Deadly Warfare Under-Ground

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 14451, 10 November 1917, Page 8

GREAT TUNNELLING EXPLOITS. DEADLY WARFARE UNDER-GROUND ANZACS BEAT THE GERMANS HEROIC STORIES FROM THE BATTLEFIELD (By Mr Keith Murdoch, Sydney Sun Representative.)

ANZAC HEADQUARTERS, Aug. 31

When the story of the 19 great mines of Messines and Ypres is written, and books describe from the popular and technical aspects this great mining operation in all warfare, Canadian miners will get their due recognition. They did the work of offensive mine-laying at Hill 60 and the Caterpillar, and the A.I.F. is inclined to resent to-day a misunderstanding which ascribed it nearly all to Australians. The A.I.F. knows the Canadians principally by the engineers, sappers, and miners left in the Ypres salient when our corps took it over last autumn. Knowing these fine men, they are jealous for the Canadians reputation.

But the Australians part in these mining works has many a good tale in it too. Especially the work of that company which at the beginning of winter moved into the salient, and took up the difficult task of completing and protecting the mines laid by Canadian tunnellers with help from some hundred carriers from the Anzac Corps — under the strong points Hill 60 and the Caterpillar, deep behind the German lines. They are all sturdy men, from Newcastle and Queensland, from Ballarat and the Western goldfields, but the work seemed sometimes more than humans could do.

WORKING THROUGH THE WINTER Through the winter they worked, in the deadliest position on the British line. Nothing could be much worse than the Ypres salient at that time. For eight months the tunnellers were there. Their lines were under the enemy's observation, their shafts and positions were subject to shellfire. Their network of galleries, defensive and offensive, were in momentary danger of being blown up by enemy counter-mining. On one side of Hill 60 they had to undertake a large system of defensive and counter-mining, in which the Boche was usually one up. There were 98 separate "blows" in this work.

It was all deadly underground warfare, with men sometimes disappearing as though swallowed by the earth, and tense anxiety all the time lest the Germans should discover the great principal mines and destroy their galleries and leads.

REPUTATION FOR SPEED. The company borrowed some helpers from British troops holding the line. Always they will speak well of these Tommies. Divisions came and went, but no divisions refused the two or three hundred needed for the unskilled work associated with the tunnelling. And the Tommies worked well. There is good reason for the statement that Australian miners have made a reputation for speed, accuracy, and success in mining and dug- out construction on this front — on both sides of it, for our men speed and skill far superior to the slow Germans. But these Australian tunnellers want Australia to know, they told me to-day, how good a fellow and how fine a worker they found the British Tommy.

The Canadians had done the work well, and the mines were nearly ready for “blowing.” But the time was not yet. Strategy demanded a long wait. And every day the Germans were burrowing, trying to tap works which they knew from direct observation — from the hundreds of thousands of feet of soil which, though removed cautiously in sandbags, could never be wholly hidden away — that some dire scheme had been launched against them. The main shaft was cleverly concealed, opening not upon a trench, but into a great cavern dug under lines. The Australians' first work was to dig a long defensive gallery, and this was always manned with listeners, equipped with apparatus not at all unlike those jam tins and medical stethescopes improvised with success on Gallipoli. The defensive gallery was also used for general defensive counter- mining.

GALLERY AFTER GALLERY. The Canadians had left one main shaft, and one main gallery running out from it under British and German lines into German territory.

The Australians' second work was to build another gallery lower down. The men broke records in making it. Along one gallery, 6ft by 3ft, they averaged 29ft a day for seven days. Some other tunnelling companies claim to have done as well or better, and the army authorities have stopped the practice of publishing records in orders, so the exact standing of the Australian work can remain unestablished. Anyway, it’s tough digging — wet red clay, much more difficult than the chalk of the Somme and other working places.

They worked in short shifts, as miners always must in such labor as this. Very different is it from the simple mining at home. You can't ventilate a mine sticking out into country where appearance on the top means death. The tunnellers got electric power from their comrades, the Australian Electric Company, and put up fans, and installed an electric pump. But for the main part there could be no relief. Air was poisonous. There were cases of gassing. Casualties diminished the little band of workers.

AMIDST DANGER AND DEATH. Any conscientious inspector of mines at home would have closed down this mine, and denounced the board of directors before it had gone many yards.

No sound was permissible. The men knew that. They are soldiers as well as miners, and skilled in both occupations. They knew that part of the game was to prevent at all hazards your enemy knowing what and where you were working. So every man as he entered the shaft covered himself with sandbags, subdued his spirits, warned himself once more that his talk must be in the lowest of low whispers.

