Belgium 2015 - Day 5 - Hill 60

Hill 60 is an artificial creation consisting of the spoil taken from the nearby railway cutting when the railway was under construction in the 19th century. At the time it had the more romantic title of ‘Côte des Amants’ (Lover’s Knoll). (Wikipedia) 

Hill 60’s prominence, in this relatively low–lying region, made it an objective of both armies and it was continually fought over from late 1914. Underground mining began in early 1915 as British miners tunnelled towards the German lines using the ‘clay kicking’ method.  

On 9 November 1916, the 1st Australian Tunnelling Company took over the Hill 60 mineshafts. By then deep shafts ran out metres under the German lines where they had been filled with high–explosive ammonal and sealed. Electric detonator cable ran along the sealed galleries to the explosives and it was the job of the incoming Australian miners to ensure that the enemy did not discover the mines or cut the detonator cable. The defensive underground shafts and galleries sunk by these ‘Digger’ miners had a real Australian flavour from the names bestowed on them – Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth, Hobart, Newcastle and Brisbane. 

The protection of the great mine was part of the preparations for the major British ‘Flanders Offensive’ planned for the second half of 1917 around Ypres. Hill 60 marked the northern extremity of a German bulge or ‘salient’ into the British lines running from here, through St Eloi and Petit Bois, to Ploegsteert Wood south of Mesen (Messines). It was to straighten this line, in the lead–up to the larger operation planned to open in late July 1917 towards the east of Ypres, that the Battle of Messines was fought on 7 June 1917. At the opening of this battle, at 3.10 am, 19 great mines, at various locations along the salient line, were exploded. These, like the mine at Hill 60, had been excavated under the German positions in the year leading up to the Messines attack. For the seven months before the blowing of the Hill 60 mine it fell to the Australians to ensure that the Germans did not find it.

On 3 June, four days before the Messines attack was due to begin, the forward ‘listeners’ were withdrawn and the mine shafts finally tamped. Constant testing of the cables from that point revealed that they had not been discovered and, at 3.10 am on 7 June, the Hill 60 and the Caterpillar mine, along with the 17 others on the Messines front, were blown. The explosions at Hill 60 killed 687 soldiers of the German 204th Division and blew a crater 60 feet deep and 260 feet wide. (ww1westernfront.gov.au)

When we visited the site was under some major work. It is one of the most visited sites in the Ypres Salient.

This is the Memorial to the 1st Australian Tunnelling Company, Hill 60.

The bullet holes are from battles around here in World War II

Even after 98 years bits and pieces from the war remain. This iron ball was in one of the craters on the Hill

I don't know what this is though.

All over the site are the remains of German strong points destroyed or buried when the mines went of.

This one was particularly impressive. Without Tanks structures like these would be difficult to attack.

Looking down into the main crater.

Jo in the main crater

View from the bottom of crater looking out.

There are other memorials on this site. This one is the 14th (Light) Division Memorial.

This one is  Queen Victoria's Rifles Memorial

The memorial to the Queen Victoria's Rifles (9th Battalion The London Regiment) is located within the Hill 60 Battlefield Memorial Park. It was replaced after the original was damaged during the Second World War. On the night of 20–21 April 1915, Second Lieutenant Geoffrey Harold Woolley and a handful of men were the only defenders on the hill and continually repelled attacks on their position. He encouraged the men to hold the line against heavy enemy machine gun fire and shellfire. For a time he was the only officer on the hill. When he and his men were relieved on the morning of 21 April only 14 out of a company of 150 had survived. For his gallantry he was awarded the Victoria Cross, the first to be awarded to a Territorial Force officer.(wikipedia)

(Wikipedia image)

And finally there is a memorial to two resistance fighters from World War II

(Wikipedia image)

Across the railway from Hill 60 is the Caterpillar Crater, the results of the explosion from the Caterpillar mine