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00:00Less than a
00:05square kilometer of land blown apart by more than 500 mine
00:10Explorers
00:10Explosions
00:11In four horrific years of endless combat
00:15This is Vauquois, one of the worst killing fields of the First World War.
00:20A conflict that began on a hilltop and took 15,000 men's lives.
00:25As the war took a tactical turn toward the darkest depths of the Earth.
00:30First World War
00:35Yeah.
00:36Yeah.
00:37Yeah.
00:38Yeah.
00:39Yeah.
00:55There is nothing left of the French village of Volcois.
00:58In its place, there is just this death.
01:03It is often forgotten that here...
01:08Most of the Great War was fought underground.
01:12For four years...
01:13German and French miners dug a labyrinth of tunnels and chambers with the salt...
01:18and there is a strong aim of blowing each other to pieces.
01:23It's strategic...
01:23location spelt its destruction.
01:28Andy Hawkins and Julia Richardson of the British Archaeological Association
01:33the Durand Group have come to meet one of Germany's foremost experts on the
01:38border.
01:38Adolf Buchner.
01:40Buchner and his son visit...
01:43regularly to explore existing tunnels from the era.
01:48You can hardly believe this village was here on this spot.
01:53Now you can only see the craters.
01:56What you can also observe is that...
01:58there were no trees around here.
02:01This explains that one...
02:03the German or the French were here standing around having a few in all the...
02:08direction.
02:09Thousands of French and German soldiers...
02:13died as each side tried to control the hill.
02:17In the horrific...
02:18stalemate...
02:19Tunnelers on both sides blew a total of no less than 500...
02:23139 mines underneath the spot were a quiet village.
02:28It has been estimated that...
02:33in the first six months of battle 8,000 French and 6,300 German.
02:38So you see on a small area, 100 meters wide, it's in...
02:43enormous, unthinkable in our day and age.
02:48So you see on a small area, 100 meters wide.
02:53The first real mine warfare explosion was done on 13th of...
02:58May 1915, there were two German explosions.
03:03And one French one.
03:04And from that, the mine warfare started really.
03:08Until the last explosion was a German one, it was on the...
03:139th of April 1918.
03:18German has privately published the diary
03:20of one of the protagonists of this battle, Hermann...
03:23Hoppe, a German pioneer specialized in siege warfare tunneling and...
03:28explosives.
03:29And, yeah, therein spielt Hermann Hoppe also the main role, I think.
03:33It is interesting because it gives us a glimpse of the life of the sapper.
03:38And it shows the differences between the lives of a sapper and a sapper engineer.
03:43And an infantryman.
03:44And an infantryman.
03:45And an infantryman.
03:48And an infantryman.
03:49In August 1914, Germany invaded France in a...
03:53wide, enveloping movement through neutral Belgium.
03:58And an infantryman.
03:59And an infantryman.
04:00And an infantryman.
04:01And an infantryman.
04:02In September...
04:03The German 5th Army occupied the village of Vaucroix briefly, and then...
04:08retreated.
04:09But returned two weeks later, to dig in for good.
04:13The hill was a key position, from which two important valleys and...
04:18the vital railway line could be controlled.
04:21It is already noticed that the hoppe...
04:23We find out that Hermann Hoppe had a brother-in-law.
04:28Willi Fischer.
04:29The brother-in-law drew a postcard of his own of...
04:33called Vaucroix in 1915.
04:34The это был в 1915...
04:35The middle of the rabbit hole.
04:36The blood struggled with the stoicman.
04:37It was in 1915.
04:38The ripped hole.
04:39The duda и носит в 4-м сцвёс.
04:40Иважный палец в пиэр.
04:41Вукуе.
04:42Вукуе.
04:43Вукуе.
04:44Вукуе.
04:45Вукуе.
04:46Вукуе.
04:47Вукуе.
04:48Вукуе.
04:49Вукуе.
04:50Вукуе.
04:51Вукуе.
04:52Вукуе.
04:53Вукуе.
04:55Вукуе.
04:56Вукуе.
04:57Вукуе.
04:58Вукуе.
04:59Вукуе.
05:00Вукуе.
05:02the North Sea, on the higher ground where possible.
05:07The German Imperial Engineer units were to play a key role in...
05:12the evolution of trench warfare.
05:15Adolf Buchner met with...
05:17Dieter Stotz, the great war expert of the Military Museum at Ingolstadt in Bavaria.
05:22To have his views of how Tunnel Warfare evolved.
05:27According to military theory, until 1914 there was a clear distinction between...
05:32field warfare and siege warfare.
05:35All the European states had reinforced their...
05:37frontiers with more or less heavy fortifications.
05:40Certainly, they were very different forms.
05:42of combat.
05:43When the front stabilized, they introduced this specialized form of siege...
05:47warfare which all of a sudden became a normal form of combat.
05:51Many weapons...
05:52and many combat methods...
05:53that were typical of siege warfare became...