And then it meant crawling on hands and knees through slush and mud and filth to the head of the gallery, lighting his way as best he could with candles, breathing air bad enough to make a visitor sick at the first breath. Throughout it all was the tenseness of silence and of expectation. We had listeners, and so had the Germans. They were on the qui vive, just as we were. There were parts where the men could not even whisper. The listener could hear the Germans picking, or trucking, or timbering, or tramping. The listeners spent lonely vigils listening thus. Surely there are no braver men than these listeners, alone for hours in dangerous parts in the bowels of the earth, detecting the various sounds from the German miners, in such a silence as makes every movement loud, and every drop of water a thunderclap. "Nothing braver," says the O.C. "The eeriness, the sense of desertion and loneliness, with only Germans about, and then getting ready to 'blow,' made the strain on nerves and senses almost more than a human being could stand. We could send a man to them only every two or three hours, and then even whispers could not be exchanged, for as soon as the Germans discovered our presense it meant an immediate counter-mine and a 'blow'

FULL OF SURPRISES. One of the most remarkable features of the underground warfare is this counter-mining, camouflage mining, counter-drilling, and general manoeuvring for position under the surface.

It is full of surprises, of sudden gusts of explosion, and the disappearance of men. But I do not want to give the idea that we lost heavily at this work. For in truth casualties were surprisingly few. We got round or under the German, once he was discovered, at greater speed than he could manoeuvre.

I have said that in this side work the Germans were at the finish "one up." I meant by that expression that they scored rather heavily in this countermining, work, and worried us nearly grey. The plans showing Hill 60 are covered with a whole network of their counter-mining, and of ours. But they failed to prevent the big blow. Indeed, at the Caterpillar they did not seem to suspect even that we were beneath them. And so, from being “one up," they went into the air, thousands up, and dugouts, strong points, companies of men were destroyed.

QUICK AT LEARNING. Australian miners are quick at learning. They learnt many tricks in silent mining, which I am not going to disclose. There are tricks of digging while lying on the back and “kicking-out” the spoil. It is painful and exhausting, but useful, and the tunnellers carried it through many weary days and nights. There are tricks of timbering and tamping and specially Australian tricks of tossing out the spoil, which may be told about after the war— “apres la guerre,” as the boys are fond of saying here.

It all entailed great physical strain. In some parts the men could work only four hours in the 24. At other parts, they would work six hours, have six off, work another six and then go back for a 48 hours spell to their dugouts or billets. And on top of all the strain and labor was the incessant danger of going to and from the mine shafts through the shell-strewn lines leading to Hill 60. Here it was, amidst the shells, that most of our casualties were suffered.

TALES OF HEROISM. The main work was completed months before the great mines of Hill 60 and the Caterpillar were "blown." Therein lie a thousand tales. For it was while waiting for that eventful day some weeks ago when all mines exploded, giving the Second Army its great start in the battle of Messines, that anxiety was tensest. During these days the miner were busiest thrusting out galleries here and there, "blowing" after rapid mining first at this spot and then at that, in the great effort to prevent the Germans getting beneath our own trenches, and to keep them from discovering or tampering with the immense charges of explosives packed beneath their most redoubtable points.

These days were crowded with exciting moments. But nothing worse, I am assured, than one tense week when the Germans were heard within 40ft of the Hill 60 mine, and within a few feet of one of our important galleries.

A drive was hurriedly made. The men worked as they had never worked before. They drove under the German. They could hear him within easy striking distance. And they laid their charge, "tamped" it with sandbags, and went back.

But then arose the question. Would detonation of this charge, absolutely essential if the great mine was to be saved, explode by sympathetic detonation the great mine itself? Experts were divided. So the infantry got ready to advance at once, in the event of a general detonation, to occupy the great crater. The tunnelling officers gathered at the point at which were the buttons by pressing which the mine could be exploded.

Tunnellers tell of an amusing incident here. It was arranged that in order to ensure the infantry seeking cover from the German shell fire in the event of the great mine not being affected, a rocket should be fired by the tunnelling officers. The small mine went off, the German shell fire came down in fury and panic as expected; but the rocket instead of soaring gracefully into the air dived into the trench, and careered along it, chasing all before it and filling the dug-outs with smoke and the smell of powder. A second rocket was tried. But this ill-behaved bit of fireworks turned also, darted into a dug-out, and gave the occupants an unholy scare. Fortunately runners got to the infantry in time to prevent casualties.

The tunnellers tell also of an exciting moment when the Germans were heard "tamping" the final preparations close to one of counter mines galleries. It was quick work, but we drove in, and got our charge exploded first. It detonated the German charge which did not form a crater but destroyed this gallery, and filled his main gallery and shaft with smoke, which was seen wreathing up in volume behind his line. Those Germans were certainly gassed.

DEATHLESS HEROES OF THE A.I.F. These Australians could tell of many individual heroic deeds. But they are modest men of good heart and sound muscle, and are content with the day's work and its ultimate fruition. There are some stories, however, which cry aloud for telling.

