The Gruesome WW1 Trench Warfare Of Ypres Salient | The Great Underground War

The Gruesome WW1 Trench Warfare Of Ypres Salient | The Great Underground War | Timeline

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Timeline - World History Documentaries

9 ай бұрын

The story of how a unique British tunneling technique developed for the mud of Flanders was employed to win the strategic ground during the gruesome trench warfare of the Ypres Salient.
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Пікірлер: 168

@Team-fabulous 4 ай бұрын

My grand uncle William Kane was killed at the Somme aged 24. His body was never found and the Theipval memorial bares his name. He fought with the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. I have just acquired replicas of his medals as the originals have been lost over the ages. I plan to once again visit Theipval and Ypres this year and wear his medals as a mark of respect for this young man who gave his life for King and Country.. Although I never met William I am so very proud of him. Rest in peace my dear grand uncle.

@LordDirus007 2 ай бұрын

We experience two Deaths. Once when our bodies die Once when we are completely forgotten in this World

@Team-fabulous 2 ай бұрын

@@LordDirus007 it's difficult to forget to wonderful moments of this world but I take your point.... ASLAN.. CRAZY WORLD..

@neils1726 9 ай бұрын

One of my saddest memories is picking up a tongue depressor on the ground under the wall by the Menin Gate and reading "To the father I never knew, from your son aged 80"..

@coolbreeze2.0-mortemadfasc13 8 ай бұрын

Wow. ❤

@livmilesparanormalromanceb6891 3 ай бұрын

😢

@adamlee3772 9 ай бұрын

Beneath Hill 60 is a very good film about the Australians who served in this manner. Well worth a watch.

@willdixon2349 4 ай бұрын

Oh yes, an excellent and gritty Aussie movie. Highly recommended !

@joeerau 9 ай бұрын

Humanity will never learn, no matter how many lessons are provided.

@herbertvonzinderneuf8547 7 ай бұрын

You cannot hide the beast that we are.

@charlesc.9012 4 ай бұрын

Because you could learn the wrong lessons too. We demonstrated that through the Munich agreement, giving the Chaplin impersonator the vast industrial resources of Czechia, and costing us the first half of the war. And today too, when Macron went to Moscow to 'talk' it through with the Alexander II impersonator

@joeerau 4 ай бұрын

Maybe my comment was too ambiguous. That is exactly the lesson to which I was referring. Plus, given the right types of weapons systems in the proper numbers, Ukraine should not find itself stymied in trench warfare with, my preference, Stalin 2.0. @@charlesc.9012

@AledPritchard 9 ай бұрын

My great-grandfather was in the trenches at Ypres. He survived the Great War having been gassed and losing the top of one of his fingers in a blast.

@JudyDuduks-gm4rb 9 ай бұрын

Same for my uncle

@wendyHew 8 ай бұрын

Yes one of my great grandfathers was gassed at Ypres

@AledPritchard 8 ай бұрын

@@JudyDuduks-gm4rb Awfully sad. Much respect to him. You. And yours.

@AledPritchard 8 ай бұрын

@@wendyHew It’s disgustingly sad isn’t it? How I see it, anyway. Respect to him, Wendy. To them all x

@justinriley8651 6 ай бұрын

I hate to say it but the man was lucky to be alive! I mean I realize he sacrificed alot but he's lucky! that was a terrible war ,very brutal!

@mikes8917 5 ай бұрын

My Grandfather was a tunneller from the Royal Engineers, he was 16 when he enlisted in 1914. A coal miner from North Staffordshire.

@charlestourneur7862 2 ай бұрын

My great grandfather was one of these sappers. (Belgian by birth, in the Canadian forces, on loan to the British) He was gassed during counter tunnel measures at Messines ridge on or about June 6th 1917. He survived and returned to the field to join the Canadians in the upcoming horrific battles. I cant even imagine what life (and death) was like in those tunnels and trenches.

