starshell

Someone blew a whistle or fired a starshell or opened up with an M-60 or shouted, "Company, attack!" and off we went, stumbling and jerking along in our clumsy micky mouse boots and heavy winter gear.

Accidental Discharge 2008

That said -- there's this great book I just read, Northrop Frye's 1957 starshell explosion Anatomy of Criticism.

Kenneth Hite's Journal princeofcairo 2005

Once, near the Metsovon pass, in December, when it was twenty degrees below zero because there was no cloud, the Italians sent up a starshell.

Captain Corelli's Mandolin De Bernieres, Louis 2003

A final starshell, so brilliant even at this distance that the word inside it was almost dazzled out, burst soundlessly into blue-white fire above the city.

Cities In Flight Blish, James 1957

They heard his songs and they were stricken by his missiles, but seldom saw more than, perhaps, a swiftly moving cap at a gap in the broken parapet, or a grey figure flitting from the light of a starshell.

The Old Front Line John Masefield 1922