That the diggers could work for two years with confidence that the German troops would still be in the same spot demonstrates the utter lunacy with which that war was conducted.
Not the war the actual narrator also didn't mention Aussies kiwis South African who are not exactly British the same as Scottish are not English and where in the hell did the allies use kamikaze charges that's a different island empire FYI they didn't even use the highland charge where you paint your face blue then moon the enemy before attacking
I went there on a school trip around 1993 or 94. You were still allowed to go down to the bottom of the crater then. It is quite the sight to see it in real life. One of the girls from my school got half way into the crater, slipped and fractured her wrist. It was still taking casualties over 50 years later.
Went to Hill 60 in 2019 as part of a WWl Australian war tour, very moving day that highlighted the horrors of war and the waste of human life. The land around Hill 60 has been purchased by a ? local to ensure it is preserved for future generations. Even 102 years later, it is quite deep.
It's been over a hundred years since my family was given a Canadian memorial cross, after my uncle Clifford Wilson was killed, fighting with the Canadian expeditionary forces during world war one. He is buried in Tyne Cot cemetery in Belgium. Recently, I was able to donate that memorial cross to the Canadian war museum in Ottawa. It now has a good home. Rest in peace, uncle Clifford.
My great grandfather, a quarter master in the British army with the Royal Munster Fusiliers was at the Messines Ridge. He fought all 4 years. As the story went, he said that seeing the explosion was like seeing the world ending.
Man, that's gotta be the definition of a stalemate when you can start an operation and still have it be relevant and effective when it's finally finished two years later...
Yes sir, Honestly I might not understand how the top dogs fight a war but once hill 60 was taken i would have burrried more explosives since the hill seemed so important to both sides and once the explosives were in place I would have had most troops retreat and done something to make it seem unprotected or whatever was possible to convince the Germans to rerake the hill give them a day or so to move more people and supplies back into place before i unleashed round 2 if the first 1 want enough im sure a second 1 so close in time would have been enough to make anyone seriously reconsider a stay at hill 60 trench inn. Sorry last part was a down hill joke I know how bad that was for everyone but why not just mine your line then fall back or retreat make it look good then blow that up has to be easier and quicker then 2 years of work
You can imagine perhaps for the British it would have been a string of colonial conflicts such as the Anglo Zulu war and then the Anglo Boer War which was a pre cursor a taste of things to come. The first time the British Army was actually faced with an opposition that had rifles and artillery. When the B.E.F.reached Belgium/ France they were with faced technology that was to transform warfare forever although some of the tactics employed were very much outdated.
my great-grandfather fought in Verdun. He was shot in the chest, but lived to the old age of 88. He died before I was born, but according to my grandma he had enormous PTSD from it. RIP Wilhelm Krevet 1888-1977.
I knew a Yorkshire miner who dug one of the Messines mines. He was also one of the real men whose lives Sebastian Faulks heavily romanticised in 'Birdsong'; they fought a desperate, horrible and unimaginably brutal running battle with German counter-sappers. The stories he told me were genuinely macabre, not least because he and all his pals met the experience with profoundly black humour. It was probably the only way to remain even half-way sane. Like everyone else in his section he came from a small pit village between Doncaster and Barnsley. When the war ended he went home and immediately went back underground--working for first a private company and then the NCB for another forty years. He eventually was forced to retire, although he didn't want to and died just short of ninety in October 1986. I still miss him.
I know why he didn't want to retire. He wanted to stay busy as much as he could, so as not to think, not look back. Eventually, having a lot of idle time on his hands, time that only could be spent reminiscing and contemplating the traumatic past events was what killed him.
@@rasklaat2 There was probably an amount of that in effect. His time in the army certainly never left him and he would always ask me to take him to the local war memorial on Poppy Sunday to lay a wreath and remember his friends who didn't leave the tunnels in Flanders. Some of the stories he told me when I was old enough... It is _impossible_ to truly understand how brutal, how absolutely savage a war they had underground in the Sappers. I have heard Russians say the entrenching tool was the weapon they used most at Stalingrad. For the chaps digging the mines under Messines it was a cut-off pick... I am certain it was only the sense of comradeship and the black humour they all displayed that kept them going.
Imagine Being in a German trench and seeing the explosions getting closer and closer to your position, must have been terrifying. IIRC a lot of the miners were from Welsh mining towns.
@@lurchy No they weren't. It was started by the 175th Tunneling company (British), finished by the 3rd Canadian Tunneling company and then maintained by the 1st Australian Tunneling company from 1916, including the Battle of Messinines were the explosives were eventually triggered.
Kind of true. While I am interested in the subject of this video, I'd say, speak a little slower while narrating it. That way it's more pleasant to listen to.
The speed just sets a great mood. When I first started watching these videos his narration pissed me off and at that time he would place an ad every couple of minutes. I was done. Unsubbed and never watched him again. He’s also sometimes wrong about the history of what he’s covering. I’m still not re-subbed. I enjoy this content and he puts A LOT of work into these but I’m just kind of holding a grudge I guess.
Gentlemen I’ve gentlemen I’ve called this meeting today to know whether history will be changed tomorrow or whether we will change the geography but I know that this we will change both after this is done
Sadly it was the australian tunneling company who pulled this off not the British.. fucken sigh same as Gallipoli sending us to out deaths and taking the claim fucken poms
The Union Army tried this at the siege of Petersburg / Richmond VA. It went very badly for the Union. Although they blew a hole in the Confederate lines, the crater was so deep that the Union soldiers who tried to take advantage of the breach were unable to scale the opposite side. They were trapped inside the crater and gunned down. The crater is still there to this day 150+ years later.
My late grandfather, Herbert Shelley, as a member of the Royal Engineers, actually helped to build that mine. I only learned about it, long after his death, from a cousin in the Australian army. Grandad never, ever mentioned it.
Sometimes it’s necessary though. The Germans started something they shouldn’t have....twice. You can’t blame people for devising ways to defend themselves or protect their allies from an army that seeks to conquer them.
Some of the mines were deliberately left abandoned and unexploded because the Germans had moved their lines. But in 17 July 1955, Lightning struck a pylon above one abandoned mine and unleashed a colossal explosion underground, leaving a crater 20 metres deep and 40 metres wide. Other mines remain lost with as much as 80 tonnes of explosive still in them waiting to be found.
@@yearginclarke Things like that are pretty scary. Want to know something even worse? The US has lost 6 nuclear bombs, a few bombers and transport planes went missing, and they never found the planes and their payload.
@@lewisvargrson Damn that is pretty crazy...now that you say that, I think a tv show I saw one time mentioned some lost nukes. You wouldn't normally think it would be all that likely to lose something like a nuke!
So much history that is not known. It's sad to think that over 104 years later, people are still finding out that these things happened. This is the type of history we should be learning in school.
I was out of school almost 10 yrs. before reading about how redundant and a literal waste of human life WWI was. Wiped out literally a generation of men. Explains why France Pussed out in worse way when Germans invaded in WWII. France out gunned, out manned, and had the bombers to wipe out Panzers before they even got thru Ardennes. Insane.
The same thing was done on a smaller scale at the "Battle of the Crater" in the American Civil War. Though in that case a general that had no part in the planning stuck his big nose in, changed the battle plan at the last moment and turned a major victory into a major defeat.
The entirety of world history and knowledge cannot be learned in a hundred lifetimes, and not all that you or I think important can be included in the educational curriculum.
This is one of the most dramatic Dark Docs that I’ve watched. Thank you for delivering this interesting content! What a sad thing war is, all the time, everywhere.
Amen. Haig should have been fired after the first day of the Somme. I would agree that right there was when all European Monarchs lost their moral authority.
"The young men thought they would carry out the war with Napoleonic tactics, and rush home to show off their medals..." In the early days of the American Civil War, crowds gathered on the hills overlooking the battlefields, with umbrellas and picnic baskets to watch the heroic contests. That habit didn't last long, as the screams of the wounded and the blood of the dead stained the land...
Still how it is. Americans glorify war until they get into it because they spend their whole lives propagandizing themselves to become warriors and whatever. Dudes thought Iraq 2 would be like Desert storm and ended up there for 15 yearrs.
I wish I knew why the author chooses to have the narration read at an accelerated rate, albeit with significant pauses between phrases. The script itself is competently written and the editing is fine. I'm just like, dude what's the rush?
I'm surprised you didn't talk about the mines that didn't go off. One went off in the mid 2000's due to a lightning strike and 1 or 2 are still out there ready to go off even 100 years later.
There are in fact still 5 abandoned, unexploded mines charges under Messines, three of which contain over 30,000 pounds of explosives. Over two of them people unknowingly build farms.
Yep. There are some areas where you are NOT allowed to go. Period. If a developer wanted to build there...........the city council would ask if he has a suicide wish. There is a special on TH-cam where some people wanted to search for the German and British trenches from WW1 before developers put in new housing. They found the trenches from both sides. They also found the skeletons of two French Soldiers from WW1 forgotten about.😢 They carefully recorded everything and repatriated the remains and artifacts back to France for proper burial and attempted identification. In Russia, civilians run an non-profit organization to recover, ID, and give WW2 vets proper burial. The Russian State claims all have been found......flat out lies. Apparently Germany discreetly is doing the same. Those soldiers paid the ultimate price. It’s time to allow them some peace.
