Underground The storm of steel on the surface drove soldiers deep underground on the battlefields of the First World War. War Matt Leonard explores the human experience. Group / Durand © Matt Leonard Photos:
22 MilitaryHistorymonthly October 2012 he outbreak of the First World War heralded the chance for many young men to embark on an adventure beyond their Twildest dreams. Most had no idea what they would face, even after the conflict began, for there was no embedded news coverage delivering a steady stream of images from the front. Photographs and film footage were tightly controlled, and although casualty figures were available in black and white every morning, the cold numbers were deliberately
distanced from the visual and visceral Matt Leonard realities they represented. © Before 1914, wars had, of course, been fought on a large scale, embracing all the technologies of the time. But this war was different: it was a global, Above Situated beneath the Chemin des Dames industrial conflict which mechanically ridge, Maison Rouge was just one of the many destroyed almost everything it came into souterraines utilised by the opposing armies. contact with, whether man, machine, or Right A pump room discovered in the T21 landscape. Any notions of glory that new German tunnel system beneath Vimy Ridge. arrivals at the front may have had were Durand Group Durand
soon overwhelmed by the inordinate © quantities of matériel and the sheer underground quarries), or complex magnitude of firepower deployed by tunnel systems designed to defend the both sides. frontlines from subterranean attack and casualties, and the movement of fresh The ferocity of this new and dreadful then take the fight to the enemy in a soldiers up to the forward positions. type of warfare meant that men very deadly, troglodyte game of cat and mouse. Smaller trenches were also dug into No quickly sought refuge within the earth. The weaponry employed was not Man’s Land for observation or forward The decision to live below ground would confined to surface operations. The machine-gun posts, and ‘Russian saps’ see soldiers become more animal than frontlines in Europe and elsewhere were were driven out into no-man’s-land as human, as they dug themselves ever soon underpinned by a subterranean jumping off points for raids or attacks. deeper into the earth – the same earth battlefield which itself would become an By the time the lines settled down that was slowly being consumed by essential part of the bloody business of into stalemate, this sinister man-made the new and insidious technologies of trench warfare. spider’s web stretched from one end of modern warfare. each theatre of conflict to the other. Before long, all life at the front was Trenches In consequence, very little of the lived underground, either in trenches On arrival at the front, soldiers were war could actually be seen from the or dugouts, or even deeper beneath the soon glad of the protection afforded by frontlines, and often it was not easy even surface in caves, souterraines (medieval the trenches, places they came to regard to tell how deep the enemy’s defences as home. For, these narrow, muddy, were. One trench line would be crossed filthy burrows provided some measure only for the attackers to realise that of safety from the zone of flying metal they had many more lines to conquer, Complex tunnel above, even if a direct hit could still stretching out over several kilometres. dissolve a trench into the mudscape of Thus, the central importance of aerial systems were no-man’s-land. reconnaissance, systematic mapping of designed to take Dugouts were soon excavated to enemy trenches, and constant updating provide improved living quarters for of intelligence. the fight to the officers, and these could also serve as A new world had been created, one that forward dressing stations or battlefield reconfigured man’s previous relationship enemy in a deadly, HQs. The frontlines of the war were with his environment, and one that not just single trenches facing the eventually gave rise to a new kind of troglodyte game of enemy; rather, they were a complex and soldiers’ trench society – a ‘conflict ‘‘cat and mouse. intimate defensive system incorporating culture’ of a kind never known before. individually named trenches, of different depths and sizes, spreading out The underground domain in all directions. As trench lines developed, the defences Left Carbon monoxide gas could be lethal These many semi-subterranean were soon expanded into the many deep underground, so gas doors were utilised passages allowed for communications ancient quarries and caves that existed to curb the effects of this silent killer. back to the rear, the evacuation of beneath the Western Front. For
www.military-history.org MilitaryHistorymonthly 23 TUNNELS OF WWI Matt Leonard © Leonard / Durand Group / Durand Matt Leonard © Leonard / Durand Group / Durand Matt Leonard ©
centuries, the French had been mining underground spaces. They utilised wood, family farm back home in Canada, a their land in order to utilise the chalk concrete, and metal to create spacious, link to an idyllic past which was forever to build towns and villages, leaving dry, and almost homely defences, which shattered by a global industrial war. large voids deep in the bowels of the not only offered greater security than Commonly, crude headstones would earth. The Royal Engineers, along with the British and French positions, but be carved, remembering comrades their Canadian, Australian, and French also allowed for a more bearable who had died in combat, reflecting the counterparts, as well as the German existence in the shadow of the war’s grisly appalling casualty rate of the war. At the Pioneer battalions, began to develop determination to destroy. Froidmont souterraine, on the Chemin these features into complex, multi- As this new subterranean world took des Dames, is one of these unique levelled systems that could accommodate shape, soldiers of all sides began to memory objects, listing the names of vast numbers of men close to, and often adorn the walls of their new domain six men and asking that they may ‘Rest