“That shrill sound is something I’ve never heard duplicated. It’s just mind-shattering.”

BATTLEFIELDS are loud places – deafeningly loud.

According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, hearing damage is by far the most common disability reported by soldiers in combat. In fact, more than 400,000 Americans who served overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001 are receiving disability benefits for some form of noise-induced hearing loss.

And it was no different for the fighting men of World War Two. In this latest recording from our friends at AudioBurst.com, one veteran of the 1944 Allied campaign to liberate southern France describes how one particular sound of combat continues to haunt him to this day: the ear-splitting shriek of German artillery. LISTEN BELOW.

(Originally published in MilitaryHistoryNow.com on March 11, 2016)