05:56daily routine.
05:57entrenched warfare.
05:59Mine warfare was amongst these.
06:01Balloon warfare should...
06:02also be mentioned.
06:03In the decades before the war, the German Imperial...
06:07army embraced modern military technology like no other army in Europe.
06:12The machine gun used the recoil of each shot to load another...
06:17ground...
06:18making it a super rapid fire killing weapon.
06:22Hydraulics, rifling, and new high explosives...
06:27made modern artillery faster firing...
06:30and more lethal than ever.
06:32Germany had the advantage of a very strong heavy artillery...
06:37that they had developed before the war.
06:39a heavy mobile field artillery that the French...
06:42did not have in such quantity.
06:44The British had artillery that was structured...
06:47similarly to the German...
06:48but in smaller quantities.
06:52German engineers like Hermann Hoppe...
06:56adapt...
06:57the cellars of the original houses...
06:59that once stood in the village...
07:00into bunkers...
07:01which...
07:02went out...
07:03and machine gun posts.
07:05Cement and steel were brought up...
07:07from the rear...
07:08to make them solid...
07:09and resistant to French attacks.
07:12They built trenches on the southern flank of the hill.
07:16The fire...
07:17power at the defenders' disposal...
07:18was simply...
07:19unbeatable.
07:22The first company...
07:25of the 30th Pioneer Battalion...
07:27arrived in Vauquois...
07:28because the French were preparing tunnels...
07:30so the company turned up...
07:33in Vauquois...
07:34on the 7th of January...
07:351915.
07:40The French were determined...
07:42to recapture...
07:43the French were determined...
07:44to recapture...
07:45the hill...
07:46with its view...
07:47of a strategic road...
07:48and rail routes...
07:49between Paris and Verdun...
07:50in December 1914...
07:52whole French infantry...
07:54regiments...
07:55made massed...
07:56frontal charges...
07:57against it.
07:58A month later...
07:59the...
08:00French had regained...
08:01a precarious hold...
08:02of the bottom...
08:03of the hill.
08:04In February...
08:051915...
08:06the attacks...
08:07by the French...
08:08redoubled...
08:09decimated...
08:10by...
08:10from German artillery...
08:11the infantry...
08:12conquered...
08:13the German...
08:14second line trench...
08:15just...
08:1620 meters...
08:17further up.
08:20a man...
08:21definitely...
08:21intoiji...
08:22a flame...
08:23dead...
08:24noр...
08:25noriy....
08:27later...
08:28thought it could result a little bit...
08:31in exile...
08:32he said that...
08:33wasn't what to do...
08:34hi it may be drafted...
08:36as he said it was during a trial...
08:38that's when theongos שמ� China's some c Hamburg...
08:40had me released a night...
08:42that's the other nice deal of murder...
08:44I don't understand...
08:45who knows it might be a taxi...
08:46summer but don't see the water...
08:47on the single day of the 17th of February
08:521915, more than a thousand soldiers died on the hill of Vaucroix.
08:57The French had prepared six tunnels.
09:02And wanted to blow up these six tunnels at the beginning of the attack.
09:07The sappers had to dig counter-tunnels.
09:09And on the 7th of January, the first counter-tunnel
09:12and the other mine blew that caused little damage.
09:14In any case, the attack of the 17th of February
09:171915 arrived. And of these six mines, only two
09:22blew. They didn't do much damage, but enough to allow combat to
09:27reach the village.
09:32In March 1915, the French were consolidating a position in the village.
09:378,000 French soldiers had been killed.
09:406,000 Germans had been killed.
09:429,000 Germans had died in the counter-attacks.
09:46During the March 1915,
09:47battle that raged on the summit of the hill, the Germans employed a new, terror
09:52terrifying weapon, the flamethrower.
09:57The flamethrower, the flamethrower, was used by people who were fired from the fire.
10:02The interesting thing about the flamethrower is that it had to be handled by
10:07firemen who were used to managing fires.
10:10The flamethrower was a close
10:12combat weapon and had a very strong psychological effect because fear
10:17of burning is obviously one of man's greatest fears.
10:22The ability to resist a flamethrower attack involves a good dose of courage
10:27and discipline in the troops under attack.
10:32Anyway, the enemy had been pushed back.
10:37Then the next attack came, on the 28th of February, and this
10:42was without mines or mine preparation, but the sappers were on the spot and had
10:47to take care of finding shelter for the troops.
10:50There were a lot of people in Vauquois.
10:52two battalions, two battalions, and they had to try to stay on the hill.
10:57They had intensified their attacks and prepared even heavier artillery, firing shells
11:02up to 27 centimeters, very big shells.
11:05And when they exploded, they had to try to stay on the ground.
11:07They made craters eight meters in diameter and five meters deep.
11:12So obviously they tried to dig even deeper.
11:17The village was reduced to rubble.
11:20The gardens and woodland that surrounded the land
11:22had to stay on the ground.
