Inside the amazing cave city that housed 25,000 Allied troops under German noses in WWI

The Daily Mail (U.K.) ^ | March 15, 2008 | ROBERT HARDMAN

[Stoat]

Sappers of the Royal Engineers decided that if they could link all these various subterranean holes in secret, an entire Army would be able to move safely from the rear to the front of the German positions and avoid all the initial horrors of the Somme.

Sapper - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sappers - definition of Sappers by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.

sap·per

 (spr)

n.

1. A military engineer who specializes in sapping and other field fortification activities.

2. A military engineer who lays, detects, and disarms mines

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[Stoat]

Ping

[Enchante]

"The generals had learned a few lessons from the 1916 Battle of the Somme. Chief among them was the fact that frontal assaults on well-defended enemy trenches and artillery were mass suicide."

Uh, that "lesson" should have been well-established by the time of the US Civil War and the Crimean War many decades earlier. Pickett's Charge ring any bells? Charge of the Light Brigade?

[aft_lizard]

Read the wiki article and was surprised to see it having originated from the French. I was always told it was based off of the VC because the VC sapper would come in and ‘sap’ morale by picking people off. I am also glad to see they finally made a tab for them. Learn something new everyday I suppose.

[GreyFriar]

WWI ping.

[ghostrider]

bump for later

[Slump Tester]

Wow! Great Saturday read.

Thanks for posting this!

[BenLurkin]

Interesting!

[EverOnward]

Amazing. Thank you.

[Smokin' Joe]

bfl

[sinanju]

I believe the word goes all the back to medieval times when the besieger’s engineers would dig to undermine castle walls.

[Hot Tabasco]

My grandfather fought in the trenches during WW-1 and as a result, had foot problems for the rest of his life. I truly regret not ever taking the time to actually sit down and talk to him about his life. But as a young kid, one never gives much thought to things like that........

[Stoat]

Battle of Arras (1917) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

 

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The Town Square, Arras, France. February, 1919.

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Battle of Arras. Schematic of battlefield at 05:00 hrs 9 April 1917.

 

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"Title: THE MACHINE GUN CORPS DURING THE BATTLE OF ARRAS, 1917". Men of the Machine Gun Corps fire their gun at a German aircraft (not pictured) during the Battle of Arras.

 

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Photograph of British 18 pdr field gun being moved into a new position, Battle of Arras, during the advance near Athies.
Comment : This was part of the First Battle of the Scarpe , part of the Battle of Arras.
Note armoured oil reservoir on front end of recuperator, introduced to extend the life of the springs.
Imperial War Museum Collection No.: 1900-13 Photo No.: Q 5171

 

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A British machine gun post near Feuchy, France. April 1917.

 

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This image is titled, "On Vimy Ridge, where Canada won Laurels". The caption reads:

The Canadians took the important position of Vimy Ridge on Easter Monday, April 9, 1917. They advanced with brilliance, having taken the whole system of German front-line trenches between dawn and 6.30 A.M. This shows squads of machine gunners operating from shell-craters in support of the infantry on the plateau above the ridge.

 

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THE BATTLE OF ARRAS 1917
A battery of 18-pounder field guns under German fire close to Monchy-le-Preux. In the foreground is an advanced dressing station.

 

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A scene in the Hindenburg Line, showing Australians with a Stokes mortar assisting in the operations near Bullecourt. The gun (covered by a German groundsheet) is on the left of the picture.

The soldiers are 4858 Private A A McTaggart (left), who gained the Belgian Medaille Militaire for fine work during this action, and 5667 Private E R Carey (right). Both are members of the 2nd Australian Light Trench Mortar Battery, 1st Division.

Place made: France: Picardie, Somme Bullecourt
Comment : This was part of the Second Battle of Bullecourt.
NOTE : This version of the photograph has brightness and contrast artificially increased to highlight details.

 

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The caption reads, "The Hindenburg Line at Bullecourt. Three trench lines and communications are here shown, with acres of wire entanglements in the left foreground protecting first-line positions. Beyond Bullecourt runs the St. Quentin Canal and tunnel, which was taken late in September by the Twenty-seventh and Thirtieth American divisions."

 

Troops embussing in Arras to go back for a rest having taken part in the Battle of Arras. The buses being used are London 'B' type buses, some 1,300 of which were requisitioned by the army in October 1914 as troop-carriers on the Western Front.

[sinanju]

Quite a lot of this stuff was invented in the Civil War.

The Siege of Petersburg saw the establishment of the later all-to-familiar trench warfare and No Man’s Lands.

Also the practice of digging a tunnel under the enemy lines and blowing them up (the Battle of the Crater as depicted in the movie “Cold Mountain”).

[TexanToTheCore]

I have never understood the use of trenches in WWI after the experience of the US Civil War in which mobility was the key to victory. It may have been an accomodation of a stalemated situation, but it never made any sense to me.

[sinanju]

My guess is that your grandfather suffered permanent nerve damage in his feet from trench foot, basically a slow-moving form of frostbite from his feet being cold and wet for weeks at a time.

[sinanju]

If I know anything about Great Art the mysterious “sweetheart” drawn on the cave wall was a rendering from an ad for soap or beauty cream, etc. in a magazine sent from home.

The “Gibson Girl,” you never know where you’ll find her next.

[Stoat]

I was always told it was based off of the VC because the VC sapper would come in and ‘sap’ morale by picking people off.

Apparently this definition is correct also

CAP Glossary

sappers -- Skilled VC or NVA infiltrators sent to damage fixed defenses before an attack.

The Americans in Vietnam had our own unique language, and each unit had its own dialect. In the CAPs, our dialect took words from English, Vietnamese and French, with expressions borrowed from street slang, Marine jargon, rock-and-roll and many other sources.

This glossary is an attempt to record some of the unfamiliar words you're likely to encounter when reading about the CAPs, with rough pronunciations and definitions. CAP Marines, please e-mail your additions and corrections to the glossary.

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I am also glad to see they finally made a tab for them.

Me too!

[Stoat]

Wow! Great Saturday read.

Thanks for posting this!

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Interesting!

***************

Amazing. Thank you.

You're all quite welcome and I'm delighted that you've found it worthwhile  :-)

Wow! Great Saturday read.

Thanks for posting this!

[EggsAckley]

Thank you so much for this article.

Fascinating.