@@bobspizza7444 Different kind of mines. These are underground mines that were filled with explosives. You’re referring to land mines, which are planted just beneath the surface and intended to kill anybody who stepped on them. And yes, many people are killed every year by stepping on those things.
Something that wasn't mentioned, one of the mines was only 18 inches from being discovered by a German countermining team during the planning stages. 2nd Army's commander General Plummer absolutely refused to blow up the mine despite the panicked orders comming in from his superiors and he was validated by the results. There were other details that were not mentioned how the planned offensive was almost botched by meddling from higher command but Plummer completely disregarded all of them and used his own judgements and that of his officers. A testament to his strength of character when so many against their own better judgement give in to insidious pressure.
My grandfather fought at Passchendaele (the third battle of Ypres), and I have visited the battlefields, including the crater…it is truly incredible looking more like an asteroid hit.
My Great grandfather fought there too (2nd and 3rd battles from memory) I had to get the info for a reporter here in Australia that was doing a story on him for ANZAC day. All before those 2 large battles, he'd already won the Military Medal for saving his position from a flamethrower crew that surprised them , most were burned , the rest ran , but Frank jumped on the MG and drove them off , only a couple made it back to German Lines. After that he was ..... err .... none to happy with the Germans , and as a highly educated guy, he wrote alot about the Germans and thier lust for war (his words , not mine) and about all facets of WW1 , and how Germany will try it again first chance they get .......... well he lived till 1983 , so he saw his prediction come true .... which his son (my grandfather) fought in. He was one of the small 1000'ish troops in the first wave on the Kokoda track.
I’ve been to the actual crater where this happened, cameras just don’t do it justice, the whole is so deep and steep that people who fall in have to be pulled out with ropes as it’s impossible to climb out
My only complaint...is the narration could be slowed down a bit, without having to lower the playback speed, the speed this guy talks, can sometimes make it difficult to hear it all properly. Love ya doco's but please lower the narattion speed.
Of the 19 mines, only 17 were detonated during the operation (2 failed to detonate). In about the 70s one of the remaining mines was detonated by a lightning strike killing a cow. One mine remains undetonated to this day.
Great video. One question? Did you speed up or voice or do you always talk that fast? It makes hearing and understanding you rather difficult at points.
Best way to learn history is through movies and tv shows like that, might be some inaccuracies, but you can research it after. I only prefer this because you get to see the emotion in the events, and I know they're actors, but connecting emotion to history is the best way to not only remember the events, but learn from it as well.
Did you considerably slowed down your narration? The new vids are at least 3 minutes longer than usual, and the story telling feels disjointed at times. Still, a thumbs up for historical content and learning. Thanks!
I remember reading up and one of the stories is that when a British officer went to the lines after the explosions, the only sign of any recognition of the enemy was a foot in a boot
War is hell. I still cant ever comprehend how WWll, Korean, and Vietnam veterans say to me they cant imagine fighting in the wars I have. I can't usually even find words to respond with because I CANT IMAGINE fighting in those wars. To me they were so much more hellish than anything i did.
@@kirillholt2329 but the troops im NAm' as you say actually faced 10+ days of combat for every 1 a ww2 soldier did..now, if you are a merchant marine then yeah, the world wars sucked....and the battles sucked...but actual days being shot at and shooting compared to utter boredom Vietnam was much more intense. Then there was the shitty homecoming for the nam vets compared to ww2 vets being " "heroes" Vietnam was the US trying to dictate policy to another country by force and pure evil from the brass.....but the troops on the ground were mostly only there because they had no choice one way or another
Great film based upon the actions of Australian Miners sent in to oversee these deep mines. It’s called “Beneath Hill 60” and it’s on TH-cam. Well worth a watch.
Yes it was Australian troops idea to do it but the British take all the credit . Same deal in Libya with Rommel the Australian and NZ corp desert rats shut down Rommel's supply lines but the British take all the credit .
@@jvalentine8376 if you actually look into the history of the tunnels it was British tunnellers who started it first , and the Aussies came afterwards. The anzacs in WW2 are given credit for fighting in north Africa as in the troops who fought at Tobruk.
@@TheHighSpaceWizard They do though. I've seen plenty of times where a new video has shown up on my front page, only to change photo/title in the first hour or so of publication. It's the same video, but at first it looks like the one you first saw notice of got removed.
During WW1 they were digging tunnels to each other’s trenches. They had equipment to try to sense if the enemy was doing it to! A few times they dug right into each other and battles with small handguns picks, shovels, and fists were fought underground. They say WW1 was “no big deal”. I beg to differ.
@@kidofsteel0362 -WWI in terms of the style of warfare was the most savage and brutal of all wars. The absolute disregard of the value of human life for our soldiers and theirs beggars belief.
A footnote in history to civilization no politicians were killed in the making of this war and none were ever prosecuted. Despite the millions of lost lives and destroyed families as well.Which is usual
The Germans were digging tunnels at the same time, unfortunately for them the British miners got there first, the miners had to be as quiet as possible so as to avoid detection. Those British miners were exceptionally talented and skilled workers. They should be recognised for that, mining was also VERY hard work in those days.
It was the Australian Third Division commander General Monash who designed this. The mines were organised under Monash's broad plan by his son in law whom he had known since a boy and whom he mentored to learn mining engineering. Monash was a civil engineer of high ability as well as his military background. The New Zealand division and the British 25th division were there too.
Sir John Monash also invented combined arms warfare, it was first used to full scale in the battle of Hemel it was so successful Monash was able to provide front line fighters a hot meal, it was also the first land loss the Germans had faced in ww1.
@@sharpshooter_Aus He also was the first to use Creeping Barrage, Tanks to carry ammunition etc. He was a meticulous planner, he estimated that it would take 40 minutes to take Hemel, it was taken approximately in 43 minutes. He was Knighted in the field by the British King.
@@kristinehayes4885 You’re correct about everything apart from the time it was estimated to be 90 minutes and was 92. He was the first the be knighted in battle in 200 years and is still the last to be knighted in the field of battle.
There were no “Kamikaze charges” against enemy lines. No soldier had the deliberate intention of giving his life as those serving the Japanese Emperor in the final stages of WWII.
@@TiddyTwyster Neither of which happened... despite the myths. Because that is what they are, myths. Bayonets were fixed, by both sides before an assault, but that was because you did not want to be fixing the fucking thing when you dropped into the enemy trench and it WAS actually time for hand to hand combat, which happened a fair amount in the initial period of clearing an enemy trench. Better to have it fixed ready. Other than that however, while troops did have to move fast most of these straight up charges at the enemy you see in period films are staged. Men WOULD in fact use shell holes as cover, return fire, dash to the next shell hole and so on. Later on in the war they would move in platoons, with the platoon machine gunners setting up base of fires to cover the rest of the platoon on the assault. You did not want to spend to much time in no mans land however for one simple reason, the enemy artillery WOULD hit no mans land with a defensive barrage, not might, WOULD. You really did NOT want to be outside a trench, even if it was an enemy one, when that defensive barrage landed. THATS why men tried to get across no mans land as quickly as possible. Most attacks broken up in no mans land were not in fact broken up by machineguns, but by artillery. Being held up in no mans land by a machinegun? Its not the machinegun that will kill most of those men, but the artillery that lands because they were held up BY that machinegun....
I had American relatives who fought on the front in WW1 and WW2. I know I lost two great grandfathers- one in Voralberg, Austria and the other in Italy- both from the Tyrolian Alps. How many other relatives, Americans, Scottish, Welsh, English, Irish, French, Australians, Dutch, Belgians, Austrians, Czechs, Germans, etc. were killed I may never know. The loss to their families and to me is depressing. I was a Marine Corps dependent from age five to twenty-one. I appreciate the bravery and sacrifice of the men and women who fought and also those who perished. Thanks for recording the history and for the reminder.
My grandmother's first cousin and close friend died in WW1 from a similar mine on June 2, 1916, placed by the Germans. His was a Canadian named Beverly Cunliffe Powys, age 20. His body was never recovered and he is honored at Menin Gate near Ypres. I believe there were several similar undermining events in WW1.
New Zealand tunnelling companies were also involved. As a small country back then, we (Australia) lost so many young men in that wretched war it had a huge impact on us as a nation. It's been said trench conditions in WW1 were far worse than WW2 battle fronts. Terrible.
@@channelsixtysix066 even at its worst the USA is still the most free place on earth. I have my guns. Can defend my home. I can grow my own food. Make my own choices. Soo 🖕🏻🇺🇸
@@channelsixtysix066 lol. No. But god did not make all men equal.. mr Colt did. If I’ve got 4 armed intruders coming in the house. And I’ve got my large family in danger. I have 6 girls and 2 boys. I want all the fire power I can muster.
Great content, thanks for bringing all this to our knowledge 👍 if you could improve the way the stories are being narrated, it would hugely improve the quality, why that stressed and overly fast speaking?