11:22were now just one of the thousands of killing fields of the Western Front.
11:27But with a difference.
11:28But with a difference.
11:32Three-Enders
11:35Five
11:37The strategic hill of Volk.
11:42was a perfect observation point for French and German artillery in the battle.
11:47Battles that raged around the fortress city of Verdun during the First World War.
11:52French infantry conquered half of the hill in March 1950.
11:57With an enormous loss of life.
12:01But a deadly...
12:02This standoff in the high street of the village triggered a whole new phase of the battle.
12:07The greatest losses at Vauquois were suffered during the assaults up to...
12:12in March 1915.
12:13During these assaults, up to a thousand...
12:17innocent soldiers were put out of action, killed or wounded.
12:22The Korean War that followed for the next three years didn't cause many victims.
12:26Many, by our standards...
12:27And we're talking about 800 dead in those three years, both French and German.
12:32So you see, compared with the day of French or German attacks in 1915...
12:37it's significantly less.
12:39What is certain is that, for example, the first...
12:42company of the P-30 battalion lost 69 men, together with the infantry.
12:47In the period between the 7th of January 1915 and the date they had...
12:52to lead for the other front, that's to say, the 9th of April 1918.
12:57In that period they lost 69 men, of which 57 died.
13:02and of which 9 died from gas poisoning.
13:07Nowhere else along the 1,000 km western front did the war literally...
13:12go underground.
13:13Over the four years of the war...
13:17the French and Germans exploded hundreds of mines...
13:20in a bitter attempt to...
13:22prevent each other from dominating the hill.
13:27And Nangcar Hill has been Hugged a 그런...
13:29with the k ejercicio number 8 in 2012.
13:30But for the people in the world whorioques,
13:31having beenAlex...
13:32the night before 8th of March Ela,
13:34and joining us from of the West.
13:35To UWNM这.
13:36international profensen-arts scene for Engramcul Shannon quand der kernels.
13:37In the hand before 9th of April Straßen,
13:38from Paris Fluxilo RESPA,
13:40to the International bout East,
13:42we're disgusting without drifting without Gong,
13:43and that doesn't havesst tandem enough for the McHofay dit.
13:45So, in a very short space of time, and so they went on.
13:50I think the…
13:50The peak came in July, no, in August, with a total of 27 German…
13:55…explosions and 18 French ones.
13:59Can you imagine more than 27…
14:00…explosions in one month?
14:05After the French infantry had recaptured half the village of Vauquois,
14:10an uneasy balance of firepower settled in.
14:15The church and its chestnut tree became symbols of the destruction and the descent.
14:20Into the hell of tunnel warfare.
14:25In May 1915, three French mines
14:30were exploded on the west of the village and the infantry attacked to occupy the north.
14:35The northern edge, it was yet another bloodbath.
14:40The Germans exploded three on the eastern part of the hill.
14:45As infantry attacks became too costly in lives to continue,
14:50the tunnelers dug deeper and drove their galleries towards enemy tunnels.
14:55To destroy them before the mines could be set off.
14:59The
15:00These anti-tunnel mines were called camouflae.
15:06Obviously, it was very frightening to work in tunnels.
15:10Man
15:10all trees had been feared for their lives.
15:11Not knowing what the enemy was doing close by,
15:14whether he was
15:15.
15:17This
15:18is
15:19a
15:15going to blow a mine, or not blow one.
15:19Adolf has taken
15:20Andy and Julia underground to explore the tunnels.
15:25Here, attack tunnels were driven towards enemy lines, close to living quarters.
15:30and logistics facilities.
15:32In the Spahnstollen, Paul Rada, this was a...
15:35pioneer of the first company.
15:39He lost his...
15:40He lost his life due to gas in the Spahnstollen.
15:44And Paul Rada was a...
15:45a very good comrade to Hermann Hoppe, and Hermann Hoppe has his picture.
15:50On the 21st of February, 1916, three German...
15:55armies attacked the French towards the city of Verdan, in an attempt to bleed...
16:00France dry of soldiers.
16:04It was the...
16:05strategy of annihilation, employed by the new German Chief of General Staff.
16:10Eric von Falkenhayn.
16:11He believed that he could lure the French into...
16:15murderous counter-attacks, so they could be decimated by artillery and machine guns.
16:20The massive attack on Verdan pushed...
16:25local commanders on the hill of Vukwa to do more to capture the strategic high ground.
16:30The...
16:35French engineers inched their way forward over the months.
16:38And on the 23rd of March...
16:401916, placed a 12-ton mine under the German position.
16:45It was where the church had been.
16:46It killed 50 German troops.
16:50But the infantry attack that ensued was still repulsed...
16:53by the well-entrenched Germans...
16:55who fell back to the second line.
16:59In 1916...
17:00the Underground War took a completely new turn.
17:05The comrades of Hermann Hoppe decided to blow a massive crater on the western...
17:10side of the hill...
