December 1914. After 5 months of war, both the Germans and the Allies have dug themselves in behind impenetrable lines. Faced with this siege, the soldiers will bring back into use an old weapon that they will modernize: mines, blowing up enemy fortifications from beneath...
In February 1915, it’s at the foot of a small Flamish hill (Hill 60) that this mine warfare will really start, at the initiative of the British Forces and units specially trained for this type of operation, the tunnelling companies. During the summer of 1916, whilst the New Zealand tunnellers were digging out mine tunnels under the Arras suburbs, they discovered immense quarries. These soon served to shelter 24 000 British soldiers as they prepared their attack on German positions. This subterranean war will come to a climax during the Battle of Messines, where 470 tonnes of explosives shared out between 19 mines were used to cause the greatest explosion ever created by man at that time.
With the help of world-class experts, computer generated images, re-enactments, and historical archives, you can now discover the incredible underground megastructures of the First World War.
Up Next in World War One
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The Aftermath of World War One
Today Dan is joined by Margaret MacMillan, professor at St. Antony's College at Oxford University and author of Peacemakers: The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and Its Attempt to End War. Together they discuss the effects WWI had on the world, and how Europe began to rebuild in the years that fol...
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War's Secret Shame: Shell Shock
Dan Snow describes how Shell Shock first began to emerge during the First World War and meets veterans of more recent wars who have struggled to overcome the symptoms of PTSD
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History Under the Hammer: Lost Mark I...
Auctioneer Paul Laidlaw provides a tour of Laidlaw's Militaria collection in Carlisle, which is home to the only known surviving blueprint of the British Mark I Tank.
