When a metal is subjected to extremely rapid compression, a shock wave is launched that generates dislocations as it propagates. The shock wave evolves into a characteristic two-wave structure, with an elastic wave preceding a plastic front. It has been known for more than six decades that the amplitude of the elastic wave decays the further it travels into the metal: this is known as "the decay of the elastic precursor". The amplitude of the elastic precursor is a dynamic yield point because it marks the transition from elastic to plastic behaviour. In this letter we provide a full explanation of this attenuation using the first method of dislocation dynamics to treat the time dependence of the elastic fields of dislocations explicitly. We show that the decay of the elastic precursor is a result of the interference of the elastic shock wave with elastic waves emanating from dislocations nucleated in the shock front. Our simulations reproduce quantitatively recent experiments on the decay of the elastic precursor in aluminum, and its dependence on strain rate.The dynamic behaviour of crystalline solids subjected to shock compression plays a central role in diverse applications, including bird strikes in aerospace [1], crashworthiness in the automobile industry [2], and manufacturing processes such as laser shock peening [3], amongst many others. Upon being shocked within a range of strain rates and pressures of typically 10 6 − 10 10 s −1 and 5 − 50GPa [1], the shock front in crystalline materials often displays a characteristic two-wave structure near the loading surface: the plastic wave front leading to the Hugoniot shocked state is preceded by an elastic precursor wave [1]. The amplitude of the elastic precursor wave decays as the wave front advances[1, 4]-a phenomenon known as the 'decay of the elastic precursor'. The amplitude of the elastic wave marks the onset of plasticity, i.e. it is the dynamic yield point. The subsequent plastic wave is commonly ascribed to the generation and motion of dislocations, the agents of plasticity in crystalline solids [9].The cause of its attenuation remains unclear after six decades [4][5][6][7][8]. Clifton and Markenscoff [4] calculated analytically the amplitude attenuation of a planar elastic shock wave caused by the destructive interference of elastic wavelets emanating from pre-existing dislocations set into motion by the passage of a shock wave of infinite strain rate; dislocation generation by the shock was neglected. Consequently, the elastic precursor decay was attributed to the density and initial velocity of pre-existing dislocations. Armstrong et al.[10] studied the dislocation relaxation mechanisms during high strain rate shock loading, concluding that dislocation generation dominates plastic relaxation under shock loading. This is because the number of pre-existing dislocations is about two to three orders of magnitude less than that generated during the shock [1,4,7].In this letter we show that we can account for the experimentally observed residual disloca...