Lord Kitchener recruited the youth from towns with the promise they would fight together . These were known as Pals Brigades . The great tragedy if a Pals Brigade had significant losses , the youth of a town could be gone . .
Fun fact about the tunnels is that each side communicated with each other. This was also known on vimy ridge when Candian sappers asked the German sappers to not use grenades for couple of days.
Canadian : "Whatever you do gerries don't throw grenade to us if you want to live" Germans : "Surely you jest! Hmmm... Hey Hans, isn't it strange request? What could that possibly mean?"
That last shot of the crater, It wouldn't take much to make it look like an eye An eye looking back to the past, to make SURE that we never have to re-live that type of horror
The 1917 Halifax explosion was a huge explosion. The collision of the ammunition ship Mont Blanc with another ship in the Halifax harbor was like a small tactical nuclear explosion. At least 2,000 people were killed with over 10,000 wounded. So this explosion was very large with Robert Oppenheimer studying it for the atomic bomb clouds.
If you try to point out all the mistakes in Dark Docs videos you’re going to need a bigger internet. You’re better off pointing out the videos that don’t have mistakes (hint, there are none)
Back in Spring of 1970, I was in EOD in Vietnam. When the army entered Cambodia, a very large cache of ammunition was discovered. Much of it was backhauled to S. Vietnam, and due to the political situation, there was insufficient time to evacuate all of it. EOD was tasked to destroy the remainder. It was one detonation of stacks of ammunition tied together with detonating cord to produce a single explosion. My job ended up as the person to calculate how much was destroyed. After 2 weeks work with a stubby pencil, I came up with a quantity of 171.1 Tons. This was the explosive weight of the ordnance destroyed, not the total ordnance weight. In my remaining 18 years in EOD, I was involved in many detonations involving 5000 to 25000 pounds, but nothing compared with the one in Cambodia.
@@codyg7936 Are you kidding me? Did you seriously imagine I believed the Germans would have, on the same day as the detonation of the mine, identified all the dead and missing AND, notified their next of kin. Oh dear .....
Absolutely hilarious. I bet the wifes, sons and daughters of those 10000 as well as of the millions of others on all sides who perished in this war would certainly have agreed.
My grandfather, as an officer of engineers, was one of those involved in commanding the operation, enlisting a year too young by lying about his age to recruiters. He was wounded, mentioned repeatedly in despatches and, well decorated, he returned to the front several times after having bullets/shrapnel removed. Later he continued a military career most of his life, served all over the Empire and retired a very senior officer who, as an Irishman, somehow managed to run a very successful whisky export business along the way. Quite a man, but what struck me most was when he grew senile, was well into his 90s, and almost all he repeated was being in a water filled shell hole in no man's land with three rotting German corpses - he was stuck in there for three days and nights, wounded, before being helped to safety. He fought all through the second WW, too. Ironically, I had family on both sides. So sad. So many good men maimed and killed. And it stuns me now to see countries feeding the war in Ukraine, attempts at negotiation stymied by warmongering scum like Johnson, provoking an escalation which could see our children taken from us, perhaps roasted alive in flame in front of us.
Are you intentionally suggesting that it would have been better to cede Europe to Germany? Seems like you might just be mindlessly venting, but it’s hard to tell.
@@stevenharder308 if at any point you have anything funny, interesting or intelligent to add, or even perhaps reach a level of basic comprehension, I'm all ears.
@@gurglejug627 your grandfather was a hero for going to Europe to fight off two consecutive German incursions into neighboring countries, and you’re “stunned” that the West is “feeding” the war in Ukraine? Listen to yourself.
Highly suggest the movie "The War Below" it's about the British miners who were contracted too dig the tunnels in which the mines were detonated. I believe a few of them died in the process. True heroes
10,000 sons, brothers, fathers, uncles, and nephews that never got to go home, in a war that may have been the least good vs evil war in modern history, or ever.
My Grandad was wounded at Messines on 7th June 1917 by shrapnel, he was lucky he only lost one finger and returned to England, otherwise i may not be here at all. thanks 3rd battalion Worc's.
I am way over 40 years of age - been a WW2 student since the age of 13. Thanks to TH-cam over the last decade - I am constantly amazed at how many battles , engagements and even war crimes have been obfuscated , hidden or down right covered up by ALL sides of the conflict's governments , "news" outlets and court historians...actually frightening to learn the truth.
I visited one of the craters for these explosions. You cannot understand how large these blasts were until you see the holes in the ground they have left behind.
@@kasperkjrsgaard1447 I wasn't comparing the two. These videos are for everyone. Felton's vids are for the audience who studies the history of warfare and are looking to learn something they don't already know.
I feel so sorry for all those young Germans and their families. As I know from my own family, the effects of such deaths ripple down the generations. It's no joke when you go to the battlefields and see the cemeteries, both allied and German. What a waste. A huge failure of diplomacy and international politics. Like today and climate change or authoritarianism or economic fairness etc.?
Perhaps Greta and her loyal army of tough SJW maniacs would have prevented that catastrophe, just like they are obsessed fighting against megalomaniac Putins massive Co2 contamination and other environmental devastating actions ..?
The war caused unnecessary, brutal, grisly clashes and violent, nightmarish murders no matter which country someone came from. And just as it was with World War II, some of them were never okay again, regardless of physical injury. One of my father's uncles came home from World War II with severe mental trauma.
Not all these mines did explode !!! There is still at least one and most probably two of these mines in the underground in Zonnebeke waiting for an accident to happen!!!
1 confirmed, but they say there is likely many still under the dirt.. There's a documentary on TH-cam that specifically focuses on the miners that dug the mines and they even explore a couple of the shafts that have been dug and they even find an explosive charge still in one.
We love you Aussies and Kiwis as well. My dad was in the U.S. Air Force and we spent 2 1/2 years down under in Woomera. Much respect from another American.
Birdcage mines 1, 2, 3 and 4 were not fired. In 1955 Birdcage mine 3 exploded by a lightning strike. A farm now sits on top of one of the mines. If and when the others explode no one can tell.
That crater is still there, ive been to the bottom of it. The explosion would have created a vacuum, which sucked in more soldiers not directly hit by the blast. Before the earth that was up in the air then came back down and buried them. There are also examples of some of these tunnels that were never detonated at Vimmy Ridge. One of them has a shell sticking through the ceiling that didn't detonate.
They watched the opportunity too It was so devastatingly effective they could have collapsed the entire line, by advancing behind the lines, cutting them off and having them surrender But nobody has planned for it going this well Also, several of the mines didn't detonate Every so often a lighting strike will set off one of the mines.
There is a great book called The War Underground by Alexander Barrie all about the mining in Belgium. Details encounters between soldiers when they discovered enemy tunnels and has a in depth description of Messines.
@@scatdog1 I give him a pass. He is trying to get a lot of info in a short period of time. I think he posts in 1.5x his actual speaking voice....editing tricks kind of thing. But he hits the right spot for all the algorithm purposes. This type of detailed content is difficult to make.
@@boblablablaw6677 Yes but I would be willing to bet he loses more viewers because of his style. I watch other content that isn’t as interesting but has way more subscribers. Apparently he doesn’t give a shit or he would have more subscribers. People are lazy.. they don’t want to have to work at trying to understand what’s being said. Just my humble opinion.
@@uzurpon Yeah I’ve done that bro... but he sounds like he’s done a few too many Xanax. I’ll probably still occasionally watch but I did unsubscribe to the channel. It’s just fucking childish to me ... I’m old .
My grandfather told me he was 5 miles away when they blow up the Messines ridge. He was asleep in a dugout in his bunk. The vibrations from the blast and noise knocked him out of his bunk from 5 miles away.
The munitions and blasts changed entire landscapes. A few areas look “so nice with all the trees, brush, grass, and little ponds everywhere”. Until you realize each “little pond” is an impact site for a bomb. That landscape is a mass grave. Not a park. 1 battlefield is estimated to hold the shattered unrecoverable remains of 40,000 soldiers. The soils were so muddied by the blasts injured men were buried alive when they sank in. The same fate happened to horses and a massive cannon. Now we just have chemical bombs and atomic bombs. War. War never Changes.
My maternal grandfather was in the U.S. Army in WW1. According to my mom, he had some horrendous stories to tell. I sometimes wish I could have heard them. He died when I was very young so I barely remember him. It's too bad none of these men are around anymore so we can hear their stories as well.
It’s a strained vocal technique but it is also processed to hell and back with compression and hard limiting. Actually it’s quite fatiguing to listen to. Worthy video though.
Been to the craters they’re massive, but what shocked me the most is the photos of decapitated horse heads impaled by tree branches by explosives/ artillery... ww1 was something different
What's scary to think is, the pictures we see, as shocking as they are, they're black and white, stench free and a bit detached from the actual horror. Imagine being a soldier living in that, the smell of death and cordite filling your nostrils. Mud, blood and body part-mixed pools, and seeing shards of wood, metal and bone strewn around the place. I'm amazed they could still muster a smile after experiencing that, yet they lived on, on to another horror show 30 years later.
