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Originally Posted by Von Tonner
Caught the back-end of a doccie on the battle of Messines Ridge. What interested me was the tunnels the British dug and the explosives they put in them. The number of men they killed when they set this off was staggering - and to be heard in London!!! 
Hope Hamas never get to know this.
"British forces put careful planning into the Battle of Messines Ridge: for the previous 18 months, soldiers had worked to place nearly 1 million pounds of explosives in tunnels under the German positions. The tunnels extended to some 2,000 feet in length, and some were as much as 100 feet below the surface of the ridge, where the Germans had long since been entrenched.
At 3:10 a.m. on June 7, 1917, a series of simultaneous explosions rocked the area; the blast was heard as far away as London."
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-h...messines-ridge |
Here's a bit more detail about the Battle of Messines Ridge
http://www.firstworldwar.com/battles/messines.htm. But yes mining or tunnel warfare was in fact fairly common during WW1 so much so that the miners on both sides would warn each other as to when a mine was going to be detonated. Another thing that might interest you is this
http://www.firstworldwar.com/today/hawthorncrater.htm
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The mine took seven months to lay, being 75ft deep and 1,000ft long. It was prepared with a 40,600lb ammonal charge by 252nd Tunneling Company. The resultant crater was 40ft deep and 300ft wide.
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And this was at the start of the Somme Offence on the morning of 1 July, 1916.