Triple Tambour at Fricourt!

[cockney tone]

Ladies & Gents,

Pal's,

I have not been able to get close enough to see on previous visits but i always understood that the 'Triple Tambour' mines outside Fricourt was actually three mine craters from 1st July 1916 (hence the name!)

I was reading a book recently and it stated that only two of the three mines laid there actually worked on the 1st July and one failed to explode!

Can anybody please clarify this please, if this is the case when did the third one detonate? or are there only two craters? what happened to the other one? who am I? etc etc?

Regards,

Scottie.

(Confused of Hertford)

[Jack Sheldon]

Scottie

No shortage of holes on the Tambour position - known to the Germans as the Kniewerk. This situation map of RIR 111 is dated 23 June 1916. I count eight craters on that date, so the 1 Jul ones will only have added to the number.

Jack

[CROONAERT]

I count eight craters on that date, so the 1 Jul ones will only have added to the number.

British trenchmaps of the period are in agreement with this German map - from 7 German held craters in Feb 1916 to 9 by mid-June (dependant on the map used). One of the several "holey" areas of this part of the front, mine warfare certainly was in vogue with the French and German miners on the Somme!

Dave

[Rupert]

Someone (probably me) sneaked over to the Tambour site recently. There are probably up to five large craters, and numerous original trenches. And lots of cows. But I don't condone batllefield tourists scrambling over private property. Even if it's me.

Stu

[rifleman John]

The farmer harvesting his potatoes at Fricourt invited 4 of us to take a look at the craters,

he explained that his tractor nearly went into one.

He then proceeded to get bags out of tractor and told us to help ourselves to some potatoes,

a real nice gentleman. Carol

[Simon Jones]

178th Tunnelling Company laid three mines at the Tambour to be detonated at 7.28am 1/7/1916, from north to south:

G3 of 9,000 lbs

G19 of 15,000 lbs

and G15 of 25,000 lbs

G15 failed to detonate, apparently because of damp. The Tambour was a very active mining area up to 1/7/1916, hence the large craterfield. The two craters on the eastern edge of the surviving craterfield are probably G3 and G19.

S

[towisuk]

Hi Simon, I take it then that G15's explosives are still in situ at the tambour as the three at the birdcage are at Messines (Pelerin)

Regards

Tom

[Simon Jones]

Tom - probably.

S

[cockney tone]

Pal's,

thank you for your interesting posts/information and the great map as well Jack.

I was thinking to myself was the mine actually still there? but doubted it as so much has been written about the Somme and I thought surely I would have seen a mention of it somewhere before?

Will have to keep an eye out for that friendly farmer and try and blag a visit if at all possible.

To transgress slighty I took a party over last month and had put a lot of effort into the talk I was going to give them, also had the new Somme panorama book to assist me and I had planned to stand in the Fricourt CWGC amongst the Yorkshire lads to give my presentation. However when we got there all we could see was a wall of eight foot high sweetcorn that had not been harvested! (Lack of forward thinking springs to mind! )

Regards,

Scottie.