The Imperial troops and Australians, under great difficulties, had
blasted their way into Labazell, the crater of the mine blown up being
one of the largest I have seen on the Western front. This was the
commencement of the Somme offensive and happened on the 1st of July,
1916. When I reached this crater two battalions of Canadian troops were
stationed in its depths in holes burrowed all around the sides, and it
was used as an assembling point for reenforcements. This will convey an
idea of the extent of the mining operations.
The distance from the mine to our new position was three-quarters of a
mile and the ground was billeted with corpses all the way to our
battery; in the crater itself it was impossible to step without walking
on bits of human bodies, and the dugouts surrounding were filled with
German dead; there were thousands of them. It was so manifestly
impossible to give them any sort of a burial that the order was issued
to fill in the dugouts where they lay and this was done by heaving the
ground in on top of them.
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