A mine explosion in France during World War I left a crater 70ft (21m) deep and 330 ft (100 m) wide. More information: lochnagarcrate... Music by incompetech.com/ Aerial image courtesy of lochnagarcrater.org.
JUST a year ago, I watched a British media special about this very crater and the battle of the Somme. The host walked along the rim under those trees and discovered a palm size part of a human skull !! Can't remember the name of the show but it left a big impression on me. I'm sure there are many more just below the surface.
For all of you talking about Australian tunnelers, I am a former Royal Engineer. R.E.'s were tunneling for over a year before the first New Zealand troop arrived ( February 2016 ). The Australians arrived later. No one is criticing or demeaning NZ or Aus efforts, they were superb. The bottom line is that all tunelling units attached to the R.E.'s took advantage of the techniques and training developed before the Commonwealth units were even in existence. Got that? Before the Commonwealth units were even formed. The war was a collaborative effort with the Commonwealth coming together to beat the Germans. Those of you who feel it was an "Australian" or "NZ" or even "British" victory/achievement at the Lochnagar Crater need to check your thought processes. You are insulting the entire Royal Engineer corp. And remember that Aus and NZ soldiers were part of that corp, so therefore you are insulting them. It was a Commonwealth victory, it was an Allied victory. The entire R.E. corp worked for this. In case you are interested, the R.E. and equivalent's worldwide are underestimated as we don't ordinarily fight on the front lines. Our job is even more dangerous. It is we that build bridges, clear minefield's and the like under enemy fire. Our life expectancy is twenty-four hours. Any notion I had of surviving war as an R.E. ended when our training officer pointed out that a multiple-rocket launcher battery would wipe out a one square mile area with a single launch "and of course thay are going to target the engineeers building the bridge to allow infantry and tank brigades through." That was before the advent of drones, and we have all seen how devastating they can be. Do not insult our soldiers by turning this into a British v Australian "who deserves credit" issue. They fought together, they died together, do not insult these incredible men by talking stupid.
Very well put. Commonwealth or Empire it was all with a common root and a common goal, to overthrow the German Empire. But if you talk to any American they will tell you they saved us twice. They may have helped shorten it but the Commonwealth or Empire Soldiers from every Country and of every Nationality was responsible for the ending the War to end all Wars.
@John John's Knee I understand it very well. The sane and mature among us, including former soldiers, are entitled to take five minutes out of our day to point out uncomfortable (for some ) truths.
I think you're out of line here. Okay you're a little sensitive about this thing and who did what and when, but I don't see a direct attack with intent to insult. You need to relax a little bit. Go have a pint.
I went down a rabbit hole and found this. 4,000 feet into the air. It must have looked and felt like the gates of hell rattled and opened. A War to end Wars? Sadly not, but that does not diminish the courage and the heroism of men as young as 12 who fought and died so we could be free. It was done once again for us and several Wars since but WW1 & WW2 should show us that such things should never be repeated. The toll was not just in the dead and wounded which numbered 40 million in WW1 but those whose minds would never be the same again. RIP and we will meet again. Thank you for this video. I really appreciate your take on this bloody day.
"but that does not diminish the courage and the heroism of men as young as 12 who fought and died so we could be free." If you honestly believe the world wars (or any other) wars are fought so that you can be free then you're as foolish as the young men who were groomed into fighting the Great War *for exactly the same reason* . You do of course realize that Hitler and the nazis justified their wars and invasions so that *Germany and its people could become free* . Do you live in a country justifying invasion of other countries so that *you* can be "free" the same way as the nazis? Then you have learned *nothing* from history. We wouldn't even have the rise of Hitler and the nazis if not for the harsh Versailles Treaty. Ad to the fact Germany was constantly forced to pay expensive loans for their war damage. Then this angry Austrian corporal comes around and tells the people they're not going to take this abuse anymore and that the only way for them to be free is to brake free from their shackles put upon them by "enemy people". "the courage and the heroism of men as young as 12 " There's nothing heroic about war. Ask anybody who has been in one. There is just survival and who remains. History is written by the winners of wars not your "brave heroes". When it came to WWI the whole war was a gigantic p*ssing contest between the world's rivaling colonial powers. "but WW1 & WW2 should show us that such things should never be repeated." It WILL be repeated as long the likes of you see wars as very clear-cut black-and-white affairs and see them as "heroic": As long as you fail to understand that the guy on the other side is *equally convinced* he is doing it for something "heroic" and "noble". " It was done once again for us" Who are "us" ??
@@kungfucow547 WWI was not a "pissing match" per se, but rather a excellent example of why permanent alliances are bad. It also shows how important it is to maintain diplomatic relationships and minimize tensions. The whole thing was set off by the assasination of a locally important person by someone that we might consider a domestic terrorist by modern standards.
