[xoxoxoBruce]

July 1st, 1916.

It was the first day of the Battle of the Somme, during the First World War. The Royal Engineers had dug a tunnel, 50 feet deep, extending for about 300 yards from the British lines to the German front line. There, under a German position called “Schwaben Hohe”, they laid a mine consisting of over 25 tons of Ammonal. The mine was detonated two minutes before 07.30 am – the hour of launch of the British offensive against the German lines. The resulting explosion blew almost half a million tons of chalk into the surrounding fields, sending debris over 4,000 feet into the air. It created a vast hole 300 feet across and 90 feet deep.

Boom.. Big Badda Boom.