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Lochnagar Crater Memorial.

skull181

Well-Known Member
The huge crater at La Boiselle, Belgium, that's a must for every one to see.

As you walk around this massive crater and look down into it's middle, the sheer depth is breath taking.

If you look at the rim of the crater, look at the size of the people walking around it, just to show how big it is.

Look at the size of the people on the edge of the crater.
 

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Many hundreds of British soldiers were killed in the vicinity of Lochnagar Crater on the morning of 1st July.

Four battalions of the Tyneside Scottish (21st, 22nd, 23rd and 24th Northumberland Fusiliers), some 2,400 men, advanced to the crater after it was exploded.

They passed around the crater and made for the German positions to its rear.

One of these soldiers, was Private George James Nugent, No. 22/1306, serving with 22nd Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers.

He was reported missing in action, on the day and commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing at its unveiling in 1932.

However, his remains were found in ground at the south side of of the crater on 31st October 1998.
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He was 28 years old when he was killed.

A wooden cross marks the place on the south side of the Lochnagar Crater where he was found.

Human remains are still being found to this day, complete skeletons.
 

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All around the crater are warning signs and memorials.

It's depth is breath taking, standing on the edge and looking down to it's center, you can feel quite dizzy.
 

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Memories of the battle are still survive to this day, with the area covered with smaller craters.

Unexploded ordnance is still being found.

Human remains are still being found inside the crater.
 

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Although this pictures shows a huge explosion, it's not actually Lochnagar.

This one is the one at Hawthorne Ridge, near Beaumont Hamel.

Other mine craters can be seen in Flanders, particularly around Messines.

It just shows you what it would have looked like when it was detonated.

A original detonation box was found in a tunnel in 1997, and here is a replica, on show at a nearby museum.
 

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In 1978, Mr Richard Dunning purchased the land to ensure the crater could be maintained suitably as a memorial.

The bodies of many German soldiers who would have been killed when the mine went off still lie here.

The crater was created by the explosion on 1st July 1916, two charges of ammonal (36,000 lbs and 24,000 lbs, 60 feet apart) were used.

This was under a German position called "Schwaben Hohe".

The crater originally measured some 300 feet across and 90 feet deep.

The black and white picture?

Here it is today.

May they Rest In Peace.
 

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Don't want to appear nerdy....but it is in France, not Belgium, just off the road from Albert to Bapaume. Very moving place indeed when one considers the hell hole it once must have been.
 
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