My great grandfather was a British sapper in the great war. He didn't speak of his work for years after the war untill he was in his 80s then he told my mother about clay kicking and the time he and two other men were tunneling under the lines and the side of the tunnel collapsed and two german tunnelers were standing there spades in hand ,a fight broke out and my great grandfather had to kill them both with the edge of his spade.
I'd never heard about this before. How tragic that war was! I can't imagine being one of those 10,000 soldiers killed that way. What a way to go! Great video, as always! Please keep the outstanding videos coming and God bless you and your team, my friend!
There are the remnants of horrific mine explosions in the Dolomites, where the Italians and Austrians fought for dominance. Because the tunnels were in Limestone many still survive and are open to explore along with the cable protected mountain paths that served the fighting and much surviving debris of war. Due to the retreat of the glaciers every year more bodies of combatants are recovered.
In which way did those soldiers die more horrified than any other soldiers killed in action? In my world you're either dead or alive. Do you think you're gone philosophical consider how shitty one sort of explosion, may be compared to another one? How about the fact an instant death was, and still is a pretty mild and acceptable way to die?
@@OmmerSyssel as a former army medic I’d say instant death in a massive mine explosion is preferable to being gut shot and dying slowly over several days in a shell hole in no man’s land.
@@Crashed131963 It was not "french mine" in Halifax; it was US and Canadian weappons, ammunitions and explosive sold to the french and allied forces, loaded on a french boat on his way to the front.
The yield of this is estimated to be just short of the Beirut explosion, puts into context how awful it would have been on the German lines. No soldier deserves to die without any way to defend themselves or even prepare a defence
There is an amazing movie on Netflix about this, can't remember what it was called but it gave me even more respect for our men who fought for us in those horrible conditions.
That was the best to date. The production values, and care taken are evident, but my one request is, please, just slow down in speech, just the smallest amount. I had to rewatch a few sections, as it really clashed with the background music and the quick diction of the accent, made it hard work... Thanks man!
![เปิด อาณาจักร หมื่นล้าน "สาระตั้ม" l [Nickynachat]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/3XE0nPF4YkQ/mqdefault.jpg)
That the diggers could work for two years with confidence that the German troops would still be in the same spot demonstrates the utter lunacy with which that war was conducted.
Seriously though...horrendous on so many levels.
Well spoken.
Not the war the actual narrator also didn't mention Aussies kiwis South African who are not exactly British the same as Scottish are not English and where in the hell did the allies use kamikaze charges that's a different island empire FYI they didn't even use the highland charge where you paint your face blue then moon the enemy before attacking
Yep, WW1 just a stupid pissing contest...
The Belgian city of Flanders😂
I went there on a school trip around 1993 or 94. You were still allowed to go down to the bottom of the crater then. It is quite the sight to see it in real life. One of the girls from my school got half way into the crater, slipped and fractured her wrist. It was still taking casualties over 50 years later.
more like 80 years later
At the same time some ammo techs were still being killed by mustard gas munitions in an old ammo dump In Bramley, Hants.
Went to Hill 60 in 2019 as part of a WWl Australian war tour, very moving day that highlighted the horrors of war and the waste of human life. The land around Hill 60 has been purchased by a ? local to ensure it is preserved for future generations. Even 102 years later, it is quite deep.
@@genwoolfe Once in a while they still find that stuff in Washington DC.
78. Energies must be still around..
It's been over a hundred years since my family was given a Canadian memorial cross, after my uncle Clifford Wilson was killed, fighting with the Canadian expeditionary forces during world war one. He is buried in Tyne Cot cemetery in Belgium. Recently, I was able to donate that memorial cross to the Canadian war museum in Ottawa. It now has a good home. Rest in peace, uncle Clifford.
Im in Ottawa and visit the museum once in a while. I'll keep an eye out.
Canadians the real Gs of this war
@@UnkleBotVery true.
I visited Tynecot cemetery to pay my respects to the fallen.
Thank you Clifford for your service. Lest we forget.
My great grandfather, a quarter master in the British army with the Royal Munster Fusiliers was at the Messines Ridge. He fought all 4 years. As the story went, he said that seeing the explosion was like seeing the world ending.
I wonder how he would have reacted to being an observer at the first A bomb explosion?
@@gangleweed change the original comments "was" to "is" and that's practically his reaction.
It must have been an incredible sight
Incredible, thanks for sharing and my admiration to your great grandfather.
YOU ! Could say the SAME ! FOR ! JAPAN ! TOO !!
Man, that's gotta be the definition of a stalemate when you can start an operation and still have it be relevant and effective when it's finally finished two years later...
Yes sir, Honestly I might not understand how the top dogs fight a war but once hill 60 was taken i would have burrried more explosives since the hill seemed so important to both sides and once the explosives were in place I would have had most troops retreat and done something to make it seem unprotected or whatever was possible to convince the Germans to rerake the hill give them a day or so to move more people and supplies back into place before i unleashed round 2 if the first 1 want enough im sure a second 1 so close in time would have been enough to make anyone seriously reconsider a stay at hill 60 trench inn. Sorry last part was a down hill joke I know how bad that was for everyone but why not just mine your line then fall back or retreat make it look good then blow that up has to be easier and quicker then 2 years of work
Trench warfare is always a stalemate.
@Alex Gibbs iraq - iran war,
@Alex Gibbs russo-japanese war?
@@ar-gaming9014 have you been watching Youjo Senki? They actually use that tactic there
Being a soldier in ww1 must have been absolutely terrifying….
You can't blame them for coming home with "Battle Fatigue" or "Shell Shock."
You can imagine perhaps for the British it would have been a string of colonial conflicts such as the Anglo Zulu war and then the Anglo Boer War which was a pre cursor a taste of things to come. The first time the British Army was actually faced with an opposition that had rifles and artillery. When the B.E.F.reached Belgium/ France they were with faced technology that was to transform warfare forever although some of the tactics employed were very much outdated.
my great-grandfather fought in Verdun. He was shot in the chest, but lived to the old age of 88. He died before I was born, but according to my grandma he had enormous PTSD from it.
RIP Wilhelm Krevet 1888-1977.
it was murder to say the least ....
@@GeoStreber verdun and the Somme were human meat grinders.
I knew a Yorkshire miner who dug one of the Messines mines. He was also one of the real men whose lives Sebastian Faulks heavily romanticised in 'Birdsong'; they fought a desperate, horrible and unimaginably brutal running battle with German counter-sappers. The stories he told me were genuinely macabre, not least because he and all his pals met the experience with profoundly black humour. It was probably the only way to remain even half-way sane.
Like everyone else in his section he came from a small pit village between Doncaster and Barnsley. When the war ended he went home and immediately went back underground--working for first a private company and then the NCB for another forty years. He eventually was forced to retire, although he didn't want to and died just short of ninety in October 1986. I still miss him.
Probably had an interesting perspective on life.
I know why he didn't want to retire. He wanted to stay busy as much as he could, so as not to think, not look back. Eventually, having a lot of idle time on his hands, time that only could be spent reminiscing and contemplating the traumatic past events was what killed him.
@@rasklaat2 There was probably an amount of that in effect. His time in the army certainly never left him and he would always ask me to take him to the local war memorial on Poppy Sunday to lay a wreath and remember his friends who didn't leave the tunnels in Flanders.
Some of the stories he told me when I was old enough... It is _impossible_ to truly understand how brutal, how absolutely savage a war they had underground in the Sappers. I have heard Russians say the entrenching tool was the weapon they used most at Stalingrad. For the chaps digging the mines under Messines it was a cut-off pick... I am certain it was only the sense of comradeship and the black humour they all displayed that kept them going.
MAN.
That entire situation is so far outside of anything I have experienced or can even comprehend. Any examples of what they found humor in down there?
Imagine Being in a German trench and seeing the explosions getting closer and closer to your position, must have been terrifying. IIRC a lot of the miners were from Welsh mining towns.
the opposite of retreat mining!!
might want to do your research, most of those tunnels were dug by austrailian "diggers"
@@lurchy No they weren't.
It was started by the 175th Tunneling company (British), finished by the 3rd Canadian Tunneling company and then maintained by the 1st Australian Tunneling company from 1916, including the Battle of Messinines were the explosives were eventually triggered.
Who cares who dug them, we were on the same side ffs, they lived and died together and would probably be ashamed of the cock measuring on here.
@@leehanson8658 well said.
If you want to hear what he says more clearly, set the play speed on 0.75.
Seriously, this guy's narration is terrible.
LOL? I was getting tired............of waiting............at each of the.....................long pauses.............between words.
Kind of true. While I am interested in the subject of this video, I'd say, speak a little slower while narrating it. That way it's more pleasant to listen to.
The speed just sets a great mood. When I first started watching these videos his narration pissed me off and at that time he would place an ad every couple of minutes. I was done. Unsubbed and never watched him again. He’s also sometimes wrong about the history of what he’s covering. I’m still not re-subbed. I enjoy this content and he puts A LOT of work into these but I’m just kind of holding a grudge I guess.
If he didn't talk so fast he wouldn't need to leave such long pauses!
Gentleman, I do not know whether we will change history tomorrow, but we will certainly change the geography.
