Messines Ridge, 1917
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by
cyngast
moderator
I began reading Passchendaele by Lyn Macdonald last night and got as far as the chapter on the mines at Messines Ridge. Then I realized this page I tagged yesterday put this unit, the 39th Brigade Field Artillery near there, so I looked again this morning.
They were actually there, near Voormezele. Not one mention of the mines blowing! Mention of Zero Hour being 3:10 a.m., which was when the mines were blown, but not one word about the explosions.
I find this very odd. In addition, I don't recall coming across any mention of it in any war diary I've gone through that included June 7, 1917, although I admit that my own knowledge of WW1 was pretty sketchy when I started tagging and I could have skipped over entries that said something about mines being blown on that date. I have read elsewhere that people in England felt it. If so, you would expect the troops in France to have noticed it.
I have not begun the appendices to this diary--there's a long list there in the right-hand column--but I'll come back here later and update.
ETA: The only mention of the mines are in Appx. A, the C.O.'s report of June 7, where he says "...several mines went up." The art of understatement.
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by
ral104
moderator, scientist
I guess perhaps the diary authors focussed more on the actions of their own unit, rather than the wider context, although I quite agree that it seems close to unbelievable that no mention would be made of such a cataclysmic event! It might perhaps be similar to the Armistice, which you might also think would be a momentous thing for the soldiers, but which is often barely mentioned in the diaries.
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by
cyngast
moderator
Now that I have thought about this some more, I suppose it's possible that units who were not in the immediate area, but might have been engaged in some sort of operation elsewhere or under enemy artillery fire, might not even hear anything else. But I still find it surprising that units in the back areas don't seem to mention it.
I have also been amazed that some units don't mention the Armistice AT ALL. Not one word! I sometimes wonder if they either somehow had not received word or simply didn't trust the Germans to hold to the agreement. Although they must have gotten word because they don't ever do any fighting after that point. I've taken to putting in a hashtag for armistice when mention does show up.
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by
bje
Just finished the June 1917 diary of the 7/8 Bn Royal Irish Fusiliers, and they do record noticing the mines. "The mines went off at Zero ............. The mines in the Petit Bois Salient being so close to our trenches caused a little confusion"
This diary also has a fascinating series of appendices including very detailed orders for the attack, maps, and intelligence reports. I got so involved in reading them that I'm just hoping I didn't forget I was supposed to be tagging them.
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by
cyngast
moderator
This latest batch of diaries are the first ones I've worked through where infantry units were involved in the operations on 7 June 1917. The 12th Royal Irish Rifles' diary mentioned the ground shaking and rolling like an earthquake. They were right up in the support lines at the time.
I've also gotten so caught up in the narrative that I forget to tag! That's why the project was set up to have multiple people tag every page--to cover for us!
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Battle of Messines. 1917 Extremely interesting article with photographs. (If you want to read more about it).
Just to mention this part first from the article: Last paragraph of the Notes section in the article: “... Reports were made that the shock wave from the explosion was heard as far away as London and Dublin. The 1917 Messines mines detonation was probably the largest planned explosion in history prior to the Trinity atomic weapon test in July 1945 and the largest non-nuclear planned explosion before the British explosive efforts on the Heligoland Islands in April 1947. The Messines detonation is history's deadliest non-nuclear man-made explosion. Several of the mines at Messines did not go off on time. On 17 July 1955, lightning set one off, killing a cow. Another mine, which had been abandoned as a result of its discovery by German counter-miners, is believed to have been found but no attempt has been made to remove it...”
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Messines_(1917)
The British diverted the attention of German miners from their deepest galleries, by making many secondary attacks in the upper levels. Co-ordinated by tunnelling companies of the Royal Engineers, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand and British miners laid 26 mines with 447 long tons (454 t) of ammonalexplosive.
Also another article with photographs headed “Ticking Time Bomb? The Mines At Messines -Over 1 Million Tons of Explosives-, 20 Detonated, 5 Remain, Waiting…”
Link: https://www.warhistoryonline.com/featured/the-mines-at-messines.html
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by
cyngast
moderator
Good information to have, especially since all these units from the 36th Division that we have up right now took part in those operations.
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On june the 7th 1917, the diary of the 10 Bn Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers refers to attached Operation Orders and Ammendments, MAP and Narrative of the Battle. The author mentions with some proud "Needless to say the Battalion took all its objectives and held them". But at the end of the month of june I didn't find any Order or Map or Narrative concerning the attack of the 7th june.
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