Vimy Ridge - One of our mines is missing !

[Olham 164]

Just found this video - a report about giant landmines, which were left unexploded in the ground at Vimy Ridge.

One went up in the 1950s; at least 5 others are still sleeping there...

Royal Engineers went to search for one huge missing mine in the 90s - here's the thrilling film about it:

 

http://www.youtube.c...s4hvws3XEU&NR=1

 

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Edited September 2, 2011 by Olham

[Shiloh 12]

I watched the first 2:00 or so and will check it out later - thanks for posting Olham!

[JFM 18]

I'll be there in two weeks, I'll keep an eye open. ;)

[Hauksbee 103]

That was outstanding! Chill-your-blood-outstanding. Somehow I had always felt (without examining the idea too closely) that if you were in the trenches in WWI, if you kept your head down, you were reasonably safe from flying ordnance, shell fragments, bullets, and the like. True, there was the occasional artillery shell that lands spot on, and gas, and the times when you had to get out of the trench and run across a coupl'a hundred yards of Hell, but, on the whole, the trench afforded reasonable safety. I look at things much differently now. And I was not completely unprepared for this. Years back, there was a quarterly, hard-backed magazine called "Horizon". I recall an article about a department of the French Government (not military) whose job it was to respond to calls from people who, to this day, find unexploded ordnance working its way to the surface each spring. Lots of this is found by farmers, when their plow hits something metallic. It was/is a modest department in size: about two dozen field operatives, and some administration staff. Most of the stuff found is inert, but they do take their casualties. Something like two new job openings over any three or four year period. One of the guys interviewed said the most feared are the gas shells. The chemicals are still in there and the shell walls all are corroded to a greater or lessor degree. They get special handling.

Edited September 3, 2011 by Hauksbee

[Shiloh 12]

I watched this and found it very interesting. If anybody watches let the credits roll out as it reveals just how dangerous the work they were doing could be.

[Hasse Wind 46]

Very interesting. I guess one must be careful when constructing buildings over the old WW1 battlefields. You'll never know what terrible contraptions are buried underground!

[RAF_Louvert 101]

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A deadly inheritence to be sure, and one that will continue on and on for generations.

 

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[Olham 164]

I was impressed that these Royal Engineers, who are not the youngest any more, took the challenge on

and managed to dismantle this one big mine. A good example, I guess, for other engineers to follow.

[Flyby PC 23]

47 minutes? I'll be here until 2014 downloading that...

 

Everybody fears the ordinance blowing up trenches, but trenches are similar to modern excavations and very dangerous by themselves. If you think what weight of soil you could lift in a sandbag, then imagine lifting that weight when it's not in a position that's convenient to lift, but say you were lying face down with the same weight on the small of your back, or alternatively split the bag into four, and lie spread eagled with a bag on your hands or feet. For me, it puts into perspective just how easy it would to be buried alive. The greater part of your body need not be buried for you to be totally incapacitated by the weight of soil, and asphyxiated because you cannot inhale.

 

Many victims of snow avalanche are found under less that 6 inches of snow, but that is still enough to incapacitate them completely.

 

And lastly, we were warned that if the sides of an excavation did collapse on you, you'd be unlikely to survive the time taken to dig you out.

[Olham 164]

Never thought of that, Flyby, but you are absolutely right.

 

No need to download it; I watched it in YouTube.

[smilingmonkey 1]

That was fascinating and frightening in equal measure.

 

Those cramped conditions were just horrifying, no place for the faint of heart I think.

[Olham 164]

Those miners were sometimes buried alive, when artillery shells or bombs went up overground,

and made their tunnel ceilings collapse. With my tendency to claustrophobia, neither submarines

nor this tunneling work would have been something for me. I'd much rather fly a fighter.