17:11in revenge for the mine of March.
17:15They used their favorite ammonium nitrate explosive...
17:18known as West Phalite.
17:20The result was a crater that ripped the heart out of the hill...
17:25and took the Underground War to new extremes.
17:29I'm not saying there...
17:30they began a series of explosions trying to better the enemy...
17:33and so the biggest explosion on the hill...
17:35of Vauquois was the one on the 14th of May 1916...
17:38which was 60 tons...
17:4060,000 kilos of West Phalite...
17:43which exploded and...
17:45blew up the whole of the west side of the hill.
17:49The French...
17:50were surprised by this explosion.
17:53You can understand that after this explosion...
17:55the morale of the French was very low...
17:57and they never used more explosive than that.
18:00That day the French were outdone.
18:03Andy and Julia...
18:05are looking for the tunnel that led to the massive May 1916 mine...
18:10marked a turning point in the Underground Battle...
18:12and killed 109 French infantrymen.
18:15They follow Adolf through the maze of tunnels built...
18:20by Hermann Hopper and his men.
18:2290 meters underground...
18:24they are stopped...
18:25in their tracks...
18:26by the rising water table.
18:27.
18:30Okay.
18:33So...
18:34we're in...
18:35this entrance tunnel now so we're coming down and we've been stopped by this sun
18:40because it's too big to go across yeah okay
18:44and it's filled with water
18:45so can you tell us then where we were going
18:50and the story behind the attack that the particular tunnel was going
18:54okay
18:55so we are now in the west position of Vauquois and on 20
19:003rd of March 1916 the French met an explosion in the
19:05center of Vauquois which was a surprise for the Germans
19:10the listening service did not hear the advance
19:14so
19:15they planned a revenge and the revenge was this one it was a gallery one
19:20B and this gallery was dug in a form
19:25of a sea
19:27okay
19:28of a saw
19:29like that
19:30okay
19:30to better
19:31to have a better tamping
19:35and
19:35and
19:36this
19:37was intended
19:38to
19:39to get blown up
19:40with a charge of 60 tons
19:42of
19:43Westphalit
19:44uh-huh
19:45of
19:47you
19:49you
19:51you
19:53you
19:57you
19:59you
20:01you
20:03you
20:05you
20:06you
20:07you
20:08you
20:09you
19:45you
19:50you
19:55you
19:56you
19:57you
20:00you
20:01you
20:02you
20:03you
20:04you
20:05you
20:06you
20:07you
20:08you
20:09you
20:10you
20:11you
20:12you
20:13you
20:14you
20:15you
20:16you
20:17you
20:18you
20:19you
20:20you
20:21you
20:22you
20:23you
20:24you
20:25you
20:26So the loss was about 109 men.
20:29The massive crater shown here.
20:31In pictures of the time.
20:33Blew the French lines apart.
20:35Allowing a temp.
20:36A temporary German gain.
20:38The German tunnels were fully equipped to host hundreds of tunnels.
20:41Hundreds of men.
20:42To defend what was left of the village.
20:45They were equipped.
20:46With sleeping quarters.
20:47And kitchens.
20:51During which time.
20:52After the return of their occupancy.
20:55In this clear space.
20:56The murky floated.
20:57The 쉬満足.
20:58The hard work is stable.
20:59The woods are very small.
21:00To tighten the top.
21:01Theياze.
21:02The survive.
21:03The Jah ii.
21:04The bullIT.
21:05The way I !
21:06The rising star.
21:07The more araberated.
21:08The end.
21:09The lowerala.
21:10The lowerala.
21:11The lowerala.
21:12The lowerala.
21:13The lowerala.
21:14The higherala.
21:15The lowerala.
21:16The lowerala.
21:17The lowerala.
21:18The lowerala.
21:19The lowerala.
21:20The lowerala.
20:56You
21:01There are beds, you know beds?
21:03Beds, not beds.
21:05Yes.
21:06We have a very simple construction, a wooden one.
21:09We have also seen constructions based…
21:11This is iron, the Schuhmann Eisen.
21:13With holes into locking holes.
21:16And you can very easily construct such a bed.
21:19It's not stable like that.
21:21I imagine that would shake a bed.
21:23Yes.
21:24Yes.
21:26Yes.
21:27Once you are started to shake by shockwaves…
21:31From the explosion that I mean…
21:32It was exaggerated.
21:34A garrison of 1,000…
21:36German soldiers lived here, mostly underground, in a well designed and protected place.
21:41I mean…
21:42The area…
21:43Hygiene was basic.
21:45Lice…
21:46fleas and rats infested their bedding and food.
21:50Nearby was
21:51the kitchens where the soldiers would come to eat in one of the day's fleeting human.
21:56Adolf personally excavated what seems to be a kitchen.
22:01A kitchen facility close to the attack tunnel.
22:04People passed here to receive...
22:06There are templates.
22:11Just put on the steam as it's cooking.
22:13Out the back.
