walking fire

walking fire (countable and uncountable, plural walking fires)

1. (obsolete) Will o' the wisp
   • 1603, William Shakespeare, M. William Shak-speare: His True Chronicle Historie of the life and death of King LEAR and his three Daughters.:

     Prithe Nunckle be content, this is a naughty night to swim in, now a little fire in a wild field, were like an old leachers heart, a small sparke, all the rest in bodie cold, looke here comes a walking fire.

   • 1646, Sir John Suckling, The Goblins:

     Had we no walking fire, Nor saucer-ey'd devil of these woods That led us ?

   • 1711, Francis Bugg, The Quakers Present Principles Farther Expos'd to Publick View, page 8:

     Do you expect such infallible Direction, from such a Will with a Whisp, or walking Fire, that leads you into such Brakes of Contention and Bogs of Uncertainty.

   • 1840, The Most Illustrious and Renowned History of the Seven Champions of Christendom, page 20:

     The famous champion, St. Andrew of Scotland, travelled through ayale of walking spirits, most fearful to behold, and had not seen the light of the sun or moon for seven days, but was guided by a walking fire, till he came to a castle, before which lay the giant whom St. Anthony slew, his flesh was rent and torn by wild foxes, crows, and such like.

   • 1855, Charlotte Mary Yonge, The history of sir Thomas Thumb:

     Sometimes he'd counterfeit a voyce, And travellers call astray ; Sometimes a walking fire he'd be, And lead them from their way.

2. (military) A line of infantry equipped with automatic weapons advancing in a coordinated attack.
   • 1975, War Monthly, numbers 10-21:

     To counter this the French introduced 'walking fire'. The infantry used man-carried automatic weapons to keep the defender pinned down with a continuous hail of bullets for those last dangerous yards.

   • 1990, Gregory R. Clark, Words of the Vietnam War:

     Walking fire was used to sweep an area with artillery. Assaulting infantry often approached an objective from behind the walking fires; this kept the enemy under cover until the assaulting troops were almost on top of them.

   • 1995, Gerard Demaison, Yves Buffetaut, R. Blake Stevens, Honour bound: the Chauchat machine rifle, page 61:

     Although difficult to learn and to perform, walking fire, when practiced in co-ordination with hand- and rifle grenadiers, was the essence of training for the assault.

   • 2003, Adrian R. Lewis, Omaha Beach: A Flawed Victory, page 222:

     In the Pacific theater, the navy, marines, and army learned and perfected the technique of providing assaulting infantry with a wall of walking fire.

• firewalking