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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Booby Trapped German Dugout


Steve Bramley

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Hi,

An explosion in a captured dugout in Ahead Trench, west of Hill 65 Lens in June 1917, killed several men from the Lincolns. A booby trap was suspected and

'The matter investigated by the Australian tunnelling company.The dug-outs had been mined by the Germans before retiring, the mines being placed in the dug-out roofs, the system of firing being by means of a wire passed through an acid bath'

Some of the men killed were very experienced long serving NCO's, although they may not have had knowledge of booby traps prior to this.

I'm wondering how could they have missed 'a wire running through an acid bath'

I've no idea how this contraption would have worked and am having difficulty imagining what it may have looked like.

Anyone with any ideas?

Regards,

Steve.

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Steve

This is only my suggestion--it could have been a wire which was under tension and placed in through a bottle which contained acid which was then sealed with putty to stop any leakage, after a certtain time which would have been tested the wire would be eaten through by the acid then the wire snaps and lets a plunger hit a detonater.

I once saw something similar where a small ring was made on a copper gas pipe out of putty or plastercine then filled with acid. After time the acid ate through the copper pipe, released the gas, which resulted in an explosion due to central heating boiler coming on----the evidence destroyed and the person who did it long gone, so from my imagination perhaps thats how they did it

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Thanks Nigel,

That seems a very plausible explanation. I assume the term 'bath' would represent any type of container, presumably small and well concealed? in this instance. I just got a vision of Dr Crippen when i read it! :D

This particular mine exploded on 25th of June, there were six more dug-out explosions on the 27th (with no further casualties) in the same area, but the trenches were under heavy bombardment at the time.

Just a thought, if the timescale for the acid to eat through the 'wire' was two days would it be fair to think that the explosion on the 25th was detonated by the 'acid container' being tampered with? and could the container itself also have been booby-trapped?

Cheers,

Steve.

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Could be, when the acid starts to eat away at the metal, it will get weaker and weaker, so perhaps it was a faulty one which went off when it got disturbed, its a very hit and miss idea relient on everything to be correct for it to work but they may have had nothing else at the time.

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Hi Guys.

Just thought I would add my penny'th. During the dying days of ww1 the Americans financed a British seamining venture from Scotland to keep uboats out of the Norweigean straits. ......stay with me guys!!!!...........this is going somewhere!!!. The mines they used had the familiar spikes on them. Did you know that the 'spikes' were lead or copper on the outside but inside it contained sulphuric acid in a glass phial. The victim ship would hit off the outside of the 'spike' which would break the glass releasing the sulphuric acid which mixed with some other medium inside, which created a battery, which caused a spark which ignited the 350 lb of TNT inside the Seamine.

Perhaps this has something to do with the 'acid bath' tripwire thingy.

Tom

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That makes sense Tom, i saw something on the tele where they put a wire into a lemon ( citric acid ) and another in something else and got an electric current-------good one Tom

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could it be that there were two wires (each connected to the terminals of a battery) passing through acid and the acid eats away at the insulation. When both wires are bare, the acid would be a conductor and complete an electrical ciruit to fire a detonator.

Tom

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Time pencils were used in the WW2 to trigger explosives.

It was a pencil/pen with a detonator at one end a sprung firing pin in the middle which was held back by a thin copper wire. At the other end was a small capsual of acid. by breaking the capsual (squeezing the end) the trigger was activated. The time delay on the fuse was dependant on the wire thickness and the acid strength.

I am sure they would have used this type of thing earlier. Perhaps not so refined though.

Regards

Leigh

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G'day

A similar trick was used to blow up the Bapaume Town Hall in March 1917. The casualties included the canteen workers whose picture is appended. I would think that the term "acid bath" may be a bit misleading. One tends to associate the idea with some nasty murderer disposing of his victims. As the Town Hall had beeen occupied for some 8 days before the acid 'ate through', it is more likely that the wire or rod passed through something fairly small & well camouflaged. I have not checked it out specificially, but the Official History is on line at www.awm.gov.au and thats the sort of caper they usually give pretty good coverage.

Pat

post-23-1092376323.jpg

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Similar bombs were used by the Irish terrorists in the early 1970's were a condom was filled with a chemical that would react with another chemical to cause an explosion...the condom eventually weakened, burst with terrible consequences.

click here

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I think 'burst condoms' and 'terrible consequences' go hand in hand what ever the situation.....

:blink:

I'll get me coat...

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Not knocking anyones idea, but one thing did we have electrical detonators then, mabe Giles or Aurel may know

Yes, there were electrical detonators. They were used to detonate mines and also to set off the charges in Livens gas-projectors, among other uses.

Tom

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Thanks Guys,

Some good explanations there, certainly makes the picture a little clearer for me as regards the detonation method.