Spoken like a true British solider.
Yeah, the geography will be remade in british eyes and in british name.
*I dont even get how they fit in those little tunnels, WITH SUCH HUGE BALLS*
*True fucking KINGS!!!*
Gentlemen I’ve gentlemen I’ve called this meeting today to know whether history will be changed tomorrow or whether we will change the geography but I know that this we will change both after this is done
Men....Keep a stiff upper lip. But for godsakes don't touch your upper lip....your hands are all covered in dirt!
Sadly it was the australian tunneling company who pulled this off not the British.. fucken sigh same as Gallipoli sending us to out deaths and taking the claim fucken poms
The Union Army tried this at the siege of Petersburg / Richmond VA. It went very badly for the Union. Although they blew a hole in the Confederate lines, the crater was so deep that the Union soldiers who tried to take advantage of the breach were unable to scale the opposite side. They were trapped inside the crater and gunned down. The crater is still there to this day 150+ years later.
Damn bro that's rough
They were supposed to go around the crater. Not run into it.
@@dustylover100 3%... That's all it takes to take America, 3% of it's own population.
@Dapper Canuck Yes?
@Dapper Canuck stupid statement
My late grandfather, Herbert Shelley, as a member of the Royal Engineers, actually helped to build that mine. I only learned about it, long after his death, from a cousin in the Australian army. Grandad never, ever mentioned it.
Herbert the Pervert
Humanity's capacity of finding ways to kill each other, is truly mindblowing
idk "use a big bomb" is pretty basic
@@stndunnam ikr 😅
Sometimes it’s necessary though. The Germans started something they shouldn’t have....twice. You can’t blame people for devising ways to defend themselves or protect their allies from an army that seeks to conquer them.
Literally mind blowing
Thank the period's media for pushing the narrative to war......THAT always comes first.
Forget sides: 10,000 soldiers dead in 5 minutes Jesus Christ.
Thousands more left wandering around the battlefield, completely confused and traumatised, trying to surrender.
While the leaders and Industrialists sat at Home, smoked cigar and drank and ate spectacularly.. Nothins changed
But they had a blast.
Dude bro the venue was bomb
All over some weird diplomatic technicalities.
Some of the mines were deliberately left abandoned and unexploded because the Germans had moved their lines. But in 17 July 1955, Lightning struck a pylon above one abandoned mine and unleashed a colossal explosion underground, leaving a crater 20 metres deep and 40 metres wide. Other mines remain lost with as much as 80 tonnes of explosive still in them waiting to be found.
Wow didn't know that. That's pretty scary!
@@yearginclarke Things like that are pretty scary. Want to know something even worse? The US has lost 6 nuclear bombs, a few bombers and transport planes went missing, and they never found the planes and their payload.
@@lewisvargrson Damn that is pretty crazy...now that you say that, I think a tv show I saw one time mentioned some lost nukes. You wouldn't normally think it would be all that likely to lose something like a nuke!
Wrong
Some didn’t blow up
And yes still there
And yes lighting did set one off
Wrong
So much history that is not known.
It's sad to think that over 104 years later, people are still finding out that these things happened.
This is the type of history we should be learning in school.
Amen!
I was out of school almost 10 yrs. before reading about how redundant and a literal waste of human life WWI was. Wiped out literally a generation of men. Explains why France Pussed out in worse way when Germans invaded in WWII. France out gunned, out manned, and had the bombers to wipe out Panzers before they even got thru Ardennes. Insane.
The same thing was done on a smaller scale at the "Battle of the Crater" in the American Civil War. Though in that case a general that had no part in the planning stuck his big nose in, changed the battle plan at the last moment and turned a major victory into a major defeat.
We used to
The entirety of world history and knowledge cannot be learned in a hundred lifetimes, and not all that you or I think important can be included in the educational curriculum.
I asked, begged andwaited for simple history to do a video on this, and they did not. I am so thankful that you did. This event CANNOT be forgotten
This is one of the most dramatic Dark Docs that I’ve watched. Thank you for delivering this interesting content!
What a sad thing war is, all the time, everywhere.
All so that, as Blackadder said:
"General Haig can move his drinks trolley four inches closer to Berlin."
Many a true word spoken in jest.
WIBBLE
Amen. Haig should have been fired after the first day of the Somme. I would agree that right there was when all European Monarchs lost their moral authority.
Hello Darling
@@Sion_Revan Captain Darling? funny name for a guy isn't it? The last time i called someone darling was pregnant 20 seconds later.
I put my top bird on it, Speckled Jim!
"The young men thought they would carry out the war with Napoleonic tactics, and rush home to show off their medals..."
In the early days of the American Civil War, crowds gathered on the hills overlooking the battlefields, with umbrellas and picnic baskets to watch the heroic contests. That habit didn't last long, as the screams of the wounded and the blood of the dead stained the land...
Still how it is. Americans glorify war until they get into it because they spend their whole lives propagandizing themselves to become warriors and whatever. Dudes thought Iraq 2 would be like Desert storm and ended up there for 15 yearrs.
People never change, bless them.
@@777jones … Not the people, but the bloody leaders😔😔
war, war never changes
@@MC-nb6jx No the people
I wish I knew why the author chooses to have the narration read at an accelerated rate, albeit with significant pauses between phrases. The script itself is competently written and the editing is fine. I'm just like, dude what's the rush?
I think it’s genius. It keeps you watching. It’s captivating
He's got a lot of info to fit in and doesn't want to put out boring 30 min videos like a lot of channels
He doesn't even find out how to pronounce at 5:16 the name FOCH. th-cam.com/video/K5-5uO9FEOU/w-d-xo.html
It sounds like a speech app
I'm surprised you didn't talk about the mines that didn't go off. One went off in the mid 2000's due to a lightning strike and 1 or 2 are still out there ready to go off even 100 years later.
There are in fact still 5 abandoned, unexploded mines charges under Messines, three of which contain over 30,000 pounds of explosives.
Over two of them people unknowingly build farms.
Yep.
There are some areas where you are NOT allowed to go. Period.
If a developer wanted to build there...........the city council would ask if he has a suicide wish.
There is a special on TH-cam where some people wanted to search for the German and British trenches from WW1 before developers put in new housing.
They found the trenches from both sides. They also found the skeletons of two French Soldiers from WW1 forgotten about.😢
They carefully recorded everything and repatriated the remains and artifacts back to France for proper burial and attempted identification.
In Russia, civilians run an non-profit organization to recover, ID, and give WW2 vets proper burial. The Russian State claims all have been found......flat out lies.
Apparently Germany discreetly is doing the same.
Those soldiers paid the ultimate price. It’s time to allow them some peace.
@@user-hv6wb5gk8p 5...really?
I forgot the number world wide about people injured from abandoned mines from wars and conflicts but it's alot every year
@@bobspizza7444 Different kind of mines. These are underground mines that were filled with explosives. You’re referring to land mines, which are planted just beneath the surface and intended to kill anybody who stepped on them. And yes, many people are killed every year by stepping on those things.
Something that wasn't mentioned, one of the mines was only 18 inches from being discovered by a German countermining team during the planning stages. 2nd Army's commander General Plummer absolutely refused to blow up the mine despite the panicked orders comming in from his superiors and he was validated by the results. There were other details that were not mentioned how the planned offensive was almost botched by meddling from higher command but Plummer completely disregarded all of them and used his own judgements and that of his officers. A testament to his strength of character when so many against their own better judgement give in to insidious pressure.
My grandfather fought at Passchendaele (the third battle of Ypres), and I have visited the battlefields, including the crater…it is truly incredible looking more like an asteroid hit.
My Great grandfather fought there too (2nd and 3rd battles from memory) I had to get the info for a reporter here in Australia that was doing a story on him for ANZAC day. All before those 2 large battles, he'd already won the Military Medal for saving his position from a flamethrower crew that surprised them , most were burned , the rest ran , but Frank jumped on the MG and drove them off , only a couple made it back to German Lines.
After that he was ..... err .... none to happy with the Germans , and as a highly educated guy, he wrote alot about the Germans and thier lust for war (his words , not mine) and about all facets of WW1 , and how Germany will try it again first chance they get .......... well he lived till 1983 , so he saw his prediction come true .... which his son (my grandfather) fought in. He was one of the small 1000'ish troops in the first wave on the Kokoda track.
@@thenextbondvillainklaussch3266 kokoda track?? Not a minor engagement either 💯 respect to him
I’ve been to the actual crater where this happened, cameras just don’t do it justice, the whole is so deep and steep that people who fall in have to be pulled out with ropes as it’s impossible to climb out
My only complaint...is the narration could be slowed down a bit, without having to lower the playback speed, the speed this guy talks, can sometimes make it difficult to hear it all properly. Love ya doco's but please lower the narattion speed.
I visited this place on a history trip with my school a few years ago, that crater is absolutely massive
Of the 19 mines, only 17 were detonated during the operation (2 failed to detonate). In about the 70s one of the remaining mines was detonated by a lightning strike killing a cow. One mine remains undetonated to this day.
Imagine living in that area always sweating everyone lighting strikes
Wonder if the cow was given a purple heart?
