The countryside of the Somme today is probably much like it was before the events of 1916. It is rolling, open farmland mostly, dotted with woods and streams that have cut into the soft soil. There are only a few places where you can get some sense of what it might have looked like during the battle. This is one of them - the Lochnagar crater.
It is 300ft across and 90ft deep. A monumental 60,000lb of explosives were set off. Debris went 4000ft up in the air. Any German positions simply vanished. 17 other mines were set off along the line at the same time. And they still did not seriously impact the German defense.
No comments:
Post a Comment