Beneath Hill 60

[Ean Austral]

Gday All,
My daughter had to do a report on this movie for school and sent it out to me to watch..

Its about Miners that are in the AIF in WW1 and a hill that they tunnel thru that is held by the enemy..

No big name actors that I could pic, but I thought it was one of the better Aust war movies and it is supposed to be based on the true events..

Anyone seen it..

Cheers Ean

[85 county]

Gday All,
My daughter had to do a report on this movie for school and sent it out to me to watch..

Its about Miners that are in the AIF in WW1 and a hill that they tunnel thru that is held by the enemy..

No big name actors that I could pic, but I thought it was one of the better Aust war movies and it is supposed to be based on the true events..

Anyone seen it..

Cheers Ean
Seen the movie, and know quite a bit about the actual story and the aftermath. there were more than one mine, the big one was not an aussie venture. There are little things that were missed out in the movie, like all the removed clay had to carried to the back lines because it was Blue clay and if seen by the Germans would have indicated the depth they were digging at. Also to bring up of the charges. Again carried by man and the 15 yard separation between each man as one spark would set that charge off. as it did happen the worse occasion was about 15 poms bottlenecked and bunched up. they all went bang, nothing left of them, nothing at all.

stuff that for a war

[Ean Austral]

They did show a part where they shot a sand bag and the enemy seen the blue clay, but the commanders didnt believe it was important..


Stories like that are hard to comprehend, and one can only hope that this type of war or any war for that matter are not seen again..

I had never heard of this story before, only of the Gallipoli battle from WW1..


Cheers Ean

[Bigbjorn]

My grandfather's first posting in France 1916 was 4th. Dvn. HQ Tunnelling Company. He died in 1968 so can't ask him for first hand stories.

[Redback]

Great movie, one of the best Aussie movies I've seen in a while 4 stars:D

Baz.

[long stroke]

Yeah i thought it was pretty well done!!
Well worth watching:cool:

[robbotd5]

Have not seen the flick yet but I have heard good reviews. It stars Gyton Grantley of Underbelly fame he played the "fat boy" Carl Williams. Looking foward to seeing it. The WW's interest me greatly.
Regards
Robbo.

[Hymie]

I loved it. Watched it twice.
Thought it was a brilliant portrayal of Australians at war.

[Ausfree]

I also loved it and watched it twice. My favourite line is when they first look at the hill from a trench and one guy says in a disappointed tone, "is that it"? and the other guy says "what did you expect the ****ing Matterhorn". Cracked me up. But seriously it was a good story and gives little insights on the horrors of war!!!!:)

[Disco44]

While we are on Aussie War movies.did anyone watch "Sisters at War" which was on the ABC1 last Sunday night? IMHO it was done in the fashion of our great movies like "Gallipoli" with some facts about the Nuns and the Australian Army nurses that I was not aware of.

[ericpicc]

Watched Beneath Hill 60 after I read the book.
Movie is far better, in the book you don't get to the story about the hill till near the end of the book, there were so many times that I just about gave up on it.
The book was given away, not worth my time to keep as reference on the matter.

[Ean Austral]

It's very hard to read the closing credits against the same colour back ground but it say's the germans re-took the hill and it took along time to get it back..
I wonder how much of it was left after that explosion..

It really makes you wonder how some of the orders ever got followed, the poms certainly never made to many good decision of stratagy in WW1 from everything I've read and seen in movies..

Bet they would get a slightly different reaction these days

Cheers Ean

[87County]

While we are on Aussie War movies.did anyone watch "Sisters at War" which was on the ABC1 last Sunday night? IMHO it was done in the fashion of our great movies like "Gallipoli" with some facts about the Nuns and the Australian Army nurses that I was not aware of.

I thought it was very good, and the addition the following short programme being an actual interview with the nursing sister and the nun was great. They have remained close friends following their joint experiences at the hands of the japs

Claire van der Bloom (who played the part of the young nun) is very good looking :)

[Bigbjorn]

It really makes you wonder how some of the orders ever got followed, the poms certainly never made to many good decision of stratagy in WW1 from everything I've read and seen in movies..