22:16I don't know what that's for.
22:17I don't know what that's for.
22:18But presumably you'd have some...
22:21Something covering on the top.
22:22The interesting thing is I found a photograph of exactly this.
22:26This room.
22:27Oh right.
22:28With this table inside and we have reconstructed that.
22:31Okay.
22:32Again in line with this photograph.
22:34And it's a very good photograph you see too.
22:36There are two kitchen people.
22:38Uh huh.
22:39Steps.
22:40Yes.
22:41But they...
22:41They had a plate.
22:42Where you had the inscription for...
22:45Wie wie aushungern.
22:46And from being aushungern.
22:47We are not hungry.
22:51Okay.
22:52This was to show that the blockage...
22:53The British blockage is not working.
22:55Okay.
22:56A couple of bits of graffiti.
22:57A couple of bits of graffiti.
22:58Yeah.
22:59Why do they have graffiti?
23:00It suggests that it's...
23:01An area where people aren't just passing through.
23:02So it's not just a passing section.
23:04This badge actually...
23:05This badge actually...
23:06It's a shield.
23:07Yeah.
23:08Uh...
23:091917.
23:10Dated.
23:11And you recognize the badge.
23:12Yes.
23:13Charles...
23:14To listen to thenis...
23:16White-blue could be the variant one.
23:21White-blue could be the variant one.
23:26Oh
23:31On the other side of the hill,
23:36the French planned their revenge.
23:39Starting from their real life,
23:41they brought in a light railway to bring out debris
23:44and dug even deeper.
23:46The Germans and French raced to go deeper
23:48under German trenches.
23:50The Germans and French raced to go deeper
23:52into the sea.
23:51They prefer to attack each other's tunnels
23:53and blow each other's trenches.
23:56So this picture is a my
24:01explosion.
24:02It's a German picture.
24:03A German explosion.
24:05I don't...
24:06I don't know when it was taken,
24:07on which day,
24:08but it comes from Vaucroix.
24:10And it shows that a mining...
24:11explosion was like a volcano.
24:13And it would have been placed under a trench with...
24:16men inside it.
24:17There couldn't have been any survivors.
24:20This man...
24:21a map of the trench lines
24:22of the French and German sides of the hill
24:24indicates how much...
24:26better the German redoubts were supplied and defended.
24:31Adolphe takes Andy and Julia to look for the generator room.
24:35The supply of...
24:36the basic comfort of the tunneller.
24:38Light.
24:41We are now in the front of the...
24:44We are now in the front of the...
24:46Kaiser Stollen.
24:47The Kaiser Gallery.
24:49It was one of the main galleries.
24:51who...
24:52what...
24:53who was in...
24:54in use in...
24:55in operation in...
24:561916
24:57made a lot of explosions.
24:59Not only from...
25:00This is the main...
25:01main...
25:02truck.
25:03But...
25:04it is...
25:05diverted several times.
25:06So...
25:07this is the...
25:08generator room.
25:09It is one of them.
25:10There...
25:11there were two.
25:12The other one is now...
25:13destroyed.
25:14It was an accident...
25:15on...
25:1619th of June...
25:1715th of August 1917.
25:20One of...
25:21in the...
25:22next...
25:23the machine...
25:24after...
25:25the...
25:26motor...
25:27exploded...
25:28explosion.
25:29Yes.
25:30And...
25:31very...
25:32yeah...
25:33The...
25:34of
25:35the...
25:35the...
25:36Volta...
25:37explosion.
25:38Yes...
25:39How long...
25:40I...
25:41I...
25:41I...
25:42load...
25:43stress...
25:44I...
25:45you...
25:46I...
25:47power...
25:48type...
25:49I...
25:50You can see there, it's a duct here.
25:54And if you are .
25:55I'm going a little bit in this chamber, which looks not very nice.
26:00It's full of rubble, but you can creep and you can see how it continues.
26:05The map of the tunnels shows just how close combat and logistics areas were.
26:10When the time came to attack, no point of access was out of bounds.
26:15Some of these attack tunnels intersected French ones.
26:20On the other side of the hill.
26:25I think it's the Richthofen Gallery.
26:27Okay.
26:28It's a .
26:30If I can interpret the map I have in my mind.
26:33Yeah.
26:34So it must be .
26:35But again, this is another one that sort of .
26:40The water isn't it?
26:41Yes.
26:42So are we actually below the water table?
26:43We are below the water table.
26:44We are below the water table.
26:45Right.
26:46And there's another fighting gallery behind me.
26:49Yeah.
26:50It's also .
26:50The water table is full of water.
26:51Right.
26:52And in summertime, the water level is sunk.
26:55Yeah.
26:56But it will always be a remaining water inside.
27:00Yeah.
27:01If you want to visit it, you have to pump.
27:03Okay.
27:05The water level is sunk.
27:06By the end of 1916, the French and German lines were sunk.
27:07By the end of 1916, the French and German lines were sunk.
