Hooge Crater, Menin Road, east of Ypres

It looks beautiful now but this was one of the most dangerous places on the entire Western Front.

A large crater was blown at Hooge in July 1915. The officer in charge of tunneling and laying the mine at Hooge was Lieutenant Geoffrey Cassels, and the work was completed by 175 Tunnelling Company in only five and a half weeks. The first attempt at tunnelling for the mine, starting from within a stable, failed, because the earth encounterred was too sandy.

A second shaft was sunk from the ruins of a gardener's cottage nearby. The tunnellers reached blue clay, and could then make good progress. The main tunnel was 190 feet long, with a branch off this after about 70 feet, this second tunnel running a further 100 feet on. The intention was to blow two charges under concrete fortifications which the Germans were constructing, although the smaller tunnel was found to be somewhat off course.

The mines were laid using, for the first time, the explosive ammonal - as well as gunpowder and guncotton. The largest mine of the war thus far was blown on the 19th of July at 7 p.m. - but not before a German shell had severed the detonator wires only a few minutes before. They had to be rapidly repaired. The crater was estimated at 120 feet wide and 20 feet deep. The crater was taken by men from the 1/Gordon Highlanders and 4/Middlesex. Ten of the latter, however, had been killed by debris from the mine as they waited in advanced positions.

Lt. Cassels was awarded the Military Cross, and praised for his efforts. The German losses from the mine were estimated to be several hundred.

The crater is now in the grounds of a tearoom and hotel, but you can enter the site of the crater and walk part way around it. The crater is now water-filled, but has pillboxes around it.

Eleven days after the mine was blown, on the 30th of July at Hooge, the Germans first used flame throwers in battle. At 3.15 a.m., jets of flame from these flammenwerfer devices swept across the trenches occupied by companies of the 8th Rifle Brigade. Not surprisingly, the Germans with the advantage of this new weapon made some gains where it was used. There was desperate fighting with the sides only separated by a few yards.

The crater and the Chateau were again retaken by the British in early August 1915, but changed hands again several times before the war ended.