Mines in the Battle of Messines (1917)

Map of the mines laid before the Battle of Messines, 1917

The Mines in the Battle of Messines comprised a series of mines dug by tunnelling companies of the Royal Engineers under the German lines near the village of Mesen (Messines in French, historically used in English) in Belgian West Flanders during the First World War.

The mines were detonated at the start of the Battle of Messines (7–14 June 1917), creating 19 large craters. The joint explosion of the mines at Messines ranks among the largest non-nuclear explosions of all time. The evening before the attack, General Sir Charles Harington remarked to the press, "Gentlemen, we may not make history tomorrow, but we shall certainly change the geography."[1] The Battle of Messines marked the zenith of mine warfare. Just three months later, on 10 August 1917, the Royal Engineers fired the last British deep mine of World War I near Givenchy.[2]

Background

As part of the allied operations in the Ypres Salient, British mining against the German-held salient at Wijtschate near Messines had begun in spring 1915 with diggings 15–20 feet (4.6–6.1 m) below the surface.[3][lower-alpha 1] The concept of a deep mining offensive was devised in September 1915 by the Engineer-in-Chief of the BEF, Brigadier George Fowke, who proposed to drive galleries 60–90 feet (18–27 m) underground. Fowke had been inspired by the thinking of Major John Norton-Griffiths, a civil engineer by trade, who had helped form the first tunnelling companies and introduced the virtually silent clay kicking digging technique.[3]

In September 1915, Fowke proposed to dig under the Ploegsteert–Mesen, Kemmel–Wijtschate and Vierstraat–Wijtschate roads and to dig two tunnels between the Douve river and the south-east end of Ploegsteert Wood; the objectives to be reached in three to six months. Fowke had wanted galleries to stretch as far as Grand Bois (about 1,050 yards (960 m)) and Bon Fermier Cabaret on the fringe of Messines but the longest tunnel eventually completed was a 720 yards (660 m) gallery to Kruisstraat.[3] The scheme devised by Fowke was formally approved on 6 January 1916 although Fowke and his deputy, Colonel R. N. Harvey, had already begun the preliminaries to a plan. By January 1916, several deep mine shafts, marked as "deep wells" and six tunnels had thus been started.[4] Sub-surface conditions were especially complex and separate ground water tables made mining difficult. To overcome the technical difficulties, two military geologists assisted the miners from March 1916, including Edgeworth David, who planned the system of mines.[5][6]

Prelude

Co-ordinated by the Royal Engineers, the mine galleries were dug by the British 171st, 175th and 250th Tunnelling companies and the 1st Canadian, 3rd Canadian and 1st Australian Tunnelling companies, while the British 183rd, 2nd Canadian and 2nd Australian Tunnelling companies built dugouts (underground shelters) in the Second Army area.[7] Sappers dug the tunnels into a layer of "blue clay" 80–120 feet (24–37 m) below the surface, then drifted galleries (horizontal passages) for 5,964 yards (5,453 m) to points beneath the position of the German Army's Group Wytschaete, despite German counter-mining.[8][9][lower-alpha 2] German tunnellers often came within metres of several British mine chambers and before the Battle of Messines, German miners found the La Petite Douve Farm mine.[11] On 27 August 1916, the Germans set a camouflet, which killed four men and wrecked the chamber for 400 feet (120 m); the mine was already charged and the explosives were left in the gallery. A Kruisstraat gallery begun on 2 January 1916, had been dug for 750 yards (690 m) and was flooded by a camouflet explosion in February 1917, after which a new chamber was dug and charged next to the flooded mine.[12] The British diverted the attention of German miners from their deepest galleries, by making many secondary attacks in the upper levels.[13]

The BEF miners eventually completed a line of deep mines in the area around Messines that were charged with 447 long tons (454 t) of ammonal[8] and gun cotton. Two mines were laid at Hill 60 on the northern flank, one at St Eloi, three at Hollandscheschur Farm, two at Petit Bois, single mines at Maedelstede Farm, Peckham House and Spanbroekmolen, four at Kruisstraat, one at Ontario Farm and two each at Trenches 127 and 122 on the southern flank.[14][15] A final group of four mines was placed under the German Birdcage strongpoint near Le Pelerin, just outside Ploegsteert Wood.

The largest single mines were at St Eloi, which was charged with 95,600 pounds (43,400 kg) of ammonal, at Maedelstede Farm, which was charged with 94,000 pounds (43,000 kg), and Spanbroekmolen, which was charged with 91,000 pounds (41,000 kg) of ammonal. The mine at Spanbroekmolen was set 88 feet (27 m) below ground, at the end of a gallery 1,710 feet (520 m) long.[16] When detonated on 7 June 1917, the blast of the mine at Spanbroekmolen formed the "Lone Tree Crater" with a diameter of 250 feet (76 m) and a depth of 40 feet (12 m).[16] By contrast, the mine at Ontario Farm did not produce a crater but only left a shallow indentation in the soft clay, after wet sand flowed back into the crater.[12][17][18]

Six mines were prepared but not fired, the four on the extreme southern flank (Birdcage 1–4) which were not required because the ridge fell so quickly, Peckham 2 was abandoned due to a tunnel collapse and the mine at La Petite Douve Farm had been abandoned after a German camouflet was blown in August 1916.[15]

