Beneath Flanders Fields

[CINDERS]

There was another thread about the correctness of a Lee cut down for underground fighting but thats not what is going to be discussed here in this one.

The tunneler companies that dug for so long as part of Haigs master plan had a strain far greater than the average joe had up in the trenches as there was so much that could kill you down there.
Absolute silence was a must hence when the call went out they employed clay kicker and experienced tunnelers to remove the blue or white Ypres clay.
There were varying strata of the clays and the British devised a way to go deeper than the German tunnelers going under them at a 100' depth.
The Germans thought the Schwim sand could not be passed so they stayed above it for a while in the end they got to grips with it but either side it was painfully slow & deadly work.
Apart from possible methane the oxygen levels down at the face were quite poor just enough to keep a candle lit.

The galleries as they were called snaked towards each others lines across no-mans land and at times either party broke into anothers gallery.
Where in the pitch blackness they fought hand to hand mainly with cut down bayonets, pistols or shovels at times not knowing who you were stabbing so confusing was the fight.
You never new when the enemy may blow a camoflette charge to kill you or if you would get them when you set yours off.
All the spoils had to be gotten rid of in secret lest the enemy see the bright clay suddenly appearing on the fields.
They tried a mechanical machine but it was a logistical nightmare was not silent and it lies there today entomed in a gallery beneath Flanders, as when the crew went for a break they did not back it away from the face.
After a short while whilst the crew was away the clay pressed in on the machine and thus pinning it there forever.

It was said that all but 2 of the mines went up along the ridge, and I think it was either just before WWII or not long afterwards a lightning strike set one of the mines off leaving just one sitting there.
It was a very nasty existence for the men cold damp claustrophobic and the pictures that have surfaced recently from investigations give a pitiful view of their existence.
The German dugouts were like a hotel room with paneling good beds and lighting where as the ever frugal British and Australian tunnelers lead a very frugal existence indeed.
No sir to go down there for the period of a couple of years in that lot of mud, mud & more mud in a dimly lit narrow gallery just waiting for a collapse of an enemy camoflette.

Beneath Flanders Fields is a good read

Information

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[Boonie Stomper]

It is very hard to imagine what those guys went through. Up in the trenches was bad enough, but spending all that time digging, that's something. A bit like the Tunnel Rats in Viet Nam (American & ANZAC soldiers). When I was much younger, I used to explore Japanese tunnels located around my school in the Philippines. There were some where it was impossible to breathe as you went deeper. A heavier gas must have displaced the breathable air.

[CINDERS]

Very roughly the way it can happen depending on the mine is the O2 due to its higher specific gravity can hold the Methane in the lower levels due to concentrations sort of like a grape press holding the lighter gas down to the lower levels with only a little diffusion where they meet the Specific gravity of Methane is .5537 and O2 has S.G of 1.1044.
So the deeper you go without forced ventilation or closed circuit B.A your going into peril, I got caught in a chlorine gas leak once the alarms failed and it was all I could do to get out of the crane with what little breath I had and away from that gas as I only really got the mix of it before the main stuff hit.

These heroic things you see of people in movies getting in among these gases rescuing people with out B.A is a farce and gives a false sense of security to the public as if you go into an area with high concentrations of these gases your going down in one short gasp without being able to turn around.
How many people have tried to rescue a mate in an atmosphere of these gases and themselves perished a heroic act yes but plain stupid you have to control the urge to get in there let the professionals do what they do as it is a body recovery plain and simple you don't need to be one of them that we as ERT have to drag out.

Also the great party trick breathing helium in for the Donald duck voice is plain idiotic as well because it stops the O2 from displacing the CO2 by the alveoli in your lungs so your effectively suffocating yourself yeah very funny but a very stupid thing to do, I just shake my head at those people & walk away as they are too dumb to listen to a trained person like me what would I know.......!

[browningautorifle]

It was said that all but 2 of the mines went up along the ridge, and I think it was either just before WWII or not long afterwards a lightning strike set one of the mines off leaving just one sitting there.

That one went off about 1956. The other remains under the Plogsteert(?) woods.