3-034-738 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Siege operations at Chatham: explosion of a mine, 1871. British Army exercises. 'The siege operations performed...in the neighbourhood of Chatham, at the Commander-in-Chief's annual inspection of field-works constructed by the School of Military Engineering, afforded several thousand spectators a rare entertainment, and gave a fair notion of some parts of the actual business of war...The explosion of a mine with 1000 lb. of gunpowder is shown in the Illustration on our front page. The intention and effect of this mine, prepared by the besieging force, was to make a hole in the ground 50 ft. wide and 16 ft. deep, forming a lodgment under cover for their troops, in advance of the trenches they had previously dug. There was some fighting, at a later hour of the day, for the possession of this lodgment and of another cavity in the earth, made by similar means, a little way to the left of the first, which was opposite the right demi-bastion of St. Mary's. The unaccustomed spectators, who saw a hundred tons of earth hurled up into the air, 50 ft. high, by the explosion of one of these mines, had the pleasure of being astonished'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.