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Episode details

World Service,18 Mar 2016,9 mins

The Tunnellers of WW1

Witness History

Available for over a year

Archive recordings of the tunnellers who fought underground in WW1. They would dig tunnels under no-mans-land to detonate explosives under enemy positions. It was extremely dangerous work. During the war, all sides carried out military mining against enemy positions. The explosions were so large they could kill thousands of soldiers in an instant, and would scar the battlefield with huge craters. Photo: The La Boiselle crater was made when a huge mine was detonated on the first day of the Somme offensive during WW1 in July 1916. (Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

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