27:10The French and German lines ran roughly through the center of what had been the village.
27:14Just a few meters .
27:16As the main effort of the war moved elsewhere, the建��� possibly opened for the century,
27:17the French and German lines were similar to lead to the population.
27:18The French Network had roughly reduced the overwhelming number of vessels to the
27:22Rs.
27:22became depleted.
27:25Just a battalion of a thousand men on each side
27:27held the line.
27:32Life in the dugouts and trenches was horrific on both sides.
27:37Especially for the under-equipped French.
27:41The small museum
27:42that stands at the foot of the Vauquois Hill
27:44tells the story of the men who fought each other here.
27:47To the death.
27:49Over the years, armies developed
27:52lines.
27:52Light machine guns that could be served by a single man.
27:55Making life more hellish than ever.
27:57They were very precise weapons.
27:59But they were very heavy for certain tactics.
28:02So light machine guns were introduced.
28:05The French and the English
28:07went ahead as you see here with the French model Chauchat
28:10and the British Lewis machine.
28:12The Germans had to keep up and created their own model.
28:16Since they didn't have
28:17have light machine guns in stock, they use their old machine gun, the MG-08.
28:22They adapted it to have a lighter structure.
28:25Small mortars were developed.
28:27To lob shells into the opposing trenches during an attack.
28:32They kept the defenders heads down for a few vital seconds, as the infantry made swords.
28:37They made slow progress through the barbed wire entanglements.
28:42Opposing trenches were so close that artillery support was impractical.
28:47A few kilos of explosive and shrapnel could kill five or six.
28:52Each time one was fired, the other side was fired.
28:57Would retaliate.
28:59The hand grenade was a weapon developed for sappers during...
29:02siege warfare.
29:03Who used hand grenades before 1914?
29:07sappers and anarchists.
29:08Then they were used in the First World War, when...
29:12French warfare developed and they became one of the most common infantry weapons.
29:17The hand grenade became a preferred weapon for attackers when rifle fire failed.
29:22They failed to kill the enemy.
29:23At first, the French used these primitive...
29:27hair comb grenades that were little more than cans of explosives...
29:32were attached to a wooden plank and ignited using an open wick.
29:37The Germans used stick grenades.
29:40Eventually, both...
29:42sides began receiving more sophisticated weapons.
29:45The French received grenades...
29:47based on the mill's internal fuse system.
29:50And the Germans began using the...
29:52famous stick grenade ignited by pulling a cable inside the stick handle.
29:57Trained infantrymen could throw these about 20 meters.
30:02not far enough to reach the opposing trench.
30:05So usable mainly in defense...
30:07or during a surprise attack.
30:08or during a surprise attack.
30:12Building dugouts and tunnels was slow...
30:17tedious work.
30:18Both sides used tools such as the...
30:22of these picks and hammers to excavate the soft flint rock.
30:26.
30:27But here, the rocks are relatively tender...
30:31...
30:32...
30:33...
30:34...
30:35...
30:36...
30:37...
30:38...
30:39...
30:40...
30:41...
30:42...
30:44We found them with their wooden handles, and in water, wood doesn't rot.
30:49So you see, it was very, very tough manual labour.
30:54They could dig no more than a metre a day.
30:59Two men hacked at the flint rock, two passed back the debris, and a team...
31:04...of six or seven passed the buckets of spoil backwards.
31:09These tunnels were very...
31:14...small for the simple reason that the more you dig, the more materials you have to take out.
31:19So they dig the least possible, on both sides, on the German side and...
31:24...and on the French.
31:26An attack tunnel was, on average, 70 centimetres...
31:29...wide and one metre high.
31:31So you see, you couldn't even stand up inside.
31:34Over the months, the French and German miners developed...
31:39...and primitive systems for detecting enemy digging, such as pans of water...
31:44...which would make ripples with even the smallest vibration.
31:49...and counter-mining became as important as mining.
31:53This meant...
31:54...like digging towards the enemy tunnels...
31:56...and, if possible, destroying them with small...
31:59...and explosive charges, called camouflage.
32:03The mining...
32:04...and war became more and more sophisticated...
32:06...as the war dragged on.
32:09One key instrument developed to detect enemy activity was this.
32:14A form...
32:14...of stethoscope for listening to the earth, called a geophone.
32:20It amplified the echoes made by iron against rock...
32:23...and warned...
32:24...the tunnelers...
32:25...that their enemy was near.
32:27It was very important.
32:29It was very important.
32:30It was very important.
32:32It was so important...
32:32...it was so important.
32:33...
32:34It was...
32:35... it was very important.
32:36was and what he was doing. So using these listening devices they would take
32:41their tunnels under the enemy trench or enemy attack tunnel then they'd lay
32:46explosive charges and blow them up and destroy them like that.
32:51This French tunnel starts in the second line trench and extends under the German front.
