2 RWF at Red Dragon Crater, 1916
The battalion had just returned to the trenches in the Givenchy area of France. Shortly after 1.30 am the largest German mine of the war was detonated under B Company, many of whose members were buried alive. The blast was followed by an enemy raid which was repulsed in hand-to-hand fighting. The company suffered about 100 casualties. Some men lay out in the open, exposed to German fire, until after dark. The crater measured 150 by 75 yards at the base; the lips were 40 feet high.
Captain H Blair RWF:
ReplyDelete"I had an uncomfortable foreboding of impending trouble.I cannot say why, I was neither worried nor depressed,but the feeling grew as time went on. It was a lovely peaceful night.Perhaps it was the uncanny stillness, too quiet to be natural in that unpleasant part of the line".