@BearBreath70 7 ай бұрын

My Grandfather, Robert Johnston, was a member of the 4th Battalion of the Canadian Mounted Rifles. He was captured on or about June 2/3 during the Battle of Mount Sorrel. He was one of the lucky ones - he lived, but spent the rest of the war as a POW.

@davidrobinson3434 9 ай бұрын

The horror that is war. The mad say, give us more.

@nobeoddy1664 9 ай бұрын

and the suckers say, "sign me up"

@damikey18 7 ай бұрын

@@nobeoddy1664"suckers"

@Horatio411 8 ай бұрын

My 17 year old Aussie Grandpa was there too. Never spoke about it but came home and got stuck into work without a whinge

@dannyoconnor3228 7 ай бұрын

I’m sure he had stuff happening in his head we thank him for his service

@K8E666 4 ай бұрын

I have a great uncle from Wales who was wounded at Ypres and died at a German military hospital !

@katimougey3682 9 ай бұрын

I know it’s fiction, but the three brothers of the peaky blinders were tunnel diggers… makes so much more sense!

@kingrobbie1793 9 ай бұрын

Canadian Cole miners from Halifax Canada start the tunnel systems in WW1

@MickAngelhere 9 ай бұрын

The Black Country in Birmingham had a few mines there back in the day, Wolverhampton is built on the mine tailings

@Ukraineaissance2014 9 ай бұрын

@@kingrobbie1793they didnt start them, they contributed along with many other commonwealth miners. Mining was started on the british side as early as 1914.

@agems56 9 ай бұрын

And the sad part of the History of WW1 and WW2 is that the Canadians are not mentioned , because we were hidden under the British name because we were not a separate Canadian Nation at the time, I am glad we were mentioned as Canadians in this documentary, so that the British didn't get all the credit!@@kingrobbie1793

@BloodOath 9 ай бұрын

Actually they were real people

@jonathaneffemey944 9 ай бұрын

Thanks so much for posting.

@saintjacques8137 9 ай бұрын

Great one! If anyone's brutally interested in military history I hotly recommend Schwerpunkt's videos series. He's a PhD in Medieval warfare but he's spectacular also when talking about contemporary strategy and tactics

@beerye9331 9 ай бұрын

Thanks for the recommendation.

@canadianintheukbrian 8 ай бұрын

My Great Grandfather was there 104th Canadian Expeditionary Force, he died of nephritis 1920 , he passed a year after the war, most likely being in those trenches

@rodeastell3615 8 ай бұрын

Excellent ... thank you for posting.

@samcook1027 4 ай бұрын

Having been to Ypres with scouts and being part of the last Post ceremony holding a scout flag,I have to say that the ceremony is so special. As well, all the names on the walls reminds everyone who goes there how costly war truly is

@marvinc9994 6 ай бұрын

WHAT a boon the Internet has proven to be for us History buffs. Young students today don't realise how lucky they are!

@mattsmith1137 8 ай бұрын

That city has to be majorly haunted after such a massive shedding of blood.

@willdixon2349 4 ай бұрын

No doubt in my mind.

@seanmccuen6970 3 ай бұрын

sure, sure, 'haunted', majorly even. lol, grow up.

@killaant84 8 ай бұрын

I absolutely love history!! I would really live to go back to school for something history related

@rhydianevans4435 8 ай бұрын

If in the Uk you can try the OU access module for free if you earn under 25k

@jacquelinegibbs9483 7 ай бұрын

Wow, didn’t know this. A park ranger in the US, historian who loves history, think many in the UK also don’t know this, thanks.

@mohammedsaysrashid3587 9 ай бұрын

A thrilled watching 👀 video about British 🇬🇧 troops military adventures through below up German troops from underground 🚇 tunnels during WW1. Thank you ( time line) channel for sharing

@adammac4960 9 ай бұрын

The forgotten battle. My uncle Adam is on the menin gate. 6th Northumberland Fusilliers Second battle of Ypres at Saint Julien. They counter attacked on the 26th of April after st Julian was captured by the Germans after they had used gas. 2000 casualties in one day his body was never found. From my research it was a bloody mess

@Anglo_Saxon1 9 ай бұрын

Terrible business mate 😔

@gamedevyoutube3.030 7 ай бұрын

May he rest in peace

@adriang6259 7 ай бұрын

Anybody notice the bullet holes in the Aussie tunneller's monument? Can't imagine the horrors working down there.