Bet they would get a slightly different reaction these days

Cheers Ean

I once was touring in Wales and a former coal mining village had a small museum. I found out there that the village had memorial services in July every year on the date they called "The Day of the Telegrams".

The local "Pals Battalion" of the Welsh Rifles took part in the first day of the Somme offensive July 1916. Some 220+ telegrams were received and delivered in one day about a week or so later advising next of kin of relatives killed in action on the first day. As wounded died and more deaths were confirmed telegrams continued to trickle in for weeks.

[Redback]

Here is the story of Hill 60
World War One Battlefields : Flanders: Hill 60 (http://www.ww1battlefields.co.uk/flanders/hill60.html)

http://www.ww1battlefields.co.uk/flanders/images/60/hill60memorial.jpg

Baz.

[Disco44]

I thought it was very good, and the addition the following short programme being an actual interview with the nursing sister and the nun was great. They have remained close friends following their joint experiences at the hands of the japs

Claire van der Bloom (who played the part of the young nun) is very good looking :)

I agree if she looked like that in real life...what a waste...such is life.

[3toes]

Visited Hill 60 and Hooge Crater whicxh are just outside Ypres on a cold (-4 deg c) February morning about 2004. We were the only people there with a low mist making it very atmosphric.

There are some preserved support trenches near Hill 60. Also a very musty museum of artifacts.

Hooge crater(s) is also still there. When you see the size of them now they must have been huge when made. The signs explaining about Hooge crater are very good. The front lines at Hooge crater were only a metre or 2 apart which was aparently unusual for the trenches.

There was a show on TV here reciently which included the chain of explosions that Hill 60 was part of. Said when combined they are still the largest man made explosion ever. The charges were set off from one end of the ridge and worked their way along the ridge. For the Germans to be watching the chain coming their way must have been fun! TV said that 20k were killed in the blasts.

You need to see the topograpy of the area to understand it. There is a line of low hills that run in front of Ypres. With the train lines all converging on Ypres making it an important rail head. The ground behind Ypres is flat so the high ground was very important.

Have seen this movie on the shelves in the supermarket here so will have to buy and see it.

[BMKal]

It's very hard to read the closing credits against the same colour back ground but it say's the germans re-took the hill and it took along time to get it back..
I wonder how much of it was left after that explosion..

It really makes you wonder how some of the orders ever got followed, the poms certainly never made to many good decision of stratagy in WW1 from everything I've read and seen in movies..
Bet they would get a slightly different reaction these days

Cheers Ean

They never made a hell of a lot of smart decisions in WWII either. ;)

Had they not been baled out by the Yanks and others, history may very well have been a lot different to what we all know.

From what I've read over the years, most of the smarter decisions that they did take originated from lower down in the ranks, and certainly not from those at the top who claimed credit for winning the war.

But then, similar can be said of certain high ranking Yanks who were well known in the Australian / PNG areas of conflict, and I've read some interesting reports on one or two very senior ranking Australians who were not held in high regard for their "strategic thinking" either. :o

But back on topic - I watched Beneath Hill 60 recently as well and thought it was a good movie. Certainly gave a pretty good insight into the conditions that those blokes had to try to survive in.

[p38arover]

I hired the movie today and tried to watch it but about half an hour was enough (where the telegram was received advising the son, was it Moffatt?, had been killed.). It was too slow and I couldn't get into it.

The sound levels were all over the place. I was constantly on the volume control.

I'm afraid I wouldn't give it many stars.

