Lex Anteinternet: The Mines of the Battle of Messines, June 8, 1917

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

The Mines of the Battle of Messines, June 8, 1917

On this date, in 1917, nineteen enormous British mines were detonated at the Battle of Messines.

The detonations left 10,000 German soldiers dead.

By some accounts the explosions were the largest non nuclear explosions ever. The blast could be heard as far away as Dublin, Ireland.

The ensuing battle lasted for a week and like most World War One battles the results are debated. The British Empire forces did advance. Contemporary German accounts regarded the battle as a devastating German defeat.

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Lex Anteinternet?

This blog has been around since 2009. In the very first post, we asked the question: "What the heck is this blog about?"

Our answer to the question was: "The intent of this blog is to try to explore and learn a few things about the practice of law prior to the current era. That is, prior to the internet, prior to easy roads, and the like. How did it work, how regional was it, how did lawyers perceive their roles, and how were they perceived?"

We also noted: "Part of the reason for this, quite frankly, has something to do with minor research for a very slow moving book."

All of this is still true, but the focus of the blog has changed somewhat. It now focuses on the era from 1890 to 1920 in general, rather than on the law and lawyers specifically, although that may be far from obvious. It's also become the location where we comment on anything we feel moved to comment on.

We hope you'll feel moved to comment as well. While we moderate every comment, so as to weed out Spam, we greatly appreciate the comments where they are offered, and hope to see more.

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