I apologize for distracting from the original post, but yes, for a "world war" this one was very cosy. Boat-trains being what they were, officers who had dined at their club could be sitting in trench dugouts the next day. Civilians on the Channel coast could hear the heavy guns of a bombardment across the water, and when those colossal mines exploded at Messines they rattled the windows at No. 10 Downing Street. It was a family quarrel, at such close range and viciousness as those so often are.
(Trivial Pursuit® : Twenty-one mine shafts were dug, but only nineteen mines went off. In 1955 one more detonated with earthquake force; the last one has not yet exploded. No one is willing to probe for it even with geosonar - that might be all it takes…
Updated, literally - With Beirut force - each one of those mines was about on that scale. Nineteen Beiruts going off all at once - yes, that would jolt some seismograph pens! The Germans were horrified - they'd been outdone at chemical frightfulness, and they didn't forget it. Can you say, Flammenwerfer? (“It werfs Flammen.”)
Re: Speaking of tourist attractions
I apologize for distracting from the original post, but yes, for a "world war" this one was very cosy. Boat-trains being what they were, officers who had dined at their club could be sitting in trench dugouts the next day. Civilians on the Channel coast could hear the heavy guns of a bombardment across the water, and when those colossal mines exploded at Messines they rattled the windows at No. 10 Downing Street. It was a family quarrel, at such close range and viciousness as those so often are.
(Trivial Pursuit® : Twenty-one mine shafts were dug, but only nineteen mines went off. In 1955 one more detonated with earthquake force; the last one has not yet exploded. No one is willing to probe for it even with geosonar - that might be all it takes…
Updated, literally - With Beirut force - each one of those mines was about on that scale. Nineteen Beiruts going off all at once - yes, that would jolt some seismograph pens! The Germans were horrified - they'd been outdone at chemical frightfulness, and they didn't forget it. Can you say, Flammenwerfer? (“It werfs Flammen.”)