There were 21 mines 19 detonated on the day.
Great video.
One question?
Did you speed up or voice or do you always talk that fast?
It makes hearing and understanding you rather difficult at points.
Get the film, Beneath Hill 60, it's amazing.
Great movie, first time I heard about this was in that movie
Best way to learn history is through movies and tv shows like that, might be some inaccuracies, but you can research it after. I only prefer this because you get to see the emotion in the events, and I know they're actors, but connecting emotion to history is the best way to not only remember the events, but learn from it as well.
Agreed, great film. Very sad for those involved on both side, especially as the Germans later re-took the area anyway.
Great aussie movie
Ok 👍 thank you kindly for the recommendation
That is so sad, I feel sorry for all those men.
In the Great War you were dead whenever you went to go fight you fought to reclaim your life
So you support nazis?
Did you considerably slowed down your narration? The new vids are at least 3 minutes longer than usual, and the story telling feels disjointed at times. Still, a thumbs up for historical content and learning. Thanks!
I remember reading up and one of the stories is that when a British officer went to the lines after the explosions, the only sign of any recognition of the enemy was a foot in a boot
@G SQUADRON pretty much. The thing was is I remember reading up on this in elementary school, and it still is a haunting fact of WW1
War is hell. I still cant ever comprehend how WWll, Korean, and Vietnam veterans say to me they cant imagine fighting in the wars I have. I can't usually even find words to respond with because I CANT IMAGINE fighting in those wars. To me they were so much more hellish than anything i did.
....the name you've chosen for your account is funny cuz it's true...
nam was child's play compared to the world wars though
Kirill Kirichenko check out operation line backer
@@kirillholt2329 but the troops im NAm' as you say actually faced 10+ days of combat for every 1 a ww2 soldier did..now, if you are a merchant marine then yeah, the world wars sucked....and the battles sucked...but actual days being shot at and shooting compared to utter boredom Vietnam was much more intense. Then there was the shitty homecoming for the nam vets compared to ww2 vets being " "heroes"
Vietnam was the US trying to dictate policy to another country by force and pure evil from the brass.....but the troops on the ground were mostly only there because they had no choice one way or another
@@kirillholt2329 no war is child's play sir. There are a hundred things I could say here but I'll just leave it at that.
Other Documentaries claim that the operation was barely worth the effort and gave poor results comparatively.
Well, it's an improvement on just telling soldiers to go over the top, pointlessly running at machine guns
Great film based upon the actions of Australian Miners sent in to oversee these deep mines. It’s called “Beneath Hill 60” and it’s on TH-cam. Well worth a watch.
th-cam.com/video/0Ml2IvAoepI/w-d-xo.html Here it is.
Yes it was Australian troops idea to do it but the British take all the credit . Same deal in Libya with Rommel the Australian and NZ corp desert rats shut down Rommel's supply lines but the British take all the credit .
It is excellent!
A definite must see
@@jvalentine8376 if you actually look into the history of the tunnels it was British tunnellers who started it first , and the Aussies came afterwards. The anzacs in WW2 are given credit for fighting in north Africa as in the troops who fought at Tobruk.
Great video! And the crazy thing is most of society doesn’t know these awesome stories
I don't even read the title anymore. Just see Dark Docs and click instantly.. im sure ill notice the title later
Do you sub to his other channels?
It will have had two other titles and three other thumbnails by then, as is par for these channels' releases lately.
@@JagerLange nah, he has different channels for his various topics. He's not like other content farms.
@@TheHighSpaceWizard They do though. I've seen plenty of times where a new video has shown up on my front page, only to change photo/title in the first hour or so of publication. It's the same video, but at first it looks like the one you first saw notice of got removed.
@@JagerLange well, I'm subbed to all their channels and I've never seen that happen.
During WW1 they were digging tunnels to each other’s trenches. They had equipment to try to sense if the enemy was doing it to!
A few times they dug right into each other and battles with small handguns picks, shovels, and fists were fought underground.
They say WW1 was “no big deal”.
I beg to differ.
Who says it was no big deal. Name one person who says that
@@dankirk4186 Nobody has ever said that.
I bet there was a gentleman rule involving no grenades
Lolol never heard anyone say WW1 was no big deal. It was the deadliest conflict in history up until that point only surpassed by WW2.
@@kidofsteel0362 -WWI in terms of the style of warfare was the most savage and brutal of all wars. The absolute disregard of the value of human life for our soldiers and theirs beggars belief.
A footnote in history to civilization no politicians were killed in the making of this war and none were ever prosecuted. Despite the millions of lost lives and destroyed families as well.Which is usual
The Germans were digging tunnels at the same time, unfortunately for them the British miners got there first, the miners had to be as quiet as possible so as to avoid detection. Those British miners were exceptionally talented and skilled workers. They should be recognised for that, mining was also VERY hard work in those days.
Likely not a day at the beach even today.
@@brucer4170stumbling on a daytime beach when mining would be very very surprising 😂🙃
I'm sure it's hard till this day. Just ask the African miners mining for raw material for car batteries.
It was the Australian Third Division commander General Monash who designed this. The mines were organised under Monash's broad plan by his son in law whom he had known since a boy and whom he mentored to learn mining engineering. Monash was a civil engineer of high ability as well as his military background. The New Zealand division and the British 25th division were there too.
Sir John Monash also invented combined arms warfare, it was first used to full scale in the battle of Hemel it was so successful Monash was able to provide front line fighters a hot meal, it was also the first land loss the Germans had faced in ww1.
The Australians seem to be getting pushed out of this story somewhat recently.
@@sharpshooter_Aus He also was the first to use Creeping Barrage, Tanks to carry ammunition etc. He was a meticulous planner, he estimated that it would take 40 minutes to take Hemel, it was taken approximately in 43 minutes. He was Knighted in the field by the British King.
@@kristinehayes4885 You’re correct about everything apart from the time it was estimated to be 90 minutes and was 92. He was the first the be knighted in battle in 200 years and is still the last to be knighted in the field of battle.
Your documentaries are fascinating because they hold so many unpublicized stories of our history. Thank you.
There were no “Kamikaze charges” against enemy lines. No soldier had the deliberate intention of giving his life as those serving the Japanese Emperor in the final stages of WWII.
Ha ha
I think he was making a metaphor about the futility of bayonet and cavalry charges against machine guns
Speak for yourself but I’m ready to die for him
@@TiddyTwyster Neither of which happened... despite the myths. Because that is what they are, myths. Bayonets were fixed, by both sides before an assault, but that was because you did not want to be fixing the fucking thing when you dropped into the enemy trench and it WAS actually time for hand to hand combat, which happened a fair amount in the initial period of clearing an enemy trench. Better to have it fixed ready.
Other than that however, while troops did have to move fast most of these straight up charges at the enemy you see in period films are staged. Men WOULD in fact use shell holes as cover, return fire, dash to the next shell hole and so on. Later on in the war they would move in platoons, with the platoon machine gunners setting up base of fires to cover the rest of the platoon on the assault.
You did not want to spend to much time in no mans land however for one simple reason, the enemy artillery WOULD hit no mans land with a defensive barrage, not might, WOULD. You really did NOT want to be outside a trench, even if it was an enemy one, when that defensive barrage landed. THATS why men tried to get across no mans land as quickly as possible. Most attacks broken up in no mans land were not in fact broken up by machineguns, but by artillery. Being held up in no mans land by a machinegun? Its not the machinegun that will kill most of those men, but the artillery that lands because they were held up BY that machinegun....
@@alganhar1 C. all of the above
I had American relatives who fought on the front in WW1 and WW2.
I know I lost two great grandfathers- one in Voralberg, Austria and the other in Italy- both from the Tyrolian Alps. How many other relatives, Americans, Scottish, Welsh, English, Irish, French, Australians, Dutch, Belgians, Austrians, Czechs, Germans, etc. were killed I may never know. The loss to their families and to me is depressing.
I was a Marine Corps dependent from age five to twenty-one. I appreciate the bravery and sacrifice of the men and women who fought and also those who perished.
Thanks for recording the history and for the reminder.
Hey great video thank you very much
My grandmother's first cousin and close friend died in WW1 from a similar mine on June 2, 1916, placed by the Germans. His was a Canadian named Beverly Cunliffe Powys, age 20. His body was never recovered and he is honored at Menin Gate near Ypres. I believe there were several similar undermining events in WW1.
Yeah no, not the only underground bombs in those 4 years
New Zealand tunnelling companies were also involved. As a small country back then, we (Australia) lost so many young men in that wretched war it had a huge impact on us as a nation. It's been said trench conditions in WW1 were far worse than WW2 battle fronts. Terrible.
I’d take my chances in wwI vs what Australia has going on now.. y’all gave up your guns now your screwed . 1984 is here and the government owns you ..
@@hondaxl250k0 - And be like the US. No thanks.