[isuzutoo-eh]

I watched it the other night too, streamed online ;)
Agree with Ron on the sound, but I enjoyed the movie overall and learnt a bit of history along the way :)

[jerryd]

We hired the movie tonight and I thought it was excellent, it must have been hell going through what they did and this film seemed to give a good insight of what the conditions were like.
Can't agree on the quality of the sound though :confused: I thought it was very good and the sound effects came through very life like :)

A definite 10/10 from me

[bob10]

well tonight I finally got to watch the show I taped, under hill 60. About the !st Australian tunnelling company in WW1. I thought I had run out of tears, apparently not. I'd like to say more, but I can't, Bob

[Bigbjorn]

well tonight I finally got to watch the show I taped, under hill 60. About the !st Australian tunnelling company in WW1. I thought I had run out of tears, apparently not. I'd like to say more, but I can't, Bob

My grandfather's first unit in France was 4th. Division Headquarters Tunnelling Company. He never spoke of it and by the time of Battle of Messines he was in 52 Battalion.

[Lotz-A-Landies]

Hill 60 was in 3 Div lines.

[Bigbjorn]

Hill 60 was in 3 Div lines.

I meant he never spoke about tunnelling. He did have a lot to say about gas which he reckoned was a totally unacceptable method of warfare that caused much prolonged pain and suffering and kept on killing for years and years after being gassed. He said his old comrades died off like flies in the 1920'-30's from the afteraffects of gas.

[Landy Smurf]

i really want to see this one i think i will go and rent it next week

[Blknight.aus]

its worth it.

[roverv8]

I to have just watched it to.
How lucky we are to get into a hot shower, hot food whenever we feel the need, even a hot cuppa.
It's all owed to the men & women of the war efforts.

[mick88]

I have my grandfather's dossier from WW1.
He went to Gallipoli with the 21st Battalion, his troopship (Southland) torpedoed along the way, off the Greek Isles.
Then after Gallipoli he transfered into 2nd Pioneer Battalion and off to France for three years, with several transfers in and out of the 1st Australian Tunnelling Company.
Not the best way to spend four of the early years of life, then the legacies of it, gas, mud, bomblasts, trauma and death stayed with him forever!

[DiscoMick]

Its an excellent movie.

[Lotz-A-Landies]

I meant he never spoke about tunnelling. He did have a lot to say about gas which he reckoned was a totally unacceptable method of warfare that caused much prolonged pain and suffering and kept on killing for years and years after being gassed. He said his old comrades died off like flies in the 1920'-30's from the afteraffects of gas.I never met my grandfather, he died from chronic respiratory illness when my father was 15, a respiratory illness he didn't have when he went to war.

What is interesting is that his war record doesn't mention being gassed, but prior to the Messines Ridge attack he and other sappers were sent into no mans land to prepare communication and jumping off trenches for the comming attack. It is likely therefore the cause of the damaged lungs was crawling through bomb craters and working in trenches filled with gas from an earlier attack.

When WWII came he didn't want any of his sons to join the Army, one was a chemist and unable to be released from important war work and the other two too young.

It must have been terrible for veterans of WWI seeing their sons going off to war barely 20 years after the war to end all wars.

[vnx205]

Like you, I never met my paternal grandfather. He was captured when Singapore fell and was one of the last to die at Sandakan, in spite of being over 50 years old.

He enlisted in WWII in spite of having served in WWI. I often wonder what would encourage a man who had suffered through WWI to enlist again.

Most people are probably aware of the Australian War Memorial collections. Over the last few years I had found information and photographs of my father and his father and just a few months ago, this photo was added to the collection. It is a photo of my father and grandfather taken in about 1941.

http://cas.awm.gov.au/screen_img/P09579.002

If you have never been there, visit the site and type in your relatives' names. You might be surprised at what comes up.

Search collection | Australian War Memorial (http://www.awm.gov.au/search/collections/)

Another site worth visiting is the National Archives. I'm sure a lot of people know, but some might not know that they are digitising everyone's service records. For example my grandfather's WWI and WWII records are all there and so is my uncle's, but they have not done my father's yet.

Search the collection (http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/using/search/)

[Landy Smurf]

thanks for the link, i did find one relo.
I think that the reason some soldiers/veterans from WW1 went to WW2 even though they saw the true horrors of war was that, they saw the true horrors of war and did not want their sons/nephews to go so they themselves listed. ( just my theory)