*VIRTUAL TOUR - The Somme Offensive Continued*

Lochnagar Crater


Lochnagar Mine Crater
The tunnel for the Lochnagar mine was begun by the Men of the 185th Tunnelling Company Royal Engineers (TCRE) on the 11th November 1915; it was completed by the 179th TCRE, who took over in March 1916. The main shaft was sunk from the Communication Trench named Lochnagar Street, it proceeded at an incline between 1:2 and 1:3, to a depth of 95 feet. The tunnel began around 100 yards behind our own Frontline, and at about 50 feet below ground level, a gallery was driven towards the German Strong Point called the Schwaben Höhe, the tunnel extended 300 yards towards the German Frontline. The final depth of the explosives chambers was about 52 feet. In perspective, the German trench was around three yards from the explosive chamber. As the miners advanced closer to the German line, they systematically slowed down; thereby, reducing the noise of the dig. Pickaxes and shovels couldn’t be used; they advanced by prizing lumps of chalk out with their bayonets, the chalk was caught before hitting the ground and passed back for disposal. The miners worked without boots, using sandbags to silence their footsteps, and talking was limited to a whisper. It has been said they could hear the German miners digging below in transversal tunnels.

Chamber one contained 24,000lbs of ammonal, and the other 36,000lbs, making a total of 60,000lbs of high explosives. The mine was detonated by Captain James Young; he pressed the plunger two minutes before Zero hour, at 07:28hrs (-0:02 hour) on the 1st July 1916; the beginning of the Somme Offensive. Spoil from the blast spread over a diameter of 150 yards, obliterating a line of German Frontline trenches for around 100 - 130 yards, including nine dug outs. How many were killed? Who knows! However, it is said that the nine deep dug-outs were each capable of holding an Officer and 35 Men, a total of nine Officers and 315 Men.

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