Page 21 - History of War - Issue 30-16

THE SOMME: 1916–2016

For eight days before 1 July, the Royal
Artillery bombarded the German lines and in
this time over 1.6 million shells were i red. A TUNNELS OF DEATH
British signaller, Harry Wheeler, recalled its
intensity: “Shells bursting all the time, guns
i ring, all the time. Those poor boys who had DIGGING AND PLANTING MINES UNDER THE GERMAN TRENCHES WAS AN IMPORTANT PART
to go through it! I shall never get it out of my OF THE BRITISH STRATEGY, BUT IT WAS EXCEPTIONALLY HARD AND DANGEROUS WORK
memory. Yes, the dance of hell.” On the other
side, Stefan Westmann, a German solider, One of the most dangerous tasks on the Western In June 1916, the British had 32 tunnelling
had to endure the barrage: “Day and night the Front was tunnelling. Like siege mining in companies consisting of 25,000 men. For 1 July,
shells came upon us. Our dugouts crumbled. earlier ages, tunnels were dug to undermine the 17 mines of varying sizes were detonated before
They fell upon us and we had to dig ourselves enemy’s defences, but on an industrial scale. Zero Hour in order to surprise the Germans and
and our comrades out. Sometimes we found Both sides dug under No Man’s Land from occupy the resulting craters before the enemy
them suffocated, sometimes smashed to shafts that were begun far in the rear. Once the could react. Two mines had a combined explosive
pulp… We had nothing to eat or drink, but gallery was long enough, large chambers were content of 100,600 pounds and one of the biggest
constantly, shell after shell burst upon us.” constructed under enemy trenches and illed with was the 1,000-foot-long Hawthorn Redoubt mine.
Although the Germans suffered terribly under explosives. The tunnel was now a gigantic mine It was detonated at 7.20am and ilmed by
the barrage, the bombardment did not have the to be detonated, with the potential to cause great cameraman Geoffrey Malins who said, “The ground
desired effect. It failed to destroy the barbed chaos and destruction. where I stood gave a mighty convulsion. I gripped
wire or many of the Germans’ dugouts and Unlike the noise of the battles above ground, hold of my tripod to steady myself. Then the earth
bunkers, which were reinforced with concrete, tunnellers had to work in complete silence in rose high in the air to the height of hundreds of
and many of the British shells did not detonate order to detect enemy counter-tunnels and to feet. Higher and higher it rose, and with a grinding
upon impact. The British knew none of this, not give away their own positions. The work was roar the earth settled back on itself, leaving in its
however, and by the morning of 1 July it was hot, claustrophobic and laborious. The soil of place a mountain of smoke.”
time for the offensive to begin. the Somme was chalky and the tunnellers would Despite the dramatic explosion, the mine was
have to slowly prize out the chalk, which would detonated too early and the Germans occupied the
‘Zero Hour’ then be caught by hand by another man as it fell. crater before the British could reach it after Zero
Just before 7.30am (code-named ‘Zero Hour’) A successful day’s digging would often not be Hour. Unfortunately, the efforts of the tunnellers did
the barrage suddenly stopped and 17 huge measured in yards, but in inches. not equate to tactical success above ground.
mines were detonated in No Man’s Land
near the German lines. Assembled in miles Right: Tunnellers
laying a charge some
of trenches were three Allied armies, two
time in July 1916. The
British and one French. In total there were ofi cer on the left is
approximately 120,000 men divided into 27 using a geophone, a
divisions ready to attack, of which 80 per cent large stethoscope that
was used to detect
belonged to the BEF. Against them were 16
enemy tunnelling
supposedly destroyed German divisions but the
British were about to receive a nasty shock. Below: The Hawthorn
Throughout the bombardment, the Germans Redoubt mine was
detonated by the British
at 7.20am on 1 July, and
the resulting explosion
was caught on i lm by
Geoffrey Malins

Sunlight in a broken
landscape. The Battle of
the Somme began on a
hot summer’s day, with
minimal cloud cover

21