@@channelsixtysix066 even at its worst the USA is still the most free place on earth. I have my guns. Can defend my home. I can grow my own food. Make my own choices. Soo 🖕🏻🇺🇸
@@hondaxl250k0 So you need a gun to cover your own inadequacy. 😂
@@channelsixtysix066 lol. No. But god did not make all men equal.. mr Colt did. If I’ve got 4 armed intruders coming in the house. And I’ve got my large family in danger. I have 6 girls and 2 boys. I want all the fire power I can muster.
Great content, thanks for bringing all this to our knowledge 👍 if you could improve the way the stories are being narrated, it would hugely improve the quality, why that stressed and overly fast speaking?
My Grandfather and his brother fought at the battle of Messines, his brother was killed next to him unfortunately
how are you alive then?
@@williampierce4513 .. Re-read the comment ;}
@@blogengeezer4507 lmao i did.. it was confusing
@@williampierce4513 I didn’t think so
Lord Kitchener recruited the youth from towns with the promise they would fight together .
These were known as Pals Brigades .
The great tragedy if a Pals Brigade had significant losses , the youth of a town could be gone .
.
Fun fact about the tunnels is that each side communicated with each other. This was also known on vimy ridge when Candian sappers asked the German sappers to not use grenades for couple of days.
Canadian : "Whatever you do gerries don't throw grenade to us if you want to live"
Germans : "Surely you jest! Hmmm... Hey Hans, isn't it strange request? What could that possibly mean?"
@@novanoir8309 Obviously they didn't listen, it's war not a game.
to put this into perspective, im pretty sure around 200 people passed in the beirut explosion, and that was at a port in a capital city.
That last shot of the crater,
It wouldn't take much to make it look like an eye
An eye looking back to the past, to make SURE that we never have to re-live that type of horror
Lmao aren't you a little cutie
In the meantime half the world is waging War and gearing up for WW3 lmao
The 1917 Halifax explosion was a huge explosion. The collision of the ammunition ship Mont Blanc with another ship in the Halifax harbor was like a small tactical nuclear explosion. At least 2,000 people were killed with over 10,000 wounded. So this explosion was very large with Robert Oppenheimer studying it for the atomic bomb clouds.
That was a Belgium raming a French wiping out a Canadian town
Imagine a waiter trying to take this guy's order.
Fr bro, I'd have to ask him to slow down dude lol
.. also imagine our narrator, having photo memory recollection, 'being the waiter', repeating the entire table order back to the patrons..;]
a mistake at around 5 minutes in: Flanders is not a city, its the name for half the country.
....wrong again, Flanders is Ned's last name, neighbor of Homer and Marge Simpson....
Nit picker...sit down and shut up.
Another mistake was the 300,000 Ton Halifax explosion was the largest before the A-bomb,
th-cam.com/video/ThLloZOTBKo/w-d-xo.html
LiberalsAreGarbage beat me to it!
If you try to point out all the mistakes in Dark Docs videos you’re going to need a bigger internet. You’re better off pointing out the videos that don’t have mistakes (hint, there are none)
Back in Spring of 1970, I was in EOD in Vietnam. When the army entered Cambodia, a very large cache of ammunition was discovered. Much of it was backhauled to S. Vietnam, and due to the political situation, there was insufficient time to evacuate all of it. EOD was tasked to destroy the remainder. It was one detonation of stacks of ammunition tied together with detonating cord to produce a single explosion. My job ended up as the person to calculate how much was destroyed. After 2 weeks work with a stubby pencil, I came up with a quantity of 171.1 Tons. This was the explosive weight of the ordnance destroyed, not the total ordnance weight. In my remaining 18 years in EOD, I was involved in many detonations involving 5000 to 25000 pounds, but nothing compared with the one in Cambodia.
What did the explosion look like? Then what was it hidden by the jungle or did you see a gigantic debris cloud
@Lex Bright Raven Yes, you conviently left the violent communist takeover out. lol get out of my mentions you thug
Only one stubby pencil?
@@williampierce4513 What service? Just another mercenary...
What is EOD?
"more violent and less honorable" wraps up everything going on since then
Well, they certainly made a lot of very sad mothers and fathers that day. Bloody-hell!
They wouldn’t have know for months at the least, possibly until after the war was over and the others had returned but not their family members....
@@codyg7936 Are you kidding me? Did you seriously imagine I believed the Germans would have, on the same day as the detonation of the mine, identified all the dead and missing AND, notified their next of kin. Oh dear .....
Figure at least 20,000. Cause ya know.. it takes 2 to tango.
German solider: "after the war, I want to go to the moon!"
British engineers: *"why wait?"*
Chilling to the bone! May all those souls RIP!!!!
Maann this is to funny
Hahahahaha!....You win the comments section bud!.......
Absolutely hilarious. I bet the wifes, sons and daughters of those 10000 as well as of the millions of others on all sides who perished in this war would certainly have agreed.
asdf movie
My grandfather, as an officer of engineers, was one of those involved in commanding the operation, enlisting a year too young by lying about his age to recruiters. He was wounded, mentioned repeatedly in despatches and, well decorated, he returned to the front several times after having bullets/shrapnel removed. Later he continued a military career most of his life, served all over the Empire and retired a very senior officer who, as an Irishman, somehow managed to run a very successful whisky export business along the way. Quite a man, but what struck me most was when he grew senile, was well into his 90s, and almost all he repeated was being in a water filled shell hole in no man's land with three rotting German corpses - he was stuck in there for three days and nights, wounded, before being helped to safety. He fought all through the second WW, too. Ironically, I had family on both sides. So sad. So many good men maimed and killed. And it stuns me now to see countries feeding the war in Ukraine, attempts at negotiation stymied by warmongering scum like Johnson, provoking an escalation which could see our children taken from us, perhaps roasted alive in flame in front of us.
I feel the same way. From America. This didn't have to happen and many people not there participating have a lot of blood on their hands.
Two generations later and we’ve already completely forgotten.
Are you intentionally suggesting that it would have been better to cede Europe to Germany? Seems like you might just be mindlessly venting, but it’s hard to tell.
@@stevenharder308 if at any point you have anything funny, interesting or intelligent to add, or even perhaps reach a level of basic comprehension, I'm all ears.
@@gurglejug627 your grandfather was a hero for going to Europe to fight off two consecutive German incursions into neighboring countries, and you’re “stunned” that the West is “feeding” the war in Ukraine? Listen to yourself.
Highly suggest the movie "The War Below" it's about the British miners who were contracted too dig the tunnels in which the mines were detonated. I believe a few of them died in the process. True heroes
It' briefly mentioned in Peaky Blinders that Tommy Shelby had been one of the diggers on this operation
Not briefly at all. It is mentioned several times. But yes.
That is a fictional character.
@@snuffbox9915 Duh yeah
10,000 sons, brothers, fathers, uncles, and nephews that never got to go home, in a war that may have been the least good vs evil war in modern history, or ever.
My Grandad was wounded at Messines on 7th June 1917 by shrapnel, he was lucky he only lost one finger and returned to England, otherwise i may not be here at all. thanks 3rd battalion Worc's.
Do you mean 1917?
@@howardcitizen2471 sorry, yes i did.
I love how the biggest "planned" explosion and the biggest "accidental" explosion occurred during WWI.
Both in 1917 too
Gotta explore the limits of the new weapon HE
It was a war for the biggest things & the biggest war we'd had up to that point.
Why? Elaborate on why you "love" it?
@@Cheepchipsable Just this shear coincidence of it.
imagine being a german soilder just minding your own business, then all of a sudden you're 80ft up in the air.
I am way over 40 years of age - been a WW2 student since the age of 13. Thanks to TH-cam over the last decade - I am constantly amazed at how many battles , engagements and even war crimes have been obfuscated , hidden or down right covered up by ALL sides of the conflict's governments , "news" outlets and court historians...actually frightening to learn the truth.
Thanks everyone for posting all those great stories in the comments. I'm so happy to learn this history. Be at peace.
You don't truly understand how massive this crater is until you stand on the edge of it and look down
Bloody scary that humanity never learns these lessons from history 🙁
I'm getting claustrophobic just thinking about how tight those tunnels must've been.
You too huh?? Ahhh hell naw!!
At about 5.00, you refer to the Belgian "city" of Flanders. I know of the Flemish region of Flanders, but not of a city.
Flanders is not a city
I visited one of the craters for these explosions. You cannot understand how large these blasts were until you see the holes in the ground they have left behind.
Then think about the fact those holes have had 100 years of weathering...
@@MrInitialMan That's a great point which has crossed my mind many times.
These and the Mark Felton videos are so great.
Agree!
I take Mark Felton anytime. His narration are way better.
@@kasperkjrsgaard1447 I wasn't comparing the two. These videos are for everyone. Felton's vids are for the audience who studies the history of warfare and are looking to learn something they don't already know.
I feel so sorry for all those young Germans and their families. As I know from my own family, the effects of such deaths ripple down the generations. It's no joke when you go to the battlefields and see the cemeteries, both allied and German. What a waste. A huge failure of diplomacy and international politics. Like today and climate change or authoritarianism or economic fairness etc.?
Perhaps Greta and her loyal army of tough SJW maniacs would have prevented that catastrophe, just like they are obsessed fighting against megalomaniac Putins massive Co2 contamination and other environmental devastating actions ..?