right below, the frontlines. with thoughts, memories, hopes, and in Peace’. Yet, strangely, none of these Command-and-control centres, fears in the form of graffiti and intricate men died during the war. Perhaps it was hospitals, dormitories, ammunition carvings. Graffiti ranged from basic carved as a last testament, something that stores, and even cemeteries were inscriptions of name, rank, and number, would remember them if they perished, constructed below ground in order to to slogans, poetry, and reflections on life or perhaps it was a way of confronting service a modern army at war. On the before the war. fate. It is one of the many examples of eve of the Battle of Arras in 1917, up to the deeply ambiguous nature of the First 24,000 men were stationed beneath the New world, lost worlds World War’s material culture. town, ready to be funnelled into the At Maison Blanche, for instance, a As well as graffiti, men left far more frontline trenches. souterraine near the village of Neuville detailed and personal carvings in the The Germans, their positions fixed and St Vasst, Private Lacey, who would not chalk walls of their underworlds. Most intended to be immovable, incorporated survive the war, drew pictures on the were not professional soldiers. They electricity and running water into their bare chalk walls of the animals on his had either signed up to fight or been
24 MilitaryHistorymonthly October 2012 © Matt Leonard images Both
Living underground CLOCKWISE FROM BOTOM LEFT A tunnel beneath the Loos battlefield showing tool marks and the soot made by one of the candles that provided illumination; An example of the many thoughts and musings that line the walls of the subterranean world beneath the Western Front; Carved into the walls of the Maison Blanche Soutteraine at Neuville St Vaast, this object provided a tangible link with home.; Often carvings and inscriptions portray national and regimental pride along with religious beliefs and thoughts of life and death; A carving depicting one of the ships that brought the AEF to France.
conscripted, and they brought with them together represent some of the finest Mine warfare skills honed in former lives. Artisans, material culture from the conflict. With In no time at all the trench lines of the such as stonemasons, carpenters, and much of the surface traces of the war Western Front ran from the sea in the painters, used their talents to leave their now disappeared, the subterranean north to the borders of Switzerland in mark, depositing their thoughts and worlds beneath the old frontlines the south. Flanking the enemy’s lines feelings in the underground landscapes are some of the last remaining was out of the question and the business of France and elsewhere. archaeological and anthropological of advancing over no-man’s-land Incredible carvings of regimental vestiges that can still provide tangible involved massive casualties. So both badges, symbols of national identity and evidence of the soldier’s life at war. sides sought other avenues of attack. personal objects that linked the soldiers It was not long before digging and with their far-off homes, can be found tunnelling began on the same scale as in the troglodyte spaces that still exist trench building on the surface. Firstly, all along the Western Front. At Maison On the eve of the a network of tunnels was created, going Blanche, there is a large letterbox carved ever-deeper underground, in order into the souterraine’s walls, a physical Battle of Arras, to protect the lines from the enemy’s and emotional link to the soldier’s up to 24,000 men similar intentions. In the Ypres Salient, previous lives. Beneath the Chemin tunnels were driven into the sodden clay des Dames can be found carvings of were stationed and reinforced with timber, requiring an the ships that brought the American inordinately high degree of engineering Expeditionary Force to France, and beneath the prowess. Along much of the rest of the at the Confrécourt caves, beneath the town, ready to be Western Front, they were dug into the Soissonais region of France, are large harder chalk, a medium that proved murals that depict national emblems, ‘‘funnelled into the ideal for the construction of tunnels. religious icons, and regimental badges, As early as October 1914, the French linking man, war, God, and landscape frontline trenches. had begun mining operations in the together in the most striking manner. Argonne region of France, and the These varied and enigmatic objects Germans were quick to follow suit. By
www.military-history.org MilitaryHistorymonthly 25 TUNNELS OF WWI the end of November 1914, both sides Cemeteries of the camouflets exploded by the British and had conducted mining operations underground war 126 by the Germans in a single month. against the other. Large mines greatly aided full-scale Tunnels were now regularly dug to a Once the defensive constructions were infantry attacks, but smaller mines, or depth of 100 feet or more. At Messines, complete, offensive mining began on an camouflets, were also used to collapse on 7 June 1917, a shocking example of impressive scale. Today, at certain places the enemy’s tunnels. A great number of the effectiveness of this kind of warfare along the old frontlines, the remains miners, on both sides, were to lose their was displayed. of this clandestine war can still be seen. lives in this manner, blown to pieces or That morning, on a front of just over The vast Lochnagar crater at La Boiselle buried alive beneath the battlefields, 14 kilometres, the British charged 19 on the Somme, the Spanbroekmolen at where many of them still lie today. huge mines, totalling 937,450 lbs of Messines, and the butchered landscape During the conflict, 181 British and explosive, which were detonated in of Vauquois near Verdun all hint at the Dominion tunnelling officers lost their sequence beneath the German lines, effectiveness of this type of warfare. lives underground, and although there signalling the start of the Battle of Tunnels, with a large chamber at the are no official figures for the enlisted Messines. end, would be dug under the enemy’s men, it is estimated