| Regiment | 1st Royal Berkshire |
|---|---|
| Location | France, CUINCHY |
| Entry | Lieut Baseden and 20 other ranks proceeded to GOORE for instruction in the use of BANGALORE TORPEDO. At 1pm it was reported that the Germans had reached the head of our main shaft of our mine in the railway embankment. One of the miners working at the head of this shaft discovered a small bore-hole coming up from underneath which had been stopped with webbing. He pulled away the webbing and found that he could NOT touch bottom with a probe and that a sweet unpleasant gas came up through the bore-hole. The enemy were then distinctly heard working. The mining experts were sent for, and it was decided to blow up our mine at this spot, so as to wreck the German mine which was possibly underneath ours. The difficulty was to get the charge in position before the Germans could get theirs in position. Our miners worked very hard, and a large charge was laid in record time. The mine was successfully exploded at 7.5pm Great masses of earth were thrown in the air, and a crater was formed 22 yards from lip to lip and at least 30 feet deep. Lieut Searle and ten men went out at dusk and occupied the crater, but were forced to retire from it about 12 midnight owing to the enemy's heavy MINENWERFER. They went out again about 1am and reoccupied the crater. The Royal Engineers laid a mine in the bottom of the crater with an electric wire running back to our trenches, so in the event of the enemy getting into the crater, they could be blown up. The day was one full of incident and no little excitement. |
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