@johnpower3572 9 ай бұрын

My great-grandfather was killed there Nov 1914 ,with the Connaught rangers

@gb3007 9 ай бұрын

By 1917 their were no real trenches just a series of linked shell holes such was the damage caused by large artillery bombardments on the fields of Flanders. My gt grandfather fought during the passchendaele offensive, on the first day, 31/07/1917, and again on 20/09/1917 the battle of menin rd. He survived despite being a runner but his brother was MIA somewhere near mont Kemmel April 1918. Lest we forget.

@Ukraineaissance2014 9 ай бұрын

That was more of a tactical decision. Trenches still very much existed by 1917 but at the front lines they started to use much lighter held connected string points like hills or craters in a defence in depth doctrine

@gb3007 9 ай бұрын

@@Ukraineaissance2014 I think you are confusing German and British doctrines. The very fact such huge gains were made by the Germans in 1918 show the British had no defence in depth and a hastily scrambled defence was issued with a backs to the wall statement, hardly sounds like defence in depth more like a desperate rear guard action. And yes it was tactical but forced of necessity, with the drainage destroyed water, as is its nature, sought out the lowest point, which meant trenches and dugouts got flooded and were inhospitable nor workable as defensive structures. They were also zeroed by artillery, to stay was pure stupidity.

@Ukraineaissance2014 9 ай бұрын

@@gb3007 no im not, haig and plumer took on defence in depth strategy and battle zone ideas from the french in 1917 and changed them to suit the BEF, with strongpoints and mutually supporting 'boxes' put in to the firing line depending on local geography and the interconnecting trenches lightly held. Its one of the reasons the germans never actually broke through en masse.

@boonballer 7 ай бұрын

I love her willingness to speak English even though it’s not natural to her. ❤

@kingrobbie1793 9 ай бұрын

My GreatGrandfather was there for Canada when he was 14 years old, and Vimy Ridge, probably the worst battles of WW1

@howlandreed4031 9 ай бұрын

My great grandfather was there for Canada too, although not a native of Canada he moved there to get work from here in Ballyroney County Down Northern Ireland. He ended up fighting in WW1

@reggriffiths5769 7 ай бұрын

If you grandfather was 14 years old at ANY TIME during the First World War, he was far too young for enlistment; the ONLY Service that would had such a young boy would have been the Royal Navy, To the best of my knowledge there was only one 15-year-old seaman at the time, and he actually won a posthumous VC. There were a few underage soldiers who had managed to hide their youth and get past the recruiting sergeant, and one or two of them were only 14, with none known to have survived! When and at what age did your GF die? You need to be very careful and sure of your facts when making such statements; people don't like tall tales!

@katherinecollins4685 8 ай бұрын

Very interesting

@timarcher7933 2 ай бұрын

My Grandfather and his brother where Royal Engineers carpenters at Ypres.The brother was shell shocked out of the Army and never worked again.Spoke with him a few times as a child. One of the mines on the Somme as set off by the British is said to have caused a mini earthquake that broke the legs of Royal Warwickshire troops braced in the trenches for the expolsion.

@Anglo_Saxon1 9 ай бұрын

Its crazy to think they used so much tnt that each bang created what are now small lakes!!

@dennisyoung4631 5 ай бұрын

Often, the explosive used was either Ammonal or Amatol - the first being a mixture of ammonium nitrate and powdered aluminum, and the latter, a mix of *TNT* and Ammonium nitrate.

@yowiedownunder9074 9 ай бұрын

There is a WW1 movie called "Beneath Hill 60" its about Australian Tunnellers

@willdixon2349 4 ай бұрын

....and well worth checking out....!

@Corey_Lee_Slater 8 ай бұрын

🍁Lest we forget

@pekertimulia125 9 ай бұрын

What kind a man going into war..

