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Inside the real Birdsong tunnels: Never-before-seen images of the mines dug by British
Mail Online (UK) ^ | January 27, 2012 | Charles Walford

Posted on 01/27/2012 11:39:41 PM PST by Neil E. Wright

Full title:

Inside the real Birdsong tunnels: Never-before-seen images of the mines dug by British 'clay-kickers' under German lines in First World War

Flanders fields today bears little sign of the four years of war that claimed so many thousands of lives and ravaged this small corner of the Western Front.

But further down, deep below the surface there remains a constant reminder of the bravery and daring of the men who risked their lives for their country.

Beneath the farmers ploughs, most of the tunnels and dug-outs hewn from the earth by English pitmen to literally undermine the German offensive remain intact, untouched for almost 100 years.

They were also the scene of fierce hand-to-hand combat between diggers from both armies, as portrayed in the Sebastian Faulks novel Birdsong.

The tunnel sealed off by British troops during the First World War was excavated in 1997 and found to be intact

The tunnel sealed off by British troops during the First World War was excavated in 1997 and found to be intact


(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; Miscellaneous; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: britishminers; tunnels; war; wwi
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To: kearnyirish2

It seems all the “brave genes” in the French gene pool were lost by 1920...


41 posted on 01/28/2012 7:16:37 AM PST by Mr Rogers ("they found themselves made strangers in their own country")
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To: Mr Rogers

Read “Hell In A Small Place” about Dien Bien Phu; makes Khe San look like a walk in the park.


42 posted on 01/28/2012 7:23:36 AM PST by kearnyirish2
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To: kearnyirish2

I would also point out that the US lost about a million in WWI if you count the losses due to influenza.

Most Civil War casualties were due to dysentery.


43 posted on 01/28/2012 8:51:27 AM PST by donmeaker (e is trancendental)
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To: kearnyirish2

Oddly, the French Foreign Legion units at Dien Bien Phu had an unusually large ratio of native French.

Many collaborators after WWII were given the option to stand trial, or to join the FFL to earn clemency.


44 posted on 01/28/2012 8:53:57 AM PST by donmeaker (e is trancendental)
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To: kearnyirish2; DainBramage
The French, like the Italians aren’t to be trusted in time of war.

Verdun.

45 posted on 01/28/2012 9:09:30 AM PST by Winniesboy
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To: Neil E. Wright
There was a very different kind of mining and countermining on a much less well-known First World War front, the Austro/Italian front in the Dolomites. Here all the advantage was in the command of height, and a number of positions were destroyed by blowing off mountain-tops. Much of the impedimenta of war can still be seen there, more or less intact, including mining tunnels which have been incoporated into via ferrata aided climbing routes.
46 posted on 01/28/2012 9:26:57 AM PST by Winniesboy
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To: Winniesboy

“Verdun”

Good point.


47 posted on 01/28/2012 9:55:02 AM PST by kearnyirish2
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To: donmeaker

The French used a lot of colonial troops as well (they weren’t FL though); they had Moroccans, Algerians, Laotians, etc. in the lot.


48 posted on 01/28/2012 9:57:47 AM PST by kearnyirish2
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To: kearnyirish2

“They had made a decision to sit out a war between Nazism & Bolshevism...”

So by surrendering to the NAZIs, the French somehow caused the Soviets to not conquer France at the end of WWII like they conquered Eastern Europe because collaborationist Vichy French soldiers fired on Americans in Operation Torch?

You seem intelligent, but I really don’t get what you’re trying to say.

The French had to fight, it was their own damn country.

You asked earlier if the Confedracy would have fought another Civil War in 1881. Are you kidding? Yeah they would have fought - bravely; because it was their own damn country. An honorable Texas man, or Virginia man, or proud gentleman from Tennessee, et. all. would have stood up and defended their homes as best as they were able.


49 posted on 01/28/2012 12:03:02 PM PST by Owl558 ("Those who remember George Satayana are doomed to repeat him")
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To: ballplayer
It has been released on DVD in the US and in US format and is available at Amazon.
50 posted on 01/28/2012 1:35:51 PM PST by naturalman1975 ("America was under attack. Australia was immediately there to help." - John Winston Howard)
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To: Owl558

“You asked earlier if the Confedracy would have fought another Civil War in 1881. Are you kidding? Yeah they would have fought - bravely; because it was their own damn country.”

Well they’re 130 years late; why haven’t they attacked the federal forts again?

France had no means or will to fight; they knew the sacrifice of the “Great War” had been for nothing (even being attacked by their allies of that previous war - Italy & Japan), and they rightly figured this would be as meaningless (the subsequent Cold War validated that).


51 posted on 01/28/2012 3:51:30 PM PST by kearnyirish2
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To: kearnyirish2

“France had no means or will to fight...”

Yes, i think everyone agrees that France had no will to fight. This is an assertion not in dispute.

What is less clear is support for your assertion that the French surrender prevented a Soviet-style takeover of France like happened in Eastern Europe, and how that ties into Vichy resistance during the African landings.

But thank you for answering. I learned all I need to know in the exchange.


52 posted on 01/29/2012 12:08:10 PM PST by Owl558 ("Those who remember George Satayana are doomed to repeat him")
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To: Owl558

“What is less clear is support for your assertion that the French surrender prevented a Soviet-style takeover of France like happened in Eastern Europe, and how that ties into Vichy resistance during the African landings.”

Western Europe was given a preview of what Stalinism represented during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939); our Popes are still canonizing martyrs among the 7,000 priests (including 12 bishops) that were executed in that short time. Life in the Communist zone had all the hallmarks of what Stalin represented: commissars, political executions, class warfare, starvation. The war ended when the “fascists” (the Spanish Army), with support from Hitler & Mussolini, beat the Communists (supported by Stalin). Months after that war ended, the French were supposed to believe that when Germany & the Soviet Union invaded Poland (yes, the Soviet Union invaded from the east - that is when the Polish officer corps was executed in the Katyn Forest), that they should fight Germany? For unexplained reasons, the heroic allies coming to the defense of Poland failed to declare war against the Soviet Union - an irony not lost on Europeans to this day; the allies also stood by while the Soviet Union invaded the countries of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia - and purged them of enemies as well.

Once the US was allied with the Soviet Union, there was no reason for the French in North Africa to treat them with anything but suspicion.


53 posted on 01/29/2012 2:27:47 PM PST by kearnyirish2
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To: Winniesboy
regarding the Italians read about the Alpine Front in WWI
Italy bled & bled & bled until their army just collapsed.
The Italians showed that brave men led by idiots die by the thousands. As if it needed to be demomstrated!
54 posted on 01/29/2012 2:44:56 PM PST by Reily
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To: Reily
Indeed. It tends to be forgotten that what finally broke the Italians was the twelfth battle of Caporetto or the Isonzo. In battles nos. 1 - 11 they fought bravely in conditions every bit as terrible as the Western Front (including losing an entire batallion when it froze to death). Even in battle no 12 it was only the unexpected reinforcement of the Austrians by German divisions, who launched a surprise attack in an early version of blitzkrieg, which broke the stalemate.
55 posted on 01/30/2012 1:33:51 AM PST by Winniesboy
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To: Trailerpark Badass

Cu Chi is the reason I wondered. I watched guys go down in those damned things and wondered if anyone ever lauded them. I was small, but not small enough to go very far in those things. We actually built the base on top of those tunnels.


56 posted on 01/30/2012 2:57:24 AM PST by Safetgiver (I'd rather die under a free American sky than live under a Socialist regime.)
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