"In the second week of September 1914, just one month after war was declared, the momentum of the initial German thrust was lost and the First, Second, Third and Fourth Armies were forced back at the Battle of the Marne.
After a desperate 'race for the sea', both sides dug in, resolved to defend every inch of ground. The war of stagnation had commenced and with it what was to become known as 'trench warfare'. This lethal stalemate was to last for the next three and a half years...
Mining was introduced almost immediately after the front lines on the Western Front crystallised in late 1914 and it was the German miners who took the initiative. On 20 December 1914 they detonated the first mines of the war under the British front line outside the village of Festubert...
Ten mines were fired simultaneously...
The total charge was a mere 340 kilograms...
...the effect on the morale of the surviving soldiers was shattering... "
(Source: Crumps and Camouflets: Australian Tunnelling Companies on the Western Front)
After a desperate 'race for the sea', both sides dug in, resolved to defend every inch of ground. The war of stagnation had commenced and with it what was to become known as 'trench warfare'. This lethal stalemate was to last for the next three and a half years...
Mining was introduced almost immediately after the front lines on the Western Front crystallised in late 1914 and it was the German miners who took the initiative. On 20 December 1914 they detonated the first mines of the war under the British front line outside the village of Festubert...
Ten mines were fired simultaneously...
The total charge was a mere 340 kilograms...
...the effect on the morale of the surviving soldiers was shattering... "
(Source: Crumps and Camouflets: Australian Tunnelling Companies on the Western Front)