The men were all courageous, enduring, industrious. If you saw their hard strong faces you would take all that for granted about Australian tunnellers evermore. Their labor and bravery were of the best. Yet some sections stand out. The men put the listeners first.

But what is to be said of the carriers, picking their way every day and night through zones; strewn with bullets and shells, any scrap of which may detonate some explosive on their backs? These men would load themselves with their 501b. packages of ammonal, two tons to the party, and trudge off through the saps and battered lines, into places so battered by German shell-fire and minnenwerfer fire as to be in a constant condition of flux. These defences were obliterated, trenches, disappeared, dugouts were useless. Only those who lived in the salient during these days of preparation for the great push can know what it was like. The Germans began early to mass their guns, and they pounded the salient daily. They overlooked and dominated and enfiladed every part.

Sapper Earl, of New South Wales, is the company's chief hero. A few days before the great explosions, the Germans "blew" a cunningly contrived mine. Nearly 800 yards of our galleries were destroyed. For some days it seemed as though all the work had gone for nought. Leads were broken, the system was thrown out of gear. How frantically the men worked on repairs during the next days. How joyful they were when all became ready again, close on the hour at which the buttons were to be pressed.

MAN WHO WOULD NOT SAVE HIMSELF. Earl was buried by the explosion. He was alone in an Australian gallery. He could have crawled forward and got himself dug out by the Hun, who were within 6 foot of him. That, of course, would have disclosed everything. Earl probably did not dream for a moment of taking this craven course. He crawled back into the best position for hearing and recording, and here he listened, listened, listened through forty long hours, with little hope of rescue, but with fine determination to have there before he died a full record of all that was happening.

When they got to him forty hours after the earth had fallen, they found him still entering in his records the various sounds he was hearing, still testing the leads and working as usual. He died in hospital, poor fellow from spinal paralysis, owing to the shock and injuries he had received. But surely he has taken his place permanently amongst the deathless heroes of the A.I.F.

Then there is a sapper from Victoria. When the day for the stunt arrived he sought his CO. “May I go over the top with the boys tomorrow?” “No, you must get back and carry.” “But are you treating me fair? I want to go over." “Your work is to carry. You'll get all you ought to have in the way of shooting later." “Now, do you call that ….” “Out of this! Clear away and stop this talk or I'll …..”

FIRST ON H1LL 60. Now, it is in the records of these tunnellers that eight men were to go out over the top in one of the late waves of infantry and prepare and repair dugouts for battalion headquarters. That is what I believe the records say. But the facts are that somehow 31 Australian tunnellers found themselves in the first wave, and first on Hill 60, and they put up a flag there — an Australian flag — and claimed this work as theirs.

I do not know if this sapper was amongst them. Being a red haired, fiery, obstinate son of woman, he probably was. But I do know that later on he dug three British soldiers out of a collapsed trench, in full view of the enemy, standing on the parapet, with bullets whistling round him. Twice the spade was shot from his hands; twice he was wounded. But he got those men out and it was good work.

Some men do great deeds quietly, almost unobserved. Of such was the tunnelling sergeant who controlled the carriers, standing in an exposed position for three nights, with the certainty that he would be killed. He was hit out on the third night, and his successor was shot about on the next. These are the inevitable deaths of battlefield.

But they are all great men. The "Proto" men alone — those who don lifesaving apparatus when gas is bad and go down into the worst places to rescue and encourage — these would furnish stories for a book of enduring gallantry.

GREAT TUNNELLING FEATS. At home, where the flowers are out, and the children are going to school, and there is music of nights, these things cannot be fully understood. Yet here they are done only because of those at home, and because of that country which has never tasted war, and must be spared the taste, if possible.

Through wet and fine, through shellfire, and in choking caverns beneath the ground, the tunnellers stick to work saving thousands of lives of their brother infantrymen, and doing their bit towards blasting the curse of the German Army from the world. A finer set of men you will not hope to meet. Tall lantern jawed, with deep-set eyes, and the confident look of the muscular Australian countryman, they made a great picture on parade today, in full fighting accoutrements, on the occasion of an inspection. I will not say they undervalue their work. In truth, they fancy themselves a cut above the infantry. They are the kingpins of the British Armies. They would not object to leading infantry, and would even wish to go over the bags as the first wave in an attack for a mine crater. But they are not infantry — not they.

THE FINAL BLOW. They are justified in their pride. For their work will stand any comparison. Hill 60 and the Caterpillar will remain as evidence. The one crater was 293ft across and 84ft deep. The other 273ft across and 65ft deep.

This is a long story and it is written hurriedly by candle-light, in a tent not far from where these tunnellers worked. The gale tears at the canvas and the rain soaks though. But it has been one of the most satisfactory tasks I have undertaken, this writing of the deeds of the tunnellers. How much more could be said, of this and other Australian tunnelling companies, if the war did not require secrecy?

These companies have not lost heavily — they count themselves very lucky. But recruits are wanted. Roll up miners!