Excavating tunnels from the WW1
03 November 2011, 10:14 AM
#1
Scooby Regular
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2000
Location: Disco, Disco!
Posts: 21,825
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Excavating tunnels from the WW1
03 November 2011, 11:11 AM
#2
Scooby Regular
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: Gloucestershire, home of the lawnmower.
Posts: 4,531
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
More info here: http://www.laboisselleproject.com/
And a Mine specific group here: http://www.durandgroup.org.uk/
Just hope they are careful with the digging as my Dad was killed trying to get to one of the huge mines back in 1998 when a tunnel entrance collapsed.
Cheers
Ian
And a Mine specific group here: http://www.durandgroup.org.uk/
Just hope they are careful with the digging as my Dad was killed trying to get to one of the huge mines back in 1998 when a tunnel entrance collapsed.
Cheers
Ian
03 November 2011, 11:32 AM
#3
Scooby Regular
Join Date: Aug 2002
Posts: 39,877
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
We had a duty trip for the weekend to Bodo in Norway in a Vulcan.
It was a great weekend, they were very hospitable. They gave us a tour of the airfield and showed us a very large tunnel which had been constructed to prtotect their aircraft from bombing attacks during WW2.
When we walked around a bend in the tunnel there was a pristine Spitfire which they had maintained in perfect condition. We did not know that they had Spitfires but it was an amazing sight, last thing you expect to see when you think about it.
Les
It was a great weekend, they were very hospitable. They gave us a tour of the airfield and showed us a very large tunnel which had been constructed to prtotect their aircraft from bombing attacks during WW2.
When we walked around a bend in the tunnel there was a pristine Spitfire which they had maintained in perfect condition. We did not know that they had Spitfires but it was an amazing sight, last thing you expect to see when you think about it.
Les
03 November 2011, 12:05 PM
#5
Scooby Senior
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Radiator Springs
Posts: 14,810
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
We should never forget what happened there or the people that were killed doing it but is it just me that thinks we should leave the area in peace now?
03 November 2011, 01:05 PM
#8
Took my kids to La Boisselle and the Lochnagar mine crater, around 1996.
They wanted to climb down into the crater, which is allowed, so I let them, in order to photograph it and use them for scale.
Elderst informed mw he was "going to find a bullet" down there. I just smiled, thinking that, after 80 years, he would have a job, as loads of people go down.
He duly came back with an empty .303 casing.
In fields nearby we found bits of a webbing buckle, shrapnel ***** and several human finger bones. The latter were left where they lay.
Next to the crater was one of the dumps where French farmers leave what they call "La recolte de fer," or "the iron harvest".
On the day we were there, we saw five HUGE shells that had been dug up nearby, each around 12" across and over 3 feet tall, awaiting collection by the local ordnance teams.
We later came across a grenade in another field.........
All of the above finds were done at the edge of ploughed fields, and without any metal detectors.
Out of interest, the Lochnagar crater is now owned by an Englishman, who bought it to preserve it, when other even bigger craters began to be filled in. IIRC it had 68,000 lbs of Ammonal under it. The blast was heard in London!
BUT: it was one of the mines fired on 1st July to start the attack. The British High Command were so proud of their mines that they invited the press and film units to film them going off.
In order to keep those people safe, they ordered the mines blown at 0725, five minutes BEFORE the attack began, so the press could get back behind the lines.
This, of course, gave the Germans five minutes warning that the attack was to begin, so when it did, they were out of their underground shelters, ready and waiting with their machine guns. It was ONE of the reasons for the slaughter on the front on that day: 60,000 British troops killed or injured in ONE DAY, the blackest day ever for the British Army
They wanted to climb down into the crater, which is allowed, so I let them, in order to photograph it and use them for scale.
Elderst informed mw he was "going to find a bullet" down there. I just smiled, thinking that, after 80 years, he would have a job, as loads of people go down.
He duly came back with an empty .303 casing.
In fields nearby we found bits of a webbing buckle, shrapnel ***** and several human finger bones. The latter were left where they lay.
Next to the crater was one of the dumps where French farmers leave what they call "La recolte de fer," or "the iron harvest".
On the day we were there, we saw five HUGE shells that had been dug up nearby, each around 12" across and over 3 feet tall, awaiting collection by the local ordnance teams.
We later came across a grenade in another field.........
All of the above finds were done at the edge of ploughed fields, and without any metal detectors.
Out of interest, the Lochnagar crater is now owned by an Englishman, who bought it to preserve it, when other even bigger craters began to be filled in. IIRC it had 68,000 lbs of Ammonal under it. The blast was heard in London!