Clay Kickers. As brave as those who were up top but the unsung heroes who ended 10,000 lives in 4 minutes. Lives that needed to be lost to boost the morale and help the stalemate.
Shells we find today are artillery or plane bombs. These things always went off You don't forget were you buried a few tons of explosives in the ground
Denis Merlevede > many mine sites were abandoned and are still left there today. In fact in the 1950's an electrical company installing electric posts carrying power to homes, one of the poles was installed above an abandoned mine site which was hit by lightning which then detonated the buried explosives. The Messines ridge craters only twenty out of twenty six mine sites were detonated leaving six sites still buried to this day. All of this info is easily found online and here on YT.
I visited here in 2019. There were still people being recovered then. A fantastic but mystifying place. The birds sing but there is a hush over the land, as if it is holding its breath waiting for something to happen.
The crater was never an objective on the day, as whoever takes the credit for digging the mine, it was in the wrong place. It was supposed to be under the German front lines - but was actually a good distance in front of them. As a result many German soldiers survived the explosion in deep dugouts, which were rather better constructed than the British front lines. This is understandable as the Germans were in a prepared defensive position. This meant the day turned out very badly for the 10th (Service) Battalion, the Lincolnshire Regiment aka The Grimsby Chums. This was a “Pals” battalion - people recruited mostly from one town who knew each other, and in this case many from the same school. (I’m from Grimsby and went to that school, many years later). It was an inexperienced unit - effectively given a simple job of occupying the destroyed enemy lines. Instead, the ones who lived to get to the crater spent a long, hot summer’s day fighting and dying there until they could pull back under cover of darkness. No one seems to have thought beyond the high morale such a unit might have - to realise that whilst they might fight well that they would die together. The practice of recruiting these “Pals” units ceased shortly afterwards.
Thank you for that. Sad but true. I believe the same was for brothers. No brother could serve on the same ship or Corp for the same reason. A Mother finding that all of her sons have died is not good for morale.
From the “Grimsby Roll of Honour 1914 - 1919” published some time between 1919 - 1920, price sixpence. “We are apt to look back with pity, almost with terror, on the day and yet it was then that Grimsby lived its noblest, for despite the fact that officers were falling, that large gaps were torn in the ranks, the "Chums" kept their faces towards their objective, and never a word has come of any man finching. Of that magnificent body, only two officers came back unwounded, and only about 100 men, leaving some 400 or 500 dead and wounded behind. Yet one of the officers, Lieut. Hendin, with four men, reached the enemy's trenches, and went through to the third line, and hung on there for four days, collecting scattered parties and consolidating his defence. All touch was lost with the rear, the lieutenant and men were counted among the casualties, but to the surprise of headquarters he returned, and was later awarded the M.C. He was killed leading another attack in 1917. Among the casualties that day were Lieut. R. P. Eason, Sec. Lieut. L. Cummins (acting Adjutant), killed; Sec. Lieut. J. Shankster, killed; Sec. Lieut. W. Swift, killed; Lieut.-Col. (the Major) Vignoles, wounded; Capt. C. H. Bellamy, seriously wounded (the latter died from his wounds), and Lieut. R. Coote Green, wounded” A list of the dead from the town is included within a complete list of the Lincolnshire Regiment’s losses. No mention of the mine is made - rather that the artillery barrage had lifted too soon...
"The guns will rust. Grass will grow and there'll be nothing left of any of this. The land will heal itself as everything does in the end. We'll be long gone by then but maybe not forgotten."
All that death and destruction for what? Just a waste of young life from both sides. My best friend's dad fought in the battle of D-Day in WW2. He fought in the battle of the bulge and saw so much killing that he became an Free Evangelical minister after the war.
I dunno, just remember two mines full of explosives were left. One blew up in the 50's and the other has never been found. Also it was a joint effort not just " British "
@@jake567100 irregardless they were brave men who became The Royal Engineers. The Clay Kickers as they were called had previously dug sewers in London and other Cities. So they were from Britain but I can not be sure of their origin beyond that. Certainly WW1 was not a British Victory but one of 'The Empire', no matter how antiquated that term is now. Men from every corner answered the call and laid down their lives. But the tragedy for the Australians in WW1 was how the were used and abused and treated like lives that could be given up. I say this not in malice but their treatment by putting then into Gallipoli was wrong. They fought valiantly but it was a fight that should have been done very differently. The cost in Australian life was too high but I respect their courage, devotion, grit and bloody mindedness. They were very brave men indeed. I hope I have not caused you any offence, if so I apologise. I just see that front as a tragic waste of brave men. I hope this find you and yours well.
@@theconvictedquokka Untrue, the 185th tunneling company of the royal engineers started the lochnagar mine 4 months before Australia even had a tunneling company
I am surprised that the British did not try to get this tunnel closer to the Germans before exploding. The Explosion just hit right outside even the outer boarder to the trench line. The explosion does not seem like it was very useful to have that crater.
