The trench system that became known as the Western Front ran for 440 miles from the Belgian coast to the Swiss border. For four years It was static; nobody moved more than a couple of hundred yards, before being invariably pushed back in a counter offensive. As a result, the enemy always knew where the other side was and so they were able to subject each other to a near constant artillery bombardment somewhere along the line.
Any unsuccessful offensive – where the soldiers, having tried to occupy the enemy trenches, were forced to retreat to their own lines – meant that thousands of bodies were left in no-man’s land (between the two front lines). Many sank into the mud or disappeared during the following bombardment. This is why, as we saw in part two of this series, so many soldiers have no known grave.
The confusion of the Western Front warfare meant that there were somewhere between 3.5 and 4 million soldiers killed from both sides.
Mining under the enemy: a disastrous first attempt
Because it was a static war, one popular tactic that both sides employed was mining under the enemy positions. The Allies took to this tactic with enthusiasm. In the Somme area they dug a series of 19 tunnels under the German positions, 60 to 80 feet deep and up to half a mile long. Then they packed the end with explosives. To give a comparison, in WWII the German V2 rocket carried a 1,000 lb warhead, which was capable of flattening a whole street of terraced houses. This one mine along the Western Front was packed with 40,000 lbs of explosives.
On 1 July 1916 at around 07.30, the explosives were detonated. The first of the mines near Beaumont-Hamel under the German Hawthorn Ridge redoubt (a strongly fortified, enclosed military stronghold) was detonated 10 minutes before the ground attack, so that the new tactic could be observed. There was also a fear that the debris would fall on the allied soldiers during the attack.
A pilot was sent aloft to observe this explosion at Hawthorne Ridge. He was told to keep well clear and thought two miles away at 2,000 feet would be enough. It was, just, but he had trouble getting his aircraft back under control following the shockwave. He did, however, have time to observe that the mound of earth that was once Hawthorn Ridge shot another 2,000 feet higher than his position.
The explosion was filmed by cinematographer Geoffrey Malins, who reported that he was knocked sideways by the shockwave, and a still image of the aftermath was captured by Ernest Brooks, the British army’s first official war photographer.
Unfortunately, the delay between the explosion and the attack gave the Germans time to re-man the resulting crater from the reserve trenches and many thousands of allied soldiers were killed.
Mining becomes a more successful tactic
The same tactic was tried again three months later, amazingly using the same tunnel, with much better results for the allies (the German infantry had other opinions). Following this
success, another 25 mines were dug in a six-mile stretch of the front under Messines Ridge just south of Ypres. One was flooded and one was discovered by the Germans, but at 03.10 on 7 June 1917, 19 were simultaneously detonated. It was the biggest man-made explosion up to that point and the sound could be heard in London.
The remaining two or four (numbers vary according to the source) were not detonated for tactical reasons. These were never de-commissioned and over time were lost. One exploded during a lightning storm in 1955, luckily only killing a cow – not so lucky for the cow of course. The other one or three are still there, just bubbling away waiting.
The introduction of aerial warfare
The pilot who observed the Hawthorn Ridge explosion was something of a pioneer, since the first successful flight by the Wright Brothers was only 13 years before WW1. However, biplanes were soon filling the skies over the trenches. They were initially for reconnaissance only but they were soon being used as bombers and for attacking other aircraft.
The bravest of the men who took to the sky were in helium filled balloons. They were well back from the front lines but must have been easy targets, although, unlike their fellow aircraft flyers, balloonists were given parachutes. Out of approximately 150 balloonists who managed to bail out of a burning balloon, it seems that all survived to do it all again the next day. Parachutes were not issued to aircraft pilots because military commanders feared that issuing them would encourage airmen to abandon their aircraft too readily.
Uncovering sad reminders and making happy memories
During the recent contraction of an industrial estate just north of Ypres a very well-preserved trench system was discovered. It was, or is now, named the Yorkshire trench. Between the Yorkshire trench and what was the German lines during WW1, another 200 bodies were found during the construction. Attempts were made to identify all the remains, but only one French soldier was identified. Construction workers in areas of northern France and Belgium must come across this all the time.
I’ll finish on a much happier note.
Poperinge was, and still is, the centre of the hop growing industry. As a result, they are rightly very proud of the quality of their beers brewed in that area. I can personably declare that the beers to be had there are second to none, we may describe them as lager, but they are not like the lager we get here; they have a much larger range of flavours, with many being similar to our hand pulled beers.
Each of the bars we sampled in that area had six or ten dispensing taps on the bar, and each beer had its own elaborately shaped glass containing 250 to 330 ml of beer, all this adding to the experience. Although we had to be very careful – the strength of a typical Belgian beer is 6 to 12 per cent ABV (alcohol by volume) which is the strength of wine.
This was our chosen mode of transport to many of the sites mentioned above, and also on many other visits to the continent.
It’s a 1,500cc Honda Gold Wing. It had a six cylinder horizontally opposed engine, a reverse gear, cruise control, a sound system and an intercom. It weighed 800 pounds on its own; with two adults and their luggage it weighed well over half a ton. It was in effect a small car on two wheels which was capable of reaching 130 miles an hour – not in Britain of course, as we all know the fastest we can do here is 70 mph.
The observant may notice that we are on the wrong side of the road. This photo was taken in Southern France where this is normal.
We had some fantastic times and always got home safely without any significant problem.
Happy days.
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