The Lochnagar Crater on the Somme Battlefield

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My visit to the Lochnagar Crater, site of the largest of the 19 mines exploded on July 1, 1916 to signal the start of the Somme offensive. The deadliest day in the history of the British military, and one of the deadliest of World War I.
#history #ww1

[@kitsune303]

Your videos really bring to life the humanity of soldiers within the inhumanity of war by featuring understandable small unit actions like this. Wars are such huge sweeping things we can easily overlook the struggles of individual soldiers digging with bayonets or catching rock spoil. And the photos of the units and men are haunting. Well done as always. 🦊

[@KeganStucki]

Very well said!

[@cdgee6399]

The size and scale of both World Wars is out of comprehension of 99% of us. The battlefields alone are just tremendous.

[@LeonardCooperman]

Thank you yet again for taking me on this journey. It’s so humbling, no words.

[@stillmyboy6708]

Said this on the main channel but just wanted to say you introduced me to so much history, especially American.
Like seriously I’ve watched your videos from the campaign trails, to oversimplified, to stories of the civil war etc. really great stuff.

[@stevewright1677]

My grandfather was a member of the Tyneside Irish. He was hit in the leg by a machine gun bullet within 10 yards of the British front line on 1st July which probably saved him. He walked with a limp for the rest of his life. We use the bullet to this day as a wallpaper hanging weight.
I grew up on Tyneside but was completely unaware of the sacrifice of the Tyneside regiments until I started watching these videos. As far as I know there is no memorial to them on Tyneside.

[@StoriesoftheGreatWar]

Wow....what a story. Sad to hear there's no memorial. Those men suffered so much. The least we can do is remember.

[@stevewright1677]

@@StoriesoftheGreatWar the thing that always gets me is the courage of these men to walk into the hail of machine gun fire having seen the slaughter of their colleagues in the Tyneside Scottish in front of them. It is beyond belief. I wonder if I could have done it. Fortunately, I have never had to find out.

[@FilipDePreter]

Well done Chris.

[@tremendousbaguette9680]

Author Nigel Cave cited a German officer who wrote about the constant dread of mine explosions, and how one could be sitting anywhere and be vaporized at any moment.

[@StoriesoftheGreatWar]

In a war of horrible circumstances, working underground had to be among the worst.

[@willsaenz6320]

@@StoriesoftheGreatWarI realize that Peaky Blinders uses a lot of embellishment, but I wouldn’t doubt that the protagonist’s flashbacks to underground fighting in WW1 were quite accurate to the real thing.

[@yessmabie919]

Fantastic video, and fascinating story!

[@gswombat]

I have been to Lochnagar. Such a moving experience. I have also been to the Australian battlefields. One of my grandfathers was in the 37th Bn at Messines, Broodseinde, and Passchendaele.

[@Shifty69569]

do you have these stories off the top of your head or do you practice in the mirror a few times? great story teller

[@StoriesoftheGreatWar]

I do a lot of research ahead of time, but I usually get them in one take. Sometimes I have a few notes behind the camera to help.

[@Shifty69569]

@@StoriesoftheGreatWar awsome thank you for the transparency

[@coniston3106]

Thanks for the video Chris. They shall be remembered

[@nickshaffer9961]

Thank you so much for this original content. I’ve always loved it and this is really top notch.

[@camperp195]

Been there many times,always brings a lump to my throat,you just cannot imagine the horrors that happened there,on both sides 😔🌹

[@alanscott8795]

I visited there a few years ago. Very moving, and a bit eerie when you consider the remains of victims may still lie beneath the crater.

[@johndgowrie1376]

This should have had the Scottish song “dark lochnagar” accompanying it

[@alanholck7995]

I think there are one or two mines still out there on the Ypres salient but no one knows exactly where. There was another one that detonated from a lightning strike in (I recall) the 1950s.

[@StoriesoftheGreatWar]

Oh they know where they are. I actually did a video on Instagram from the site of one of them a few weeks ago.

[@alanholck7995]

@@StoriesoftheGreatWar Ah OK - I don't do Instagram. Evil government plan to steal my precious bodily fluids. But that's not important right now.

[@dennis2376]

Nasty business the bombing of the German trench. Unfortunately that was war. Sad that most Germans will not be known. That crater is a sacred grave! By the year 3000 I wonder how many will remember. :(