, the limited range and the immobility of the weapon severely limited its usefulness except in specific circumstances such as those seen in its use at the Somme, and the project was only used once more in 1917.Channel 4 Time Team special 'The Somme's Secret Weapon' The remains of one of these projectors have been discovered and excavated in 2010.
Livens projector 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 threw in two five gallon oil drums; the burning oil was so effective that Livens' comrade, Harry Strange, wondered whether it would be better to use containers to carry flame to the enemy rather than relying on a complex flame thrower.Awards to Inventors, 1922, p.20 Reflecting on the incident, Livens and Strange considered how a really large shell filled with fuel might be thrown.Awards to Inventors, 1922, p.30 Although the key idea of throwing a large container of oil was due to Strange, it was Livens who went on to develop a large, but simple, mortar that could throw a three-gallon drum of oil which would burst when it landed...
Livens' new weapon was used for the first time on the morning of 23 July 1916: twenty oil projectors were fired just before an attack in the battle of the Somme at Pozières – the effect was limited. Next, thirty projectors were fired at the eastern corner of High Wood on 18 August with more encouraging results and another attack on 3 September was highly successful.
Following these attacks, Livens came to the attention of General Gough who was impressed by his ideas and "wangled" everything that he needed.Awards to Inventors, 1922, pp. 51–62 The new weapon was developed into the Livens Projector which consisted of a simple tube closed by a hemisphere at one end. It was half buried in the ground at an angle of 45 degrees and pointing in the required direction. It was then loaded with a single shot with an amount of propellant calculated to effect the desired range. Preparing a battery of projectors for an attack required a lot of preparation, this was not a serious problem in the conditions of static trench warfare and the weapon was so simple and inexpensive that hundreds – and on occasions thousands – of projectors could be fired simultaneously catching the enemy by surprise. Z Company rapidly developed the Livens Projector, increasing its range from the original , first to and they eventually produced an electrically triggered version with a range of .
The Livens Projector was modified to fire canisters of poison gas rather than oil. This system was tried 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 and each canister delivered as much gas as several chemical warfare artillery shells.
The Livens Projector was used in a series of gas attacks during October 1916 and a number of officers took a close interest in the results. Livens had witnessed some projector firings from the vantage of an aircraft and in his report he estimated that "...if the projectors were used on a large scale the cost of killing Germans could be reduced to sixteen shillings [that is £0.80] each."Obituary, by Major-General Foulkes. The Times newspaper, 11 February 1964 p.15 column A. This report was sent to the Ministry of Munitions and Livens was returned to England soon afterwards to help develop a standard projector and drum. The Livens Projector became a preferred means by which the British Army delivered a chemical attack and its production was given a high priority, the total for the Allies of the Great War eventually exceeded 150,000 units. Livens, "who was always full of ideas" gave up the command of Z company and became a liaison officer between Foulkes' Special Brigade and the Ministry of Munitions in which role he remained for the last two years of the war.
Other weapons Livens continued to improve his projector and to design other weapons for trench warfare, some of which were useful, others not. For example, he experimented with attempts to cut barbed wire using large quantities of explosives. A witness to one trial described orange boxes filled with explosives and fired from a hole in the ground in the manner of a shell fougasse. This system failed because the explosives tended to detonate ineffectually in mid-air – a sight that was described as being: "A most impressive picture of the Day of Judgement". A variation of the Livens Projector prototype was also tested with a view to cutting wire; Major-General Foulkes later recalled: "After the shoot, as the spectators approached the target area to observe the effect that had been produced Livens noticed that one drum containing 100lb of ammonal had failed to explode, and he called out "Back everybody" as he led a hasty retreat. I think he considered this the highlight of his military career—the occasion when he barked out an order to an Army Commander (Gough) and was promptly obeyed!"
Livens' wire-cutting ideas, were characteristically simple but ultimately unsuccessful; but he was never put off if a weapon failed to come up to expectation.
Risks, decorations, demobilisation Livens' work was dangerous and he showed no lack of physical courage. On one occasion, while testing a service gas mask against Hydrogen sulfide (H2S); the gas penetrated almost immediately and Livens fell unconscious though he recovered quickly. During the war, Livens was awarded the Military Cross on 14 January 1916 and the Distinguished Service Order on 1 January 1918.
Livens was demobilised from the army on 11 April 1919.
Between the wars