commune
A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to:
Administrative-territorial entities
* Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township
** Communes of ...
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
.INSEE commune file /ref> Until 1926 it was named ''Auchy-lez-La-Bassée''.
Geography
A small ex- coal mining town, now mostly a light engineering and farming commune, situated east of Béthune and southwest of
Lille
Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region, the prefecture of the N ...
, at the junction of the N41 and the D163 roads.
Coal mining
Work on Mine 8 at Auchy-les-Mines began by the
Compagnie des mines de Béthune
The Compagnie des mines de Béthune, sometimes called the sometimes called the Compagnie de Grenay after the name of the concession, was a French coal mining company in the Pas-de-Calais that was established in 1851 and nationalized in 1946.
The co ...
in July 1891, and the mine was opened in November 1893.
Shaft 8bis was started in November 1893.
During
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
(1914–18) the front stabilized in the autumn of 1914 and a war of position began.
The Mines de Béthune concession was cut in two along a line from Auchy-les-Mines to
Liévin
Liévin (; pcd, Lévin; ) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. The inhabitants are called ''Liévinois''.
Overview
The town of Liévin is an old mining area of Pas-de-Calais. Near Lens, this town is of modest size bu ...
, with Mines 4 and 8 occupied by the Germans.
Mine 4 (
Vermelles
Vermelles () is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France.
Geography
Vermelles is situated southeast of Béthune and southwest of Lille, at the junction of the D39, D75 and D943 roads and by the banks ...
) was recovered in December 1914, but Mine 8 (Auchy) was not recovered until the German troops withdrew at the end of the war.
A long gallery led from the main Mines de Béthune concession to Mine 8 in Auchy in the northeast.
Shaft 8 was blocked by the Germans between the level and the lower level, but below the blockage the French could freely work the coal seams, even under the German side.
Pumps were brought back into service below the shafts to drain the sector.
British soldiers of the 170th Tunneling Company established a listening system at the bottom of shaft 8bis which picked up sounds of activity in August 1917.
In early September there was an underground struggle in which the Germans were forced out of the mine.
Around midnight of 25–26 September 1917 the 38th German Pioneer Regiment poured about 8 tons of the suffocating gas
chloropicrin
Chloropicrin, also known as PS and nitrochloroform, is a chemical compound currently used as a broad-spectrum antimicrobial, fungicide, herbicide, insecticide, and nematicide. It was used as a poison gas in World War I. Its chemical structural f ...
into Mine 8, and carried by the ventilation systems the gas took under four hours to travel the to Mine 9 and the shaft of Mine 12.
The people around the base of Shaft 8 died, but those further away escaped via the ladders of Shaft 9.
After the attack a thick masonry wall was built in the main haulage gallery to isolate the sectors near shafts 8 and 8bis.
The Germans blew up the casing of Shaft 8 and the heads of Shafts 8 and 8bis.
The mine was reopened after the war, and finally closed in 1961.
Population
Sights
* The church of St. Martin, rebuilt, as was the entire village, after
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
.
* The
Hohenzollern Redoubt
The Hohenzollern Redoubt () was a strongpoint of the German 6th Army on the Western Front during the First World War, at Auchy-les-Mines near Loos-en-Gohelle in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France. Named after the House of Hohenzollern, ...
, a German fortification on the Western Front in World War I.