One of Our Mines is Missing! #2

On July 5th 1955 26000 lbs of high explosives - a MINE, laid deep under German trench lines on the Franco-Belgian border during the First World war - explodes in a thunderstorm at the edge of a cornfield. No one is hurt - there are no eyewitnesses. But it leaves a crater 250 feet across and sixty feet deep.

It was one of several charges known to be lying dormant under the battlefields of the Western Front and one of potentially hundreds of mines abandoned at the end of the war by the men who laid them.

Narrated by actor John Shrapnel, "One of Our Mines is Missing!", three years in the making, skilfully weaves past and present as it unfolds the story of the search for one of these mines deep within the bowels of Vimy Ridge, a key tactical area of France contested bitterly by the British, Canadians and Germans between 1916-17.

Fly on the wall cameras follow WW1 tunnelling expert and retired Royal Engineer - Lt Col Philip Robinson ("War Walks") and his team of EOD specialists as they undertake a hazardous journey underground in search of the missing Broadmarsh mine - a 16 ton leviathon - mooted to be lying abandoned under the Canadian Memorial Park astride the ridge.

In the course of the expedition the team, including serving regular and territorial soldiers from the British Army overcome blockages, dangerously low levels of oxygen and the threat of gas - as they attempt to reach the mine. And, for the very first time on television, cameras take us into the heart of this and a second mine chamber - The Durand - as explosives experts attempt to defuse the potentially lethal packages within.

Failure could leave at risk the lives of some of the hundreds of thousands of French and international tourists - many of them Canadian, who visit the park every year - The Broadmarsh sits precariously below a busy road junction and the Durand below the park toilets!

Using a combination of rare archive photographs and film, together with unique privately sourced material, the film also gives us a historical insight into the protracted and deadly subterranean struggle fought by tunnellers and miners of both sides, where stealth, guile and high explosive were the main weapons; entombment, crushing or gas poisoning the main killers.

Sophisticated 3D animation lends scale to the world of the fighting tunnellers as they laboured in secret in a labyrinth of passages deep below the surface of the ridge and opens up the secrets of the mine chambers themselves.

Widescreen aerial photography gives the viewer a glimpse of the sheer enormity of the mining effort as the scarred landscape - like craters on the moon - reveals itself to the camera.

The expedition concludes successfully with all the mines of British origin within the park being cleared. But what of the German mining efforts at Vimy? No access has yet been gained to their substantial systems under the ridge and the film poses the question of whether there may be a considerable number of German mines still in place.

One chilling fact remains: Many of the remaining charges under the old battlefields of the First World war are likely to be becoming more unstable over time, not less and not all of them will be lying under corn fields!

It may be only a matter of time before what happened in 1955, happens again.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• fougasse
• films
• mine
• tunnel
• vimy

[boxwoodgreen]

These mines were dug under enemy positions. A long shaft ended in a huge gallery under the enemy.. It was filled with high explosive tons of mostly ammonal. The shaft was sealed (tamping), and then the mine was exploded at as predetermined time. A few were abandoned unexploded. As time goes on the explosive can become more unstable. The 1955 explosion was caused by a nearby, or direct lightning strike where enough current past deep enough to detonate the explosives.

[wallooga]

@SuperRyan122

But not in the First World War -At that time they were literally underground galleries excavated by miners, filled with basic explosive of the time - (when I say filled, these galleries were collosal) and then exploded by plunger as required - usually just preceding an attack.

The mines were underneath enemey lines, that were filled with troops. on occasion, tens of thousands of (German) troops simply "disappeared."

[SuperRyan122]

@sealsealdk a mine is basically explosives underground with aboveground sensors (i think most of the time they're motion sensors) and when they detect something hostile, they explode.

[Trekkerjon]

Narrated by actor John Shrapnel !!

shrapnel?

[Sealsealdk]

and what a freaking mine!!

[Sealsealdk]

scary!!!