List of mines

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Belgian place names have changed substantially in the 20th century and British versions such as "Wytschaete" (Whitesheet) often retain the old French-inspired spellings and pronunciations, which have been superseded in official Belgian usage.
  2. ↑ German corps were detached from their component divisions on 3 April 1917 and given permanent areas to hold, under a geographical title. Group Wytschaete at Wijtschate was based on the XIX Corps, commanded by General Maximilian von Laffert and controlled the 204th Division, 35th Division, 2nd Division and the 40th Division.[10]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Passingham 1998, p. 90.
  2. ↑ http://www.1914-1918.net/tunnelcoyre.htm accessed 24 April 2015
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Edmonds 1948, pp. 35–36.
  4. ↑ Edmonds 1948, p. 36.
  5. ↑ Cleland 1918, pp. 145–146.
  6. ↑ Branagan 2005, pp. 294–301.
  7. ↑ Edmonds 1948, p. 37–38.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Wolff 1958, p. 88.
  9. ↑ Liddell Hart 1930, p. 331.
  10. ↑ Sheldon 2007, p. 1.
  11. ↑ Wolff 1958, p. 92.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Edmonds 1948, p. 57.
  13. ↑ Bülow & Kranz 1938, pp. 103–104.
  14. ↑ Edmonds 1948, pp. 52–53.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 Neil Tweedie: Farmer who is sitting on a bomb. In: The Telegraph. 12. January 2004 (online), access date 15 February 2015.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Edmonds 1948, p. 53.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 17.4 17.5 17.6 Messines, access date 16 February 2015.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 18.4 18.5 18.6 18.7 18.8 18.9 18.10 18.11 18.12 18.13 18.14 18.15 Photo gallery: Battle of Messines Ridge, access date 16 February 2015.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 19.3 Turner 2010, p. 44.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Holt & Holt 2014, pp. 116–119, 247–248.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 21.3 21.4 21.5 Holt & Holt 2014, p. 248.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 Holt & Holt 2014, p. 249.
  23. ↑ Holt & Holt 2014, pp. 192–193.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 With the British Army in Flanders: A Tour of Ploegsteert Wood Part 5 – The Kruisstraat Craters, access date 16. February 2015.
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 Holt & Holt 2014, pp. 193–194.
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 The Western Front Today – Kruisstraat Craters (online), access date 16 April 2015.
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 Messines, access date 16 February 2015.
  28. ↑ ypres1917.fr.yuku.com
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 29.2 29.3 With the British Army in Flanders: A Tour of Ploegsteert Wood Part 12, access date 16 February 2015.
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 30.2 30.3 30.4 30.5 Pedersen 2012.
  31. ↑ 31.0 31.1 31.2 Holt & Holt 2014, p. 251.
  32. ↑ 32.0 32.1 32.2 32.3 32.4 32.5 With the British Army in Flanders: A Tour of Ploegsteert Wood Part 11 – Le Gheer & the Birdcage, access date 16 February 2015.
  33. ↑ 33.0 33.1 33.2 33.3 Location map, access date 16 February 2015.
  34. ↑ (online)
  35. ↑ (online)
  36. ↑ (online)

References

  • Bülow, K von; Kranz, W.; Sonne, E.; Burre, O.; Dienemann, W. (1943) [1938]. Wehrgeologie (Engineer Research Office, New York ed.). Leipzig: Quelle & Meyer. OCLC 44818243.
  • Branagan, D. F. (2005). T. W. Edgeworth David: A Life: Geologist, Adventurer, Soldier and "Knight in the old brown hat". Canberra: National Library of Australia. ISBN 0-642-10791-2.
  • Cleland, H. (1918). "The Geologist in War Time: Geology on the Western Front". Economic Geology XIII (2): 145–146. doi:10.2113/gsecongeo.13.2.145. ISSN 0361-0128.
  • Edmonds, J. E. (1991) [1948]. Military Operations France and Belgium, 1917: 7 June – 10 November: Messines and Third Ypres (Passchendaele). History of the Great War Based on Official Documents by Direction of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence II (Imperial War Museum and Battery Press ed.). London: HMSO. ISBN 0-89839-166-0.
  • Holt, Tonie; Holt, Valmai (2014) [1997]. Major & Mrs Holt's Battlefield Guide to the Ypres Salient & Passchendaele. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Books. ISBN 978-0-85052-551-9.
  • Liddell Hart, B. H. (1963) [1930]. The Real War 1914–1918. New York: Little, Brown. ISBN 0-31652-505-7.
  • Passingham, I. (1998). Pillars of Fire: The Battle of Messines Ridge, June 1917. Stroud: Sutton Publishing. ISBN 0-7509-1704-0.
  • Pedersen, P. (2012). ANZACS on the Western Front: The Australian War Memorial Battlefield Guide. (Aus): John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 1-74216-981-3. Retrieved 20 April 2015.
  • Sheldon, J. (2007). The German Army at Passchendaele. London: Pen and Sword. ISBN 1-84415-564-1.
  • Turner, Alexander (2010). Messines 1917: The Zenith of Siege Warfare. Campaign Series (Book 225). Oxford: Osprey. ISBN 978-1-84603-845-7.
  • Wolff, L. (2001) [1958]. In Flanders Fields: Passchendaele 1917. London: Penguin. ISBN 0-14139-079-4.

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Coordinates: 50°45′52″N 2°53′53″E / 50.7644°N 2.8981°E