The Somme: Secret Tunnel Wars

Last week there was an excellent documentary on the BBC entitled 'The Somme: Secret Tunnel Wars', presented by Peter Barton. It is well worth a watch.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b01skvnh/

The documentary focussed on the subterrenean war beneath the battlefields of the Western Front, which although having received some coverage in Sebastian Faulk's 'Birdsong' and recent Australian film 'Beneath Hill 60' is generally one of the less well known aspects of the Great War.  In particular, the documentary focusses on the vicious campaign of mining and counter mining fought between the British and Germans at La Boiselle, at a place known as 'The Glory Hole', where an elite British mining team, formed from a group of men who formerly excavated the sewers underneath Manchester,  set about trying to undermine and blow up the German positions in advance of the battle of the Somme in July 1916.  Watching Barton descend into these tunnels, closed for nigh on 100 years, and from which certain individuals still reside, trapped under hundreds of meters of French soil, was rather terrifying.  Once again, one is reminded of the extraordinary danger men of the Great War were put through day after day, although surely the horror of being buried alive with no chance of rescue must rank among the most terrible of fates!

Earlier in the year during our Year 9 trip to the Somme we drove past the excavations at this location whilst returning from the remains of the Lochnagar crater, itself the work of the miners who were the subject of this programme.

More on the project at the 'Glory Hole' can be found here http://www.laboisselleproject.com/

The Experience of Warfare in Britain

Hello and welcome to the blog for Year 12 History at Sawtry Community College.  This year we are going to introduce a new Year 12 unit for our upcoming history students - Edexcel 'The Experience of Warfare in Britain 1854-1929'.

It's a subject close to my own heart as i've always been interested as a historian in the relationship between war and political/social change.  The First World War in particular has long been a fascination of mine; my great-grandfather John Frederick Walter Harry Edney joined up in September 1914, entered the theatre of war during the aftermath of the Battle of Loos in 1915, and served right up until the end of the war serving in most of the major battles from the Somme to Ypres and the final offensives in 1918.  Therefore, I feel a strong personal connection with the topic we are about to study, and I imagine many of our students will be able to tell similar stories.

This blog has been created to comment on aspects of the course that may feature in the news, e.g. archeological discoveries, TV programmes, books that I am reading/that have been recently been released, as well as serving as a place for debate about the course.  Although it has been primarily set up for students of the course, I would welcome any comment from anyone else who may have an interest in the subject.

I hope that this blog proves useful and/or interesting!