Definitely, Australians who bombed this, that is a big mistake and rather offensive. also, it was not soldiers that tunneled and made the bomb, it was miners or civilians. The biggest bomb of WWI, before Hiroshima was NOT British, and NOT soldiers, it was Australian civilian miners. Get it right! The whole context of the war is lost due to such arrogant mistakes such as these. Not all those that fought were a soldier. The stretcher-bearers for the Australians were 16 years old, they were not soldiers either as they were too young. The British Military got the credit for this. The miners did what the British military could never do. They knew NOTHING about digging tunnels. Only miners did. The only miners in the Commonwealth who used explosives in mines were the miners in Queensland coal miners. They were experts at it. And this doesn't glorify war. It just shows who were sacrificed for this war. Not all of them British soldiers.
AIF was part of the CMF, the 1st Australian Tunnelling Coy was attached to the Australian Mining Battalion. All being part of the Commonwealth were under British command. Regardless, all were soldiers of the relevant armies, no civilians were employed. The mining and placement of explosives was actually completed by the Canadian tunnellers before the Australians arrived. It was more than six months before the explosives were set off.
@ Fletcher. You obviously have some British issues, but relax buddy. Besides, you are incorrect. The Mines in the Battle of Messines were the largest planned explosion up until the 1945 Trinity atomic weapon test.
Well said mate, its like anything to do with the ww1 and the battle of the somme, also i have a trench art solid brass knife looking letter opener with e cattier and a ww1 french looking ww1 face and helmet head looking thing, which my partners grand father got it, he thought during ww1 and he gave it to us as a gift, in his last days, he was dying from asbestos poisoning after working for spicers paper and the old place / factory and remembering the nurse who came out to shave him and could not do it properly at all, so i did it and he was so grateful and said i did a better job then he could do, i started to cry. God bless him and he told me so many stories about losing his best mates during that war.🙏🙏✌✌👍👍
Interestingly, This wasn't the first time an Army dug under an opposing force to blow them up. This tyoe of explosion also happened during the American Civil War believe or not. During the siege of Petersburg Virginia, in July of 1864, The Union detonated a massive explosion planted by a company of Pennsylvania Coal Miners under a Confederate position. The Union then attacked to maximize the confusion of the Rebs just like what the British did in 1916. Except that the Union wasn't sucessful. Instesd of going around the Crater, The Union actually went into the Crater and got trapped since the Crater was too steep. You would've saw thousands of bodies inside that crater. It was a cheap turkey shoot for the Confederates. Most of the Union troops were slaughtered or captured. Earlier, The Union Generals were training an all black regiment to lead the assauot on the Crater. They knew what they're doing and were expected to actually go around the Crater. But at the last minute, and replaced rhem with the inexperienced white troops who were not trained on how to attack the crater. Grant called them off since the troops were black and obviously, They were fighting against Racist Confederates. The Blacks would have been forced to fight to the death. And it eould be bad, politically. Sadly, while the the Union soldiers were getting slaughtered in the Crater, General Ambrose Burnside decided to send the black troops in. They met the same fate as their fellow white comrades, but in a mkre brutal fashion. The rallying cry of the black regiments was "No quarter" since they were enraged upon hearing what happened at the Fort Pillow Massacre where hundreds of surrendering black troops were slaughtered. Because The of this rallying cry, This also enraged the Rebs who gladly gave the Black troops No quarter in return. The Battle of the Crater.
Had family die on thr somme my granda took me when his travling companion had a heart attack visited tyne cote vimmy ridge the teipval memorial and the meningate layed poppys at my fallen family the history and knowledge will never leave me
Very interesting, but I 'm wondering if you could chime in on a key point. Indeed this operation was done by the British army, however many people recall hearing that it was Australians, myself included. Were these individuals Australian conscripts?
Thanks for the question! They were Australian but were fighting as part of the British army. I should have been more specific in the video when describing the soldiers involved in the digging.
Next time do your homework properly. It wasn`t only the brits digging there. British 171st, 175th and 250th Tunnelling companies 1st Canadian, 3rd Canadian and 1st Australian Tunnelling companies
How about you go do your homework properly. You are talking about the Battle of Messines, which is not even the same battlefield as the Lochnagar Crater.....How can you be so full of yourself when you are wrong still. It was the british 179th tunnelling company and the 185th tunnelling company that did the mining for this explosion. It's even on the website of the foundation for this crater dude.... lochnagarcrater.org/history/mining-at-lochnagar/
@@trager8933 other than the explosion from this video being made by british people, yes the idea is the same. Mines being places in dug tunnels and set to explosion.
So no mention of the Canadian tunneling team No mention of the Australian tunneling team Just a *purely* British operation Facts seem to be things that are unimportant to Americans for some reason
