Dugouts - how big did they get?

[Fujdog]

Hi there, I'm interested in finding out how many men the biggest dugouts on the Western Front could have taken at any time?

 

Can anyone help please?

 

Many thanks

 

Jill

[robins2]

have a look at Vimy, the tunnels stretch for Kms

 

regards

 

Bob R.

[WhiteStarLine]

Hi Jill,

 

It will depend on your definition of the term dugout, but if you mean a relatively simple shell scrape with overhead cover, it could hold 2 or 3 men.  Add some concrete or dig it under a house or in a cellar and you could be protecting 15 - 20 or so easily.  Some of those on the Hindenburg Line sheltered 40 in a single dugout.

 

If you expand the definition, then the underground gas-proof dugout my grandfather sheltered in on the Somme in 1918 protected 100 men.

 

Going further, although not quite dugouts, the Wellington Tunnels in Arras we toured today sheltered 24,000 prior to the April 1917 offensive.   The Catacombs in Plugstreet protected 2,000 (from memory) and the Germans sheltered a full division (~ 15,000) in the Canal Tunnel between Bellicourt and Bellenglise.

[johnboy]

From TommyRichard holmes  p 259

'' we;ve one enormous dugout50 yards long10 feet broadand from 8 to 10 feet high,It has4 entrancesand 10 to 15 feetof earth on top. One end is curtained offfor officers,and then a bit  fo servants,ordelies and sarjeants and then the rest for the men;'

 this is a description of  the cut and cover type.  

[Fujdog]

Thanks all. I found a fairly illegible diary entry for a balloon rigger in hospital with shell shock at Longueness on May 19 1918 'Cannot rest in hospital, went out for the night in a dugout 2 miles out.. over 2,000 men in dugout all in St Omer ordered by the 2nd Army.. There are no order for the shell shock patients who have got to take their chances. Damn shame!!!!'

 

Jill