In war, the blasting of tunnels has always been a good way to deal with strong positions. In the Battle of Matsuyama in 1944, the Expeditionary Force carried out tunnel blasting on the fort group on the top of the Japanese mountain, which was able to completely annihilate the fortress defenders. However, compared with today's protagonists, these examples can only be regarded as small fights.
(Situation map of the Ypres region)
Because this time, in the Battlefield of Ypres of World War I. What the British want to detonate is a total of 21 explosive points, nearly 500 tons of explosives. One of the largest explosion points turned out to be a large hole 12 meters high and 80 meters in diameter, and a whole 40 tons of explosives were stuffed into it in a frenzy. So much so that thousands of German butts that sat on it managed to fly into the sky.
(Aerial view of messine's main position)
In fact, tunnel warfare did not only play a large-scale role during the War of Resistance Against Japan, but also suffered heavy casualties because of ground attacks in World War I. Belligerents have tried to attack or destroy each other's positions through tunnels. The Battle of the Ridge of Messine took place during the Third Battle of Ypres (Battle of Paschânde).
In 1917, the British army decided to launch an offensive in Paschânle in southwestern Belgium, and the Messine Ridge was a high ground in the south of the battlefield, and the German army built a steel-concrete fortress group and a large number of trenches on the high ground relying on the village. Obviously, everyone knows that to force an attack is to find death. On the Mesiner Ridge were the German 19th Army and the British 2nd Army.
(British sappers in the tunnels)
Compared with the German combat engineers, the British army not only had a more professional engineering unit, but also a large number of engineers and geologists, which was the key to the British daring to make a big tunnel in Messine.
To this end, the British army carried out a long period of excavation work, after completing the mapping work on the ground, it was handed over to the engineering unit for excavation, the tunnel is generally tree-shaped, that is, a main road and several branch roads, near the bombing point, the tunnel is designed to be zigzag-shaped to prevent shock waves from blowing up friendly forces.
Of course, the British army dug tunnels with great vigor, and the Germans were not idle. On the one hand, they constantly searched for the British tunnels through stethoscopes and megaphones (the sound of excavation can be transmitted through the soil), and staged a thrilling battle between reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance in the tunnels. On the other hand, the Germans were also working on their own native aircraft, but they were far behind in both size and number.
Finally, after two years of preparation (the British had been fighting the Germans here since mid-1915), by June 1917, 21 bombing points had been filled with nearly 1,000,000 pounds (454 tons) of explosives that could be detonated, during which time, although the Germans were aware that the German commander had tried to withdraw soldiers from positions he suspected were buried with explosives, the Germans were obviously unimaginious about such a huge explosion, and the withdrawn troops were replenished to other positions. But the British didn't say it wouldn't blow up...
At 3:10 a.m. on June 7, 1917, with the start of the British offensive, the British sappers pressed
The detonator in his hand, in an instant, the dark night sky was lit up by a huge flame, and the flames of hundreds of meters high were clearly visible tens of miles away, and a large amount of rubble mixed with human limbs flew up to a height of hundreds of meters, so that it took a long time to fall back to the ground. As for the movement caused by these 500 tons of explosives, even London can feel it.
(German soldier killed in the position)
Numerous films depicting this bloody battle, such as The Battle of Passchanel and Raid on Hill 60, completely restored the entire course of the Battle of Mesine Ridge (Heights 60 was one of the German positions on the Meschene Ridge, where the British buried nearly 50,000 pounds of explosives underground, but it was not the largest bombing point).
(The bunkers were turned upside down directly to the sky)
Due to the lack of prevention (such a big crisis can not be prevented), the German army suffered heavy losses in an instant, more than 20,000 German soldiers were killed, the British were able to capture messine's position without effort, 19 of the 21 bombing points were successfully detonated, although several deviated from the predetermined position and bombed into no man's land, but several main bombing points were solidly detonated under the Germans' butts. The British took advantage of the fact that the Germans were too late to deploy the reserves, and successfully occupied the ridge until the eastern end of the ridge, where the positions were not affected by the explosion.
(Dynamite successfully made artificial lakes)
Of course, as far as the Battle of Paschanel itself is concerned, it was a failure. This was another masterpiece of the whimsy of the British staff officer and Marshal Hague, and although messine's explosion caused heavy casualties to the Germans, the reserves in the rear were able to assemble unscathed and launch a counterattack. Shortly after the Battle of Messina, the Germans were still able to reoccupi the area with artillery. In the era of trench warfare, tunnel warfare and tunnel operations played a large role, but it was clear that this did not determine the outcome of the war.
(Several of the existing craters have now been turned into lakes.)
But don't forget, to know that only 19 of the 21 earth planes at that time were detonated, then where are the remaining ones? Why weren't they detonated? Unfortunately, the British sappers involved are also unclear, the explosion has completely changed the local geological structure, how easy is it to find a few tnts buried ten meters underground? Today, these unexploded explosion points are still quietly sleeping in the same place, and are gradually forgotten. Of course, we naturally hope that they will continue to sleep and never wake up...