The Cellar - Jan 22nd, 2020 : The War To End All Wars, WW I

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Jan 22nd, 2020 : The War To End All Wars, WW I

I was looking at a gallery of colorized WW I photographs. Most were interesting but this one really rang my bell.
We’ve discussed before about how the British tunneled under the German line and set off a big badda boom. I’d seen pictures and
video of the tunnels, the tools they used, and living conditions for the tunnelers, but don’t recall ever seeing pictures of the results.
It must have been a big big badda boom.

http://cellar.org/img/WW I.jpg

Quote:

June 7, 1917
Soldiers look at the 45-meter-deep crater left by the detonation by the British of 21 tons of explosives underneath German positions near Messines in West Flanders. One of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history, the blast killed 10,000 soldiers and was heard as far away as Dublin.

link

That is a great link.
One of the photos there leads to this side trip:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railway_gun

A couple of months after that attack my grandfather, who was in the Royal Engineers, was wounded as his unit moved up through France into Belgium.

He was repatriated on an ambulance train and, when sufficiently recovered, transferred to the Royal Flying Corps and eventually the RAF at nearby Halton.

I have quite a few records of his WW1 service but they do need piecing together but he can't have been too far from those huge detonations.