32:56Line and has several lateral listening tunnels to allow engineers to
33:01precisely locate enemy activity. There was a listening post
33:06every 50 meters.
33:11Once the location of the enemy was identified action had to be taken.
33:16Mainly this consisted in driving a small tunnel to walk
33:21towards the source of the sound and packing the new chamber with a small explosive charge.
33:26The End
33:31Each side moved slowly towards each side.
33:36It's the main objective, which was to blow such a huge hole in the trenches
33:41but any attack would meet no resistance.
33:44It was a deadly game of...
33:46...of cat and mouse.
33:49As the year of the bloodbaths...
33:51...of the Dan and the Somme drew to a close,
33:54the commanders on Vauquois Hill...
33:56...began studying some radical new solutions.
34:00They began...
34:01...and digging deeper than ever before...
34:03...in a race to the lowest part of the hill.
34:06Their goal was simply to raise all 120 meters...
34:11...of hill to ground level.
34:14If neither side could have it...
34:16...no one would.
34:18By early 1917, two years after the French...
34:21...infantry had conquered the hill of Vauquois with such heavy loss of life...
34:26...the commanders began the deepest minds of the whole campaign.
34:31This diagonal shaft is one of three that went 40 meters into the earth.
34:36The French were planning to place a hundred and four...
34:41...forty tons of explosive in their deepest minds...
34:44...and simply blow the whole hill to...
34:46...to pieces.
34:47The Germans, too, were digging...
34:50...in the relative...
34:51...of safety of their concrete bunkers.
34:54Their plan was to go even...
34:56...and deeper.
34:58Three 100-meter shafts.
35:01...began inching their way to the bounds of the earth.
35:06cilia is, would...
35:07...as it needed 1947 and put...
35:08...in the阳 at meaning and put...
35:10...sacorting your way to the coral.
35:11To the deep
35:23увид explore the roots.
35:24Where does the sun came from?
35:25The Lady before he was born
35:29Where does Henry shouldn't learn this before?
35:31The human can be wants to...
35:33...it was his stank.
35:34had the plan to blow up the full hill and they start
35:39to dig three fighting tunnels, three tunnels down to a level of...
35:44ninety-eight, ninety-nine hundred meters and they...
35:49calculated a charge which was two hundred eighty thousand tons.
35:54Per gallery, that means eight hundred forty tons, eight hundred...
35:59forty tons for all the three ones. They applied, they had to apply.
36:04For the ammunition, for the explosive, for the explosive and so on.
36:09What do you need? Hundred forty tons of explosives?
36:12Yeah, correct.
36:13Look, we would like...
36:14to make an offensive. In spring eighteen we need all what we have.
36:19And you, with your mind of mind warfare, bring it to an end.
36:22Stop it with this bloody...
36:24everything. And you, you pioneer, your company, you will...
36:29leave this sector as quick as possible and go to...
36:32to the western part, to the western...
36:34Right, okay.
36:35So this was more or less the... the hint or the...
36:38yeah...
36:39the end of the... of the... the work duration of the P30 because...
36:44in April they had to move. Maybe because of that, but they didn't get the explosion.
36:49It was explosive, so it... it were never blown up.
36:52Okay.
36:53The gallery...
36:54they were not feeding through the... the French line.
36:58It were...
36:59tick-tack like that.
37:00Right.
37:01And it turned...
37:02and it turned again.
37:04and it was more or less in their own position.
37:06They wanted to blow up their own position.
37:08But...
37:09at least that way they knew it wasn't going to be counter-mined.
37:12Yeah.
37:13And even the French...
37:14they had in mind such... such an explosion with three... three mines already in March.
37:19And... but it was only a project.
37:20It was never realized by the German...
37:21Right.
37:22They...
37:23They...
37:24it was never...
37:25it was never realized...
37:26at least.
37:28As the diggers carved the...
37:29But through the rock, life on the surface was equally harsh.
37:34What was the worst thing for the...
37:39was sitting in a position and knowing that at any time it could be blown into the air.
37:44We knew that we were underminated and that we could fly every time in the air.
37:49Dead bodies often remained exposed for days, stuck in the mud or barb...
37:54wire and rotted in front of their comrades in arms.
37:58They also...
37:59attracted rats that came to infest the trenches and dugouts where men tried to...
38:04find some rest between skirmishers.
38:07This is an underpsychical moment.
38:09From a psychological standpoint, it is different knowing that you...
38:14are closed in a small tunnel where you can barely move.
38:18You can't go back.
38:19You want to turn back, but you are cut off because an underground mine has exploded.
38:24so you are trapped.
38:26You can only think to yourself how you are going to...
38:29because of gas or by running out of oxygen or of thirst or by...
38:34drowning because water comes up.
38:36So the possibility to die...
38:39The French and Germans continued exploding mines...
38:44at a regular pace.
38:45Although both sides knew that neither had the manpower to...
38:49capture the other side of the hill.
38:52Now mineshafts collapsed...
