Felt it my duty to visit the Sunken Lane and the nearby cemetery and Hawthorn Ridge . To honour the men in that photograph waiting to do their their duty thinking about them still leaves me emotional i am so glad i was able stand in that lane and say thankyou.
I've just returned from the Somme - Sunken Lane, Hawthorn Crater and then a walk round the Newfoundland Memorial has really cemented what they faced in a way that I've never had before. Everybody really should visit
My mother was German and my father was English. I have heard stories from both sides. As a 73 year old I have had many years to reflect on both world wars and have felt the pain of both sides in my family. There are no winners in war...very informative video, Subscribed.
Well done from a Yank in Baltimore,MD. Expertly explained. I've seen that explosion on Hawthorne Ridge so many times, but never knew who, what, when, where, or how. Thank You!
Excellent video-I need to visit this place, immortalised by Malins' film. It always strrikes me how ordinary and nondescript these old battlefields are. For example, I once visited Quinn's Post at Gallipoli and stood between where the Australian and Turkish trenches had been. 100 years later- just birdsong...100 years previously, I would have been cut in half by MG fire. Key terrain in 1915-or 1916 in the case of your video-just a bit of ordinary land in 2024... Lest we Forget. Their name liveth for evermore.
Worth a trip-especially if you stay away from the over-visited ANZAC areas, the British and ( particularly) the French sectors in Helles are virtually untouched. I am pretty certain you can still walk along the French forntline at Keveres Dere as I did some years ago and stumble over metal, shrapnel and, unfortunately, bits of bone.@@historyinyourhand1787
I am 75 and my dad was a sergeant in the Lancashire Fusiliers and fought at the Somme he was also gassed , as i was 6 when he died the few details i have were given to me from my older brother.
Hi, Rob. Great video. It is very helpful to see the battlefield today and see the locations of both front lines and the Sunken Lane as well as the location of the explosion. As with other videos, it is very helpful for learning too. Excellent map too. Sad how many of the men in the footage would be dead in an hour. I second that. The crater is huge for sure. Great points. Usually, ten minutes doesn't seem long, but I can see why that would be enough time for German forces to set up machine gun defenses. Great video from no man's land. The losses are staggering. I agree- it is very tragic. Very informative video. Superb work, Rob.
The clip of you walking over Sunkern Lane out into what would of been No Man's Land was just incredible. What those soldiers did and went through, nobody can imagine. It's on my bucket list to visit this site and do what you did, climb over and just imagine... Thanks for the video mate, just found your channel and it is just fascinating!
i took those very same steps a few days before last july 1st 2023 up and over the top. very sombre experience to look at the landscape and realise how close the machine guns were. very moving. few days later i was back at the position where Geoffrey Malins filmed the hawthorn ridge mine explosion. Theres a small pump house near there now and against the wall of the pump house there was an artillery shell which had failed to explode during the war, left there by a farmer for collection....over a century old. May the fallen of both sides rest in peace
Nice little video, well done. A couple of pointers... The 2nd Battalion you mention were 2/Royal Fusiliers, the right hand leading Battalion alongside the 1/Lancs. There were two companies of the 1/Lancs in the lane, the rest attacked alongside the road. The reason the crater is so large is there are two, it was blown a second time in November.
Three brothers in my family were here. One died on this day on Sunken rd. It breaks my heart, both sides of these mostly young men must have been terrified. Lambs to the slaughter 💔
Incredible video. If General Aylmer Hunter-Weston had received permission to detonate the mine earlier what effect would it have had on the British attack?
It really troubles me that we are not anywhere close to being the men those men were, we do not know suffering and hardships, we’re oblivious of the meaning of true sacrifice. I of course thank god for these facts, it’s just so damn unfair that the one and only life they had, most of them gave it up for their country, it feels so senseless now but they were so brave and proud, smiles on all their faces still gets me..
I watched a documentary on 100th anniversary of the Somme and i think that they inculed film footage of a sunken lane ,a lip reader was able to say what the men were saying . I think the director of the documentary was the director of the Hobbit .
Such a tragic waste of Life, my Grandfather was in the trenches for 2 years, in the 1/4 th Battalion of the KORLR, he survived but was haunted by his experience and memories of the Battlefield
Haunting and sad to contemplate what happened there... What was the British command thinking? This pattern was often repeated by both sides throughout the war.
@@historyinyourhand1787 in that case then it was strategic suicide from the British command to position their troops in full view of the Germans, removing the surprise element of their advance into no man's land. The delayed mine strike probably didn't help their cause but they should never have been put into that position in the first place. If they had timed their advance from further back towards the British lines and immediately after the mine strike, the death toll probably would have been much lower.
@@davidalexhughes Subsequent waves of attack came from the frontline trenches and were almost wiped out before reaching sunken lane . The mine was set off early not late. It was feared the troops would be caught under the falling debris from the blast . A ridiculous notion as it would only take seconds . That one error cost hundreds of lives .The Germans were unaware of the men in sunken lane till they climbed out and advanced .
I am sorry but, no mention of white city or the Russian sap from there to the sunken lane, the location of the mine entrance and that the mine was blown twice. 1916 and 1918. Come on, do some homework.
You should probably watch the video again if you think I didn't mention the sap leading to sunken lane. In terms of me talking about 1918 in a video about the first day of the Somme... no... no I didn't.
