People (including myself) tend to forget the origins of the term "Land Mine". Mines in medieval times referred to excavations for the purpose of undermining an enemy's fortifications. In World War 1, before the age of aerial bombardment and cruise missiles, underground mines were used to plant explosives under enemy lines. In addition to British, German and American sappers that performed these tasks, the Australians had a contingent of miners and geologists who were involved in the Western Front of the War in France and Belgium and were responsible for what was then the largest man-made explosion in history. I hope you enjoy this interesting article. Thanks to Geology.com for the link.

In an article titled Miners of Messines, the Australian reports an account of what happened on June 7, 1917 where a series of 19 underground bombs, totaling 450,000kg of high explosive secretly placed in Allied tunnels under German lines along the Messines ridge in the Ypres area of Belgium and detonated within seconds of each other:

The scene that morning was as if Hades had belched from the earth. The medieval stratagem of laying mines to break into besieged fortresses had reached its zenith. War correspondent Philip Gibbs called it "the most diabolical splendour I have ever seen". An unidentified tunneller writing in 1930 recalled: "All hell broke loose. It was indescribable. In the pale light it appeared as if the whole enemy line had begun to dance. Then, one after the other, huge tongues of flame shot hundreds of feet into the air." Another witness said: "Truly, the earth quaked."

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Robert Thompson said:

Excellent post! As a former Engineer officer and a history buff, I really enjoyed it. The term "Sappers" came about from the use of mines to undermine castle walls as a technique of siege warfare. The Union Army was successful at breaching the defenses of both Vicksburg and Petersburg with mines, but failed to properly exploit the breaches with adequate infantry support.

Wednesday August 29, 2007 06:13AM

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