Does anyone have any thoughts on why such experienced men would fall prey to a booby-trap? The fact that other mines went up two days later and that the Aussie lads managed to analyse the cause of the explosion makes me think that they perhaps disturbed something.

I've certainly read of several instances in WWII where the unsuspecting fell victim to booby-traps, the mined orange trees on the Monte Casino hillside springs to mind. But were the Germans as sophisticated in their concealment in the first war? Pats camouflage comment and Tom's electrical detonators, perhaps suggest this, i'd love to know more!

I have heard of other accounts of dug-outs being booby-trapped in WWI but cannot bring any examples to hand.

Nice one Leigh ;)

Regards,

Steve.

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Steve

Been away, just found your thread, sounds like the delay action switch in the attached diagram. Source for this is Engineer-in-Chief's Fieldwork Notes No.59 date 29/9/1918.

Yours

Mike

post-23-1092569557.jpg

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SO I GOT IT RIGHT :D:lol: ----------FOR ONCE !!!!!!!!!!!

Nigel, you were extremely right! Thanks Mike for posting the drawing. What a clever little invention.

Tom

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Thanks,

Very much for the excellent drawing Mike, much appreciated.

Well done Nig' :o:D

Tom, clever- certainly, lethal- undoubtedly!

Thanks everyone,

Steve.

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  • 1 year later...

Am heading down oto Hill 65 this week In Belgium at the Mo

This is where L Sgt Ollie Goldthorpe won his DCM for digging the injured out Father and son CSM Herbert DCM and Robert Pickard died and survivor Fred Gadie killed later in 1917

all from Barton remembering them I havt the date as 26th June dont knoz if this is correct

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Robert was killed in the explosion and is commemorated on the Arras Memorial.

Dad, Herbert died of his wounds on the 4th July. He is buried in Calais Southern Cemetery, G.5.10. So you may be able to visit on the way back.

post-1168-1126169194.jpg

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Cheers Steve once again a massive help will let you know when the book is done Cheers Sean

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G'day

A similar trick was used to blow up the Bapaume Town Hall in March 1917. The casualties included the canteen workers whose picture is appended. I would think that the term "acid bath" may be a bit misleading. One tends to associate the idea with some nasty murderer disposing of his victims. As the Town Hall had beeen occupied for some 8 days before the acid 'ate through', it is more likely that the wire or rod passed through something fairly small & well camouflaged. I have not checked it out specificially, but the Official History is on line at www.awm.gov.au and thats the sort of caper they usually give pretty good coverage.

Pat

Pat;

I just noticed this thread.

As it happens, my father was one of the guys who put the bomb in the basement of the Bapaume Town Hall. The Germans knew that the Allies had had a HQ in the building, so they hoped that another one would be established after the Allies took the city back.

My father was a Pionier in Garde=Reserve=Pionier=Regiment (Flammenwerfer), and some sources said that storm troopers were exempt from fatigues, but my father, in his letters, often complained of them being put to other tasks. They took up a section of the stone basement floor, excavated some dirt, put in three truck-loads of dynamite (six metric tons - he knew explosives well, I'm sure he knew what it was). Two ordinance officers came and put in the pair of fuzes, in parallel, so that if one failed the other would trigger the explosion. He told me that the fuzes were a carefully callibrated wire in a vial of acid, which would eat thru the wire at a certain rate. I don't remember being told if the ignition was electrical or mechanical, but for several reasons I would think it was electrical; i.e., the broken wire would halt a flow of current thru it. Wire would be much more conductive than the acid.

The hole was filled in and leveled and the floor was carefully replaced. (My father was trained as both a bricklayer and a construction engineer, and I assume he had a roll in this.) Then some men were directed to poop on the section of floor to disguise it and perhaps to keep the new occupants from looking too closely at it. Then the men who had put it in were taken possibly 20 miles behind the front so that they could not be captured or desert and alert the enemy to the bomb. He said that it was a two week fuze, was supposed to go off at 8 o'clock (PM, I think), and when it did it was 8:15 PM and Pop was up in a tree looking. He said that the ground trembled at that distance.

So I would say that the wire/acid device was a time fuze, not a booby-trap. However, as time passed and the wire was eaten thru, it would become very sensitive. The time fuze itself might have been booby-trapped with another mechanism. I don't see how wire/acid would make a good booby-trap trigger.

Pop also mentioned the many other booby-traps they left behind when they pulled out at this sector and time.

One of my two commendations earned during my US Army training as an officer was when I designed a rig using a mousetrap detonator and a quarter-pound block of TNT to rig a toilet to explode when you flushed it. So the tradition goes on.

I am writing a book on this flame unit and later plan to write one about my father, so I would appreciate any leads on this. I have the Aussie history bookmarked and I will look for this incident. My father's other contact with "down-unders" was his service at Gallipoli as a volunteer pioneer at the ANZAC front, before he joined the flame unit.

Bob Lembke

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