From YOUTUBE20th Century Battlefields
30 June 2012See Video 3 of BBC Series - The Making of Modern War by Andrew MarrWW1 in ColourLast Updated (Sunday, 09 September 2012 00:50) |
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WW1 Video from the BBC - The Making of Modern Britain
Major Cyril Burton North, A Canadian Officer of the Royal Engineers at Ypres A lady wrote in about her WW1 Royal Engineer Major father who commanded the 1st Canadian Tunneling Company near Ypres Belgium from 29 May 1916 to 18 Sep 1917 It turned out he was a Canadian Mining Engineer from Nova Scotia who enlisted in Sep 1914 with Canadian Engineers and went over seas. In June of 1916 he was assigned as OC 1st Canadian Tunneling Company. It appears he remained a Royal Engineer Major until July of 1917. The first image you see led to succeeding images from the London Gazette which detail that he won the Distinguished Service Order and a Military Cross with the 177th Mining Company, Royal Engineers. As OC 1st Tunneling Company he ran tunnels under German Lines and from time to time sent them back to Berlin at a very fast speed He fired what was known as the St Eloi Crater near St Eloi Belgium a few miles S of Ypres on June 7 1917 Here`s what it looked like http://data2.collectionscanada.ca/e/e059/e001452771.jpg Here`s an excellent map by a group that studies this topic http://www.durandgroup.org.uk/Messines_attack.htm This link tells you all about why they did what they did http://www.durandgroup.org.uk/ - click Mining in WW1 to see the whole story The mines they planted were all detonated as shown above on 7 June 1917. This was part of the Messines Offensive which led to the 3rd Battle of Ypres and ended at Passchedaele in November 1917 After the 7th June blast the Tunnelling Companies turned more to surface operations and road building - thats probably why he went back to Captain 95,600 pounds of explosive in the mine he built Link here mentions 95,600 pounds of explosives Which if you click the link to the PRACTICAL INFO - it gives you accurate coordinates which I plugged into Google Earth and my WW1 mapping program - to show you where the location is as attached Walking up to the pond where the crater is today On the maps you`ll see a red circle – that`s how much excavation damage there was from the 100 yard crater he blew
Interested in finding more information on the Tunneling Companies?Click here courtesy of the National ArchivesSee the entire guide to the National Archives holdings on the Canadian Expeditionary Force by clicking this linkMcMaster U Map Collection
Last Updated (Monday, 15 October 2012 23:37) Dr David Kenyon is a battlefield archeologist and probably most famous for his involvement with the "Finding the Fallen" program. He worked on the movie Warhorse with Steven Speilberg. He was our speaker for Sunday November 11th in the Newcastle Memorial Hall. See clip from his website below
Online Articles The Re-dedication of Cpl Alfred Heaven's Grave - 22 Sep 2012 David Fuller on Malvern Collegiate Institute Memorial Re-Dedication Cecil Annis of Malvern Collegiate Institute Bill Smy On Ontario VCs and training Andy Stone on his relative Floyd Low on Most everything else can be found by putting the word "the" in the search box below
Last Updated (Saturday, 26 January 2013 19:26) |