@nobeoddy1664 9 ай бұрын

great adventure - how can anybody be this dense?

@user-sp4en7iu4m 9 ай бұрын

respect

@manyfaces2614 9 ай бұрын

Right

@alexphoenix9208 4 ай бұрын

Off topic, but I will trust the local's pronunciation of Ypres of the British. :)

@Mr29roses 7 ай бұрын

Sorry all the ads from KZfaq to those you have imbedded is just too much. I can’t count the commercials and it’s only 5 minute in

@Onora619 3 ай бұрын

I know this isn’t about the Battle of the Somme, but Tolkien was a soldier there and that battle was one of the if not the bloodiest conflict in human history. Makes LOTR hit a Little different

@johnhardy7764 2 ай бұрын

IMO ww1 was more gruesome and scary than ww2 but I’d still rather be in ww1 bc of the lack of technology that came 20 years later

@andrewallen9993 7 ай бұрын

Three mines didn't go off at the time, nobody remembers where they were, one went off due to lightning years later.

@brianmaitai7685 5 ай бұрын

They built a farmhouse over one.

@willdixon2349 4 ай бұрын

The lightning-connected detonation was in 1955, if my research is right....

@bartsimpson6767 8 ай бұрын

No sound..?

@icantseethis 9 ай бұрын

The chances of being eaten by a grue were very high in the area

@dquod6.096 3 ай бұрын

1:00 this was not the biggest explosion of WWI. I’m pretty sure correct me if I’m wrong it was the explosion at black Tom island by German spies in New York City. The Statue of Liberty was damaged.

@peterloo3136 4 ай бұрын

❤

@Rattlesnake12 8 ай бұрын

I never understood why the British put an F in lieutenant ( lieuftenant)

@herbertvonzinderneuf8547 7 ай бұрын

To make it easier for (often semi-literate) infantry to pronounce.

@veridian79 3 ай бұрын

Because it comes from the French language I think they spelled it leuf Ol French for lieu

@Marth281 9 ай бұрын

I have never understood the reason why World War One started?

@anthonyeaton5153 8 ай бұрын

@@paddyleblancIt isn’t quite so simple as that. Read deeper history.

@wendyHew 8 ай бұрын

Its a disaster as Britain and Germany were esentially dragged into the war and ended up doing alot of the fighting, this really led on to ww2. The official reason was that Austro-hungary had a Royal Family and their son was murdered whilst visiting Serbia, so they declared war on them. Russia then joined on purely racial reasons as they viewed serbians as the same slavic race as them so they joined the war against austro-hungary, unfortunately France was allied with Russia and Germany was allied with Austro Hungary so they got dragged in and Britain joined because they were allied with france but also because Germanys attack wemt through Belgium who were meant to be neutral, All in all utterly pointless for both Britain and Germany

@sassyt1545 6 ай бұрын

Inbreeding amongst the monarchies of GB and Europe.

@wendyHew 6 ай бұрын

@@sassyt1545 All monarchies in history were inbred not just Europe, GB actually had far less inbreeding it was the Habsburgs that were very inbred and obviously the middle eastern royalty and leaders but with the middle eastern areas it was much of the population, unfortunately it is an issue even today and even with middle eastern people that have come to the west, in Europe issues due to inbreeding have risen from almost zero to hundreds of thousands of cases which is a massive issue

@markprenaud 5 ай бұрын

Read guns of August

@deeppurple883 2 ай бұрын

The brits had a few companies of 5ft 2inc men did they go down the mines. ✌️ ☘️

@briandstephmoore4910 9 ай бұрын

To low budget for a good flashlight aye lol

@ianmacfarlane1241 9 ай бұрын

You're just full of the idiotic comments. This documentary is probably 20+ years old - predating commercially available, (and inexpensive) LED torches/flashlights.

