What’s mine is mine ping.
Recent history, ancient technique.
A mine is a terrible thing to waste...
A mine is a terrible thing to waste...
Like many tactics of World War I, this tactic debuted courtesy of the American Civil War - specifically a mining expedition by the 48th PA Infantry at the Siege of Petersburg July 30, 1864.
Many don't know it, but today it is literally possible to walk from the Swiss border to the English channel, and follow the trench lines. It is incomprehensible to realizie that millions died, over several years, for a few miles of terrain.
I toured Verdun, and some of the other Somme sites in the early 70's, while I was stationed overseas. To look at the momuments, with the endless lists of the dead..it is humbling experience. It makes D-Day, and the American military cemetary, look like a minor skirmish.
Prior to that experience, I'd always failed to understand how the Brits allowed Hitler to come to power, when he could have been stopped early on quite easily. I used to ridicule Chamberlain's "peace in our time."
Once you realize that the Brits lost the better part of an entire generation in WW I, it gives context to their actions up till the outbreak of the 2nd WW.
“holy grail”
Odd way to describe the last resting place of heros.
Verdun and The Somme were an ecological Diseaster. Look at this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_rouge_(First_World_War) and this one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_villages_destroyed_in_the_First_World_War as well as this one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Verdun
Somewhat off topic, but poignant, is a book I read about German generals. In it, Senderlin, who fought in and lost his brother in WWI, actually went to the trench where he was buried, dug him up, put him in his car and drove him home to be buried. Horrifying to say the least.
http://wesulm.bravehost.com/history/vienna_siege.htm