BUT: it was one of the mines fired on 1st July to start the attack. The British High Command were so proud of their mines that they invited the press and film units to film them going off.
In order to keep those people safe, they ordered the mines blown at 0725, five minutes BEFORE the attack began, so the press could get back behind the lines.
This, of course, gave the Germans five minutes warning that the attack was to begin, so when it did, they were out of their underground shelters, ready and waiting with their machine guns. It was ONE of the reasons for the slaughter on the front on that day: 60,000 British troops killed or injured in ONE DAY, the blackest day ever for the British Army
04 November 2011, 03:52 PM
#9
Scooby Regular
Join Date: Aug 2002
Posts: 39,877
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Did a low level flight into the Sahara Desert some years ago in a Canberra. Amazing how many old vehicles etc are still left from WW2.
The one thing that did disturb us however was a human skeleton lying on top of the sand.
No idea how long it had been there but it looked well polished by the wind and the sand.
Les
The one thing that did disturb us however was a human skeleton lying on top of the sand.
No idea how long it had been there but it looked well polished by the wind and the sand.
Les
04 November 2011, 05:17 PM
#10
Scooby Regular
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: At the diesel pump...
Posts: 8,677
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
No, its not just you, but I do think we have a duty to return all bodies of service personel home to their relevant countries, and get rid of all the munitions that have been left lying around.
The last statement is also ture of areas such as the Falklands.
04 November 2011, 05:20 PM
#11
Pontificating
More info here: http://www.laboisselleproject.com/
And a Mine specific group here: http://www.durandgroup.org.uk/
Just hope they are careful with the digging as my Dad was killed trying to get to one of the huge mines back in 1998 when a tunnel entrance collapsed.
Cheers
Ian
And a Mine specific group here: http://www.durandgroup.org.uk/
Just hope they are careful with the digging as my Dad was killed trying to get to one of the huge mines back in 1998 when a tunnel entrance collapsed.
Cheers
Ian
04 November 2011, 05:53 PM
#12
Scooby Regular
iTrader: (1)
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: There on the stair
Posts: 10,208
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Has anyone been to the Fauld crater?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Fauld_explosion
We were able to walk down into the crater when I was a kid, but for some crazy reason they stopped it. The fact that people were finding unexploded shells seemed to be a bad thing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Fauld_explosion
We were able to walk down into the crater when I was a kid, but for some crazy reason they stopped it. The fact that people were finding unexploded shells seemed to be a bad thing.
The RAF Fauld explosion was a military accident which occurred at 11:11am on Monday, 27 November 1944 at the RAF Fauld underground munitions storage depot. The RAF Fauld explosion was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history and the largest to occur on UK soil.
Between 3,500 and 4,000 tonnes of ordnance exploded — mostly comprising high explosive (HE)-filled bombs, but including a variety of other types of weapons and including 500 million rounds of rifle ammunition. The resulting crater was 120 metres (400 ft) deep and 1,200 metres (0.75 miles) across and is still clearly visible just south of the village of Fauld, to the west of Hanbury Hill in Staffordshire, England. A nearby reservoir containing 450,000 cubic metres of water was obliterated in the incident, along with a number of buildings including a complete farm. Flooding caused by destruction of the reservoir added to the damage directly caused by the explosion.[1]
The exact death toll is uncertain; it appears that about 75 people died in the explosion.
Between 3,500 and 4,000 tonnes of ordnance exploded — mostly comprising high explosive (HE)-filled bombs, but including a variety of other types of weapons and including 500 million rounds of rifle ammunition. The resulting crater was 120 metres (400 ft) deep and 1,200 metres (0.75 miles) across and is still clearly visible just south of the village of Fauld, to the west of Hanbury Hill in Staffordshire, England. A nearby reservoir containing 450,000 cubic metres of water was obliterated in the incident, along with a number of buildings including a complete farm. Flooding caused by destruction of the reservoir added to the damage directly caused by the explosion.[1]
The exact death toll is uncertain; it appears that about 75 people died in the explosion.
04 November 2011, 07:21 PM
#13
Just looked at that on Google, it's pretty big isn't it?
If you go onto Google maps and zoom in, you can clearly see trench lines in some areas of the Somme.
The French have re-adopted some of the original names for the areas, the previously named "High Wood" has gone back to being "Bois des Fourcaux", for instance.
If you go onto Google maps and zoom in, you can clearly see trench lines in some areas of the Somme.
The French have re-adopted some of the original names for the areas, the previously named "High Wood" has gone back to being "Bois des Fourcaux", for instance.
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