@briandstephmoore4910 9 ай бұрын

Oh yea I forgot there weren't any decent flashlights at all in the 2000s 🤡 no one said it had to be LED clown just better than candle light

@garybashaw8245 7 ай бұрын

Virtually unwatchable, thanks to all the ads before

@CharlesHarpolek4vud 4 ай бұрын

People love to moan about the horrors of trench warfare but I remind everyone that the duration most spent in the trench on the front line was 4 to 8 days...... Not weeks not months but days.

@theothertoolbox 9 ай бұрын

What an epic waste of life.

@nobeoddy1664 9 ай бұрын

but wasn't it glorious to die for king and country?

@theothertoolbox 9 ай бұрын

I think you are being facetious. LOL

@petarvanj4343 9 ай бұрын

WW1 was sus

@livelikeus4980 9 ай бұрын

Highly sus

@nobeoddy1664 9 ай бұрын

you had to have been there

@michaelwhite8031 7 ай бұрын

A war Britain should not have got involved in.

@herbertvonzinderneuf8547 7 ай бұрын

Had Britain (and The Commonwealth) not got involved, in all likelihood USA would have not either. France would prob have lost. With no punitive Treaty of Versailles, there may not have been a WW2. Shift one pebble on a beach............

@coolbreeze2.0-mortemadfasc13 8 ай бұрын

Senseless war. Appalling waste of life.

@samdimmock2240 7 ай бұрын

6 minutes in and 5 adverts already? Unwatchable 🙄

@rob379lqz 9 ай бұрын

Yup. The arrogance on people, by beings-in-authority. Nothing changes 1000s of years… …but at least we are all peaceful in 2023.🙄

@theodorakarr4337 9 ай бұрын

Unfortunately there is still not peace in the whole world

@rob379lqz 9 ай бұрын

@@theodorakarr4337 Yes, my posted irony.

@nobeoddy1664 9 ай бұрын

thanks totally to the biblical god of peace and love

@rob379lqz 9 ай бұрын

@@nobeoddy1664 Except, our Biblical God is one one of Justice, Freedom of Choice, Forgiveness, Love, Commandments, and Grace. If you want a god that ensures everything, then try communism or fascism or oligargism… …just sayin’

@briandstephmoore4910 9 ай бұрын

Sounds like his uncle auditioned for the role of pink mist and got the part lol

@danielalbress 8 ай бұрын

Not funny! Not funny at all …you could never be one of these blokes even if you were taught…

@jasonellenberg3261 7 ай бұрын

I want to be hamburger meat

@maryannbannister5829 9 ай бұрын

While I admire the sheer guts of the men living in the tunnels I can't help wondering at the stupidity of sending the cream of your nation's youth to do this in the name of honour! I would have packed up and left.

@alexschalk5439 9 ай бұрын

That's called desertion, you get executed for that. Trust me, a year in the war a lot of people did not want to be there.

@BigMexican151 6 ай бұрын

@@alexschalk5439there were plenty of Germans that had no desire to fight too.

@reggriffiths5769 9 ай бұрын

IMO, not a great episode.While the writings of 2nd Lt Boothby were telling and poignant, it seems that the entire episode centred around him - basically one man's experience of tunnelling. The episode starts with the suggestion that the Hill 60 mine (or was it the Caterpillar Mine?) was the largest mine exploded on the Western Front, neither of which is incorrect. A later comment was made regarding Third Ypres "quagmire" that "even" spoiled the tunnelling operations - a curious remark considering that tunneling would be the first thing to suffer in a quagmire! Twenty-two mines laid at the Messines Ridge, but little to no reference made to the three that did not explode - or what happened in that regard! Most historians know the location of one that didn't go off; one that went off in c1953, but not where the third one is! Two people walking ahead of the camera and discussing events that could barely be heard is not the way to inform the viewer. Two people entering a concrete tunnel and investigating virtually every wall panel was rather a pointless exercise - what were they trying to discover or teach? OK, I'm being picky when I'd rather not, but the whole idea of a documentary is to inform, unfortunately this one failed in an amateurish way to provide that information.

@HO-bndk 7 ай бұрын

You are correct. And this is sadly typical for these "Timeline" docos.

