A British mines explosion that marked the start of the Battle of the Somme left a crater that allowed German troops to press forward into No Man’s Land, it has emerged.
By July 1, 1916, British forces had dug 19 mines under German positions and packed the tunnels with 40,000lb of explosives, which they intended to detonate to provide cover for an infantry advance.
But in an accepted military blunder, the mines were blown 10 minutes before the advance, a mistake which alerted the Germans to the plan and allowed them to take cover.