The war caused unnecessary, brutal, grisly clashes and violent, nightmarish murders no matter which country someone came from. And just as it was with World War II, some of them were never okay again, regardless of physical injury. One of my father's uncles came home from World War II with severe mental trauma.
Not all these mines did explode !!! There is still at least one and most probably two of these mines in the underground in Zonnebeke waiting for an accident to happen!!!
👀
Not all of the mines were successfully detonated there is at least one still down there packed with all that explosive.
1 confirmed, but they say there is likely many still under the dirt.. There's a documentary on TH-cam that specifically focuses on the miners that dug the mines and they even explore a couple of the shafts that have been dug and they even find an explosive charge still in one.
And worst of all to their best guess the mine is under someone's current day farm house
@@tomsmith5088 Always call the city to locate all utilities and unexploded ordinances before digging....it’s the law!
@@lucast3006 It is supposed to be like 35 feet down.
One detonated in 1955, three of them are still out there: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mines_in_the_Battle_of_Messines_(1917)#List_of_the_mines
Very interesting, I’ve managed to go 62 years in life without ever hearing of this. Amazing strategy.
60 and 90 feet down from the surface? That’s literally insane!! These men were built different!
In those days death was a companion, from childhood disease to outbreaks of cholera etc. so life was cheap.
Happy ANZAC day to all the Australian and Kiwis .lest we forget....🇦🇺🤠🇳🇿
I'VE SEARVED WITH "DIGGERS"AUSY MARINES.
YOU MARINES DO KNOW HOW TO PARTY 👍 LOVE YOU GUYS SEMPER FI USMC❗✌️
Thanks mate and thank you for you're selfless service to you're country cheers .work hard play hard ... hahaha
@@davidfredenburg8283 I've heard stories of the marine corps you guys can party just as hard also 👍😎
Yes mate...LWF....
We love you Aussies and Kiwis as well. My dad was in the U.S.
Air Force and we spent 2 1/2 years down under in Woomera. Much respect from another American.
Birdcage mines 1, 2, 3 and 4 were not fired. In 1955 Birdcage mine 3 exploded by a lightning strike. A farm now sits on top of one of the mines. If and when the others explode no one can tell.
That crater is still there, ive been to the bottom of it. The explosion would have created a vacuum, which sucked in more soldiers not directly hit by the blast.
Before the earth that was up in the air then came back down and buried them.
There are also examples of some of these tunnels that were never detonated at Vimmy Ridge. One of them has a shell sticking through the ceiling that didn't detonate.
Wouldnt the man-suck-zone a bit far if you didn't get vaporized
@@TheZINGularity The man suck zone is in San Francisco lol
No it wouldn’t? It would blow them AWAY
@@manowa3395 that’s the sidewalk crap zone
They watched the opportunity too
It was so devastatingly effective they could have collapsed the entire line, by advancing behind the lines, cutting them off and having them surrender
But nobody has planned for it going this well
Also, several of the mines didn't detonate
Every so often a lighting strike will set off one of the mines.
This narrator would make a great machine gunner, he even speaks in three round bursts.
There is a great book called The War Underground by Alexander Barrie all about the mining in Belgium. Details encounters between soldiers when they discovered enemy tunnels and has a in depth description of Messines.
The content for Dark Docs has really been improving.
Agreed ! now if he’ll just slow the fuck down a bit so his sentences don’t sound like one word.
@@scatdog1 I give him a pass. He is trying to get a lot of info in a short period of time. I think he posts in 1.5x his actual speaking voice....editing tricks kind of thing. But he hits the right spot for all the algorithm purposes. This type of detailed content is difficult to make.
@@scatdog1 Slow the play-speed down to 0.75. I did. Now you can actually hear what is being said.
@@boblablablaw6677 Yes but I would be willing to bet he loses more viewers because of his style. I watch other content that isn’t as interesting but has way more subscribers. Apparently he doesn’t give a shit or he would have more subscribers. People are lazy.. they don’t want to have to work at trying to understand what’s being said.
Just my humble opinion.
@@uzurpon Yeah I’ve done that bro... but he sounds like he’s done a few too many Xanax. I’ll probably still occasionally watch but I did unsubscribe to the channel. It’s just fucking childish to me ... I’m old .
My grandfather told me he was 5 miles away when they blow up the Messines ridge. He was asleep in a dugout in his bunk. The vibrations from the blast and noise knocked him out of his bunk from 5 miles away.
The munitions and blasts changed entire landscapes. A few areas look “so nice with all the trees, brush, grass, and little ponds everywhere”.
Until you realize each “little pond” is an impact site for a bomb.
That landscape is a mass grave. Not a park.
1 battlefield is estimated to hold the shattered unrecoverable remains of 40,000 soldiers.
The soils were so muddied by the blasts injured men were buried alive when they sank in. The same fate happened to horses and a massive cannon.
Now we just have chemical bombs and atomic bombs.
War. War never Changes.
Now we have drones and an influx of shoulder fired weapons
My maternal grandfather was in the U.S. Army in WW1. According to my mom, he had some horrendous stories to tell. I sometimes wish I could have heard them. He died when I was very young so I barely remember him. It's too bad none of these men are around anymore so we can hear their stories as well.
Good for him that he could talk about, not keeping it all inside.
Why does it sound like the audio is being fast-forwarded?
Very deterring.
When I noticed he was speaking in an extra urgent voice, I knew this was gonna be a good episode
It’s a strained vocal technique but it is also processed to hell and back with compression and hard limiting. Actually it’s quite fatiguing to listen to. Worthy video though.
I found it extremely difficult to listen to. There is a fine line between an ‘urgent’ delivery and almost incomprehensible gabble.
@@PaulClh Indeed. Part of that was the(very poor) signal processing
@@crysstoll1191 even at 2x speed this is painful, the constant identical length pauses in between each half sentence is so cringe
This is a video that could really use a new soundtrack. 🧐
Been to the craters they’re massive, but what shocked me the most is the photos of decapitated horse heads impaled by tree branches by explosives/ artillery... ww1 was something different
Yes, the animals were the cruelest of casualties, IMHO. They all died in vain. The UN should prohibit animals in warfare, in all future wars.
What's scary to think is, the pictures we see, as shocking as they are, they're black and white, stench free and a bit detached from the actual horror. Imagine being a soldier living in that, the smell of death and cordite filling your nostrils. Mud, blood and body part-mixed pools, and seeing shards of wood, metal and bone strewn around the place.
I'm amazed they could still muster a smile after experiencing that, yet they lived on, on to another horror show 30 years later.
My great grandfather was a British sapper in the great war. He didn't speak of his work for years after the war untill he was in his 80s then he told my mother about clay kicking and the time he and two other men were tunneling under the lines and the side of the tunnel collapsed and two german tunnelers were standing there spades in hand ,a fight broke out and my great grandfather had to kill them both with the edge of his spade.
I'd never heard about this before. How tragic that war was! I can't imagine being one of those 10,000 soldiers killed that way. What a way to go! Great video, as always! Please keep the outstanding videos coming and God bless you and your team, my friend!
The French ww1 mine that blew up Halifax Canada was larger. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Explosion
10,000 was from 19 separated mine explosions.
There are the remnants of horrific mine explosions in the Dolomites, where the Italians and Austrians fought for dominance. Because the tunnels were in Limestone many still survive and are open to explore along with the cable protected mountain paths that served the fighting and much surviving debris of war. Due to the retreat of the glaciers every year more bodies of combatants are recovered.
In which way did those soldiers die more horrified than any other soldiers killed in action?
In my world you're either dead or alive. Do you think you're gone philosophical consider how shitty one sort of explosion, may be compared to another one?
How about the fact an instant death was, and still is a pretty mild and acceptable way to die?
@@OmmerSyssel as a former army medic I’d say instant death in a massive mine explosion is preferable to being gut shot and dying slowly over several days in a shell hole in no man’s land.
@@Crashed131963 It was not "french mine" in Halifax; it was US and Canadian weappons, ammunitions and explosive sold to the french and allied forces, loaded on a french boat on his way to the front.
"the largest planned explosion" is a very ominous sentence
For an unplanned one look up the Halifax explosion.
The yield of this is estimated to be just short of the Beirut explosion, puts into context how awful it would have been on the German lines. No soldier deserves to die without any way to defend themselves or even prepare a defence
There is an amazing movie on Netflix about this, can't remember what it was called but it gave me even more respect for our men who fought for us in those horrible conditions.
Beneath Hill 60 starring Brendan Fraser
The War Below is another one. I think we're still waiting for an amazing one about this though. There's good movies but nothing great, yet.
That was the best to date. The production values, and care taken are evident, but my one request is, please, just slow down in speech, just the smallest amount. I had to rewatch a few sections, as it really clashed with the background music and the quick diction of the accent, made it hard work... Thanks man!
I agree
Decidedly so. Sometimes think he is trying to finish while his bladder is full and needing a biology break.
@@bwolfe2514 lmao
Just slow down the speed of the video , the three little dots top right hand side , play back speed
There was a movie on Netflix about this, "Beneath Hill 60 (2010)". Was a pretty good watch.