@bkokohut1980 3 ай бұрын

13:22 why is a British soldier writing measurements in feet instead of meters?

@chrisbrown5073 2 ай бұрын

Evidently you have no understanding of the imperial/ metric system

@anfearaerach 9 ай бұрын

It's Eeper not Jeper in Dutch pfff

@wendyHew 8 ай бұрын

did you know the 'historian' Tony Robinson wanted that area given to Russia

@wesleybarton3871 9 ай бұрын

A bunch of Kings and nobles, possibly the most undeserving of the title noble, use peasants and lower class workers to fight and die, all for the hereditary, aristocratic system of determining ones lot in life. The soldiers are regaled with tales of glory, fighting and dying like pawns in a game of Kings, Dukes, Earls, Marquis, Squires, etc.

@MickAngelhere 9 ай бұрын

The war was a fight between cousins, they were Queen Victoria’s Grandkids

@danrooc 9 ай бұрын

@@MickAngelhere Actually there was no fight or even quarrel amongst them. They simply were simbolic heads of colliding powers driven by much stronger forces than those a 20th century crown could exert.

@wesleybarton3871 9 ай бұрын

@@MickAngelhere So nice of King V to abandon his cousin Czar Nicholas to the Bolshevists.

@cpurssey982 8 ай бұрын

In the British army the officer class suffered more casualties proportionally.

@wendyHew 8 ай бұрын

@@cpurssey982 Yes your right, the officers led their soldiers over the top so often were killed in the first wave.

@jamesmartin3431 9 ай бұрын

Blood of my blood... Never forgotten !!!!

@carlT1986 8 ай бұрын

People call Ypres “eeepruh”. People i met in a great deal people in various towns in Belgium called Leper. le-p-err. I suppose it may depend on whether someone is french or flemish or dutch etc etc

@wendyHew 8 ай бұрын

its called wipers in England sometimes as a nickname

@carlT1986 8 ай бұрын

@@wendyHew i have read that Tommies called wipers because that was the way it was spelled. The Tommies had other names for other towns nearby like “whitesheet” for a town name I can’t spell but it was something like “Wychaete”

@wendyHew 8 ай бұрын

@@carlT1986 oh is that why. My grandmother used to call it that, her father was injured in a gas attack there so he must have told her that. I know there was a landmark on the front that the British called tower bridge as it resembles the towers on the bridge across the Thames and of course the trenches were named. In Gibraltar there are still tunnels in the rock from both world wars and they all have names from places in Britain, Australia and Canada, a lot of the bigger tunnels are names of London streets, Charing cross road ect

@carlT1986 8 ай бұрын

Been to the bridge where they do the ceremony every night even today to honor those who sacrificed everything.

@wendyHew 8 ай бұрын

@@carlT1986 I have been near but not managed to go , hopefully I will be able to soon.

@kingrobbie1793 9 ай бұрын

My GreatGrandfather was there for Canada when he was 14 years old, and Vimy Ridge, probably the worst battles of WW1

@ianmacfarlane1241 9 ай бұрын

You only need to post this once.

@sand0decker 9 ай бұрын

@@ianmacfarlane1241sometimes the internet sends multiple of the same text. Very unlikely they meant to do it

@ianmacfarlane1241 9 ай бұрын

@@sand0decker Yes, I know. However it's impossible to know whether someone has repeatedly posted the same comment or not - whenever it's happened to me I delete the surplus comments. Of course keeping them up is an option, but it could be interpreted as the commenter being a bit crazy.

@agems56 9 ай бұрын

As a proud born Canadian, my heartfelt respect to your Grandfather!

@justinscarbro797 9 ай бұрын

Why does it bother you too the point of saying something. It doesn't matter if he posted the same thing 5 times . Maybe he was worried someone missed the one and up the chances of people knowing about his grandpa.

@kingrobbie1793 9 ай бұрын

My GreatGrandfather was there for Canada when he was 14 years old, and Vimy Ridge, probably the worst battles of WW1