38:54not only because of camouflage...
38:56but simply the fragile structure of the rock.
38:59And he knew such a special similarity...
39:00Many வ just rarely Holocaust everywhere...
39:01...dep Kabul...
39:02anxious...
39:03because there were not many thousands of Machine 1000...
39:04they worked.
39:05And they had to develop reparations...
39:06They even knew that they had to moderation...
39:07They could kill bad damage.
39:08The Lineshafts could dump it on...
39:09they had to production in real Monday.
39:10And they would super funny...
39:11They met their head into the UK.
39:13They had to charge that to the UK...
39:14...stabes of a sudden they had to stop...
39:16They obviously made the ноч expansive...
39:17...and they needed to run.
39:18They asked...
39:20So had to get in the UK very few people with their名idée...
39:23And it was lots of the Yankee moved.
39:26By 1917, the commanders on the surface had come to a gentleman's agreement.
39:31There would be no explosions after 7 a.m., and mortars and...
39:36grenades would be launched only after 5 p.m.
39:41In one friendly incident at Christmas 1916, German and French...
39:46miners sang to each other through the rock partition between them.
39:51It was always very...
39:56sad when you lost a colleague or a comrade, such as Paul Radder, who was one of his very...
40:01best friends, who was killed by gas in a tunnel.
40:04Herman Hoppe suffered...
40:06a lot.
40:09By mid-1917, the French...
40:11realized that they would never have the manpower to dig so deep.
40:16Britain and the French army had drastically reduced its fighting effectiveness.
40:20And by...
40:21only then, the strategic importance of VOCOA had disappeared.
40:26After...
40:27After...
40:28After...
40:31What we saw today...
40:32What we discovered...
40:33We can just imagine the waste of May...
40:36the men...
40:37the murderous folly of the fighting men, both German and French...
40:40and others...
40:41It was an incredible carnage.
40:44We've been told that there are still...
40:46thousands of men buried under the hill of VOCOA.
40:51hundreds of thousands of people...
40:56who are still buried under the hill of VOCOA.
40:59The Germans continued...
41:01digging until March 1918.
41:03When they too abandoned their plan to totally...
41:06destroy the hill.
41:07More important battles were being waged...
41:11elsewhere.
41:12The hill of VOCOA was part of a wider front in the Argon...
41:16forest.
41:17Adolf Buchner, and members of the Argon of Argon...
41:21the Halt Association...
41:22have explored the tunnels built by French and Germans alike.
41:26Tunnel warfare here...
41:29became just one more way...
41:31of attacking the enemy...
41:32when frontal assaults proved suicidal.
41:36The complexity and efficiency of the German underground campaigns...
41:40were secular.
41:41second to none.
41:46By the end of 1917...
41:48as the German and Austrian empires...
41:51benefited from peace with Russia...
41:53their commanders planned a breakthrough in the West.
41:56The German, April 1918, offensive on the West...
42:01the Western Front...
42:02nearly reached Paris once again.
42:04Italian...
42:06troops...
42:07sent to replace the French at VOCOA...
42:09were ordered to blow up the entrances to...
42:11tunnels...
42:12and retreat.
42:16At the end of April...
42:17it was clear the offensive had failed.
42:19And now that the United States...
42:21had entered the war...
42:22the fate of Germany and Austria was sealed.
42:26Between June and September 1918...
42:28a million American troops landed on...
42:31the French soil...
42:32and were ready to attack the weakened German lines.
42:36a renewed artillery barrage...
42:38against the hill of VOCOA...
42:39was the prelude to a massive...
42:41American attack.
42:43Thousands of young Americans...
42:45died on the hill...
42:46as the hardened Imperial Guard garrison...
42:49fought off the assault.
42:51It was yet another...
42:53pointless blood-bath.
42:55The men who...
42:56survived VOCOA...
42:57had endured the horrors...
42:59of modern warfare.
43:01Trapped between the firepower...
43:02of terrifying new weapons above ground...
43:06and massive mines in the earth below.
43:11It is thanks to their letters...
43:13diaries...
43:14photographs...
43:15and the memories handed...
43:16down to the younger generations...
43:18that today...
43:19the whole horrific story...
43:21of the great underground war...
43:23can finally be told.
43:26you should meet...
43:27I would start to see a partっていう story coming...
43:29I think to me...
43:31largely I should talk about...
43:32hero relentlessly...
43:33I think...
43:34we made the ew violated after...
43:35a few years...
43:36becauseチャンネル time...
43:37did not do...
43:38miracles...
43:39it does not care to JON...
43:40there are still wages...
43:41it has to...
43:42I feel afraid of fees...
43:43it has to go under the term...
43:44but he did not really give...
43:45have a while...
43:46I just enjoyed!
43:47it was an infinite person...
43:48that came...
43:49it was an incredible student...
43:50could tell...
43:51they saw her...
43:52other experts as long as they...
43:53they looked up by...
43:54all her...
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