that at least 1,500 The explosions ripped along the lines, packed with explosives, and were killed. The old battlefields are now front in the space of about 30 seconds, then blocked off – or ‘tamped’ – in their cemeteries and should be treated and many Germans could do nothing order to contain the explosion. When as such. but stand and watch as the apocalyptic detonated, these mines would atomise June 1916 saw mining reach its peak destruction approached them. Their the defenders and annihilate their along the British frontlines in France lines had been packed with men in order fortifications, allowing the infantry and Belgium, with 101 mines and to repel the inevitable British attack, but above to advance over they had not expected it to no-man’s-land without the come in such monstrous form. usual devastating casualties. So unprepared were they that several of the mines had been Below The Spangbroekmolen was one in situ beneath their lines for of the huge mines detonated to signal months, with little suspicion the start of the Battle of Messines, in that they were there. 1917. The explosions were so
Inset Once tunnels beneath the loud that the noise was heard enemy’s line had been successfully in London and Paris. It is dug, explosives were laid and estimated that as many as then detonated, obliterating 10,000 Germans were killed defences in an instant. instantly, and within an hour GPGR © Matt Leonard ©
26 MilitaryHistorymonthly October 2012 one of the most fortified positions on the Western Front had been taken. After the war, one survivor of the attack on the Messines Ridge recalled how chunks of debris ‘the size of houses’ had rained down from the sky after the massive detonation of the Spanbroekmolen. Never before in the history of warfare had such destruction and violence been unleashed on such a mammoth scale.
The beginning and the end The undermining of enemy fortifications was not a new concept in 1914. It can be traced back to Biblical times and was employed right through the Middle Ages and up to the great conflicts of the 19th century. It has been utilised in more modern conflicts as well, such as during the Vietnam War and most recently by the Taliban in the Tora Bora cave complex in Afghanistan. Should the need arise, it could still be used as a means of waging war in the future. But it was during the First World War that it was adopted on an industrial scale, and then repeated up and down the lines, right across the many theatres of the war. Different nationalities had their own unique ways of digging tunnels and undermining their enemy. The British tended to dig long, defensive, lateral tunnels, which would run parallel to the frontline trench, and from where they would then drive fighting tunnels into no-man’s-land. The French would usually dig smaller, shallower, more direct tunnels, preferring to minimise their exposure. The Germans often Group Durand drove their shafts the deepest and then © lined the tunnels with timber, even if alone. When the German, French, Above The Durand mine charge, located they were dug into the hard chalk. and other nationalities’ figures are beneath Vimy Ridge. Note the use of bags The British use of tunnels and added together, it is estimated that to contain the explosive ammonal. mining operations can be largely approximately 120,000 men were attributed to the tireless efforts of involved in underground warfare, at its Major (later Lieutenant-Colonel) Sir peak, beneath the Western Front. John Norton Griffiths, an MP and friend of Lord Kitchener. It was he who The science of death from below Griffiths lobbied tirelessly lobbied for miners and sewer As the underground war continued constructors – known as ‘clay-kickers’ apace, the science of explosives was for miners and (whose methods were better suited to perfected, allowing for different types the sodden clay of Flanders) – to be of mines to be used, which could be sewer constructors used on the Western Front. controlled with incredible accuracy. Many of these men had no military By 1915, both sides were mainly using – known as training at all, but from the humble ammonal explosives, but other types ‘clay-kickers’ – to beginnings of 170 Tunnelling Company were also utilised. would spring 33 British and Dominion Many technological innovations also be used on the tunnelling companies, just on the occurred: special breathing equipment, Western Front, totalling, at their peak termed ‘proto-apparatus’, was developed, ‘‘Western Front. in June 1916, almost 40,000 men and men were specially trained in its of the British Expeditionary Force use, allowing for underground rescue www.military-history.org MilitaryHistorymonthly 27 TUNNELS OF WWI © GPGR this page: on Photos Above A listening officer using geophones to guard against the approach of enemy. Many such technologies were employed in this clandestine war.
Left A French Sapper utilising listening equipment. Keeping noise to a minimum was of paramount importance underground.
Further information Matt Leonard is a doctoral student at the University of Bristol and an associate member of the Durand Group. More information on subterranean warfare during the First World War can be found at www.modernconflictarchaeology.com and at www.durandgroup.org.uk
and the war of movement that had been dreamed of since 1914 became a lumbering reality, defensive tunnel systems were no longer required. The enormous size and variety of the underground workings, the complexity of mining the enemy’s trenches, and the to become more effective. Sophisticated in other theatres of conflict, such as at strategic realisation of the effectiveness listening devices, such as geophones, Gallipoli. But, as the war entered its of this type of warfare show that military were employed to detect the approach final phases in 1918, fewer and fewer high commands were not simply sending of enemy pioneers. But old, tried and mines were charged or tunnels dug, and men to pointless slaughter on the tested technology was also embraced: many of the mining companies were surface: they were actively searching for it was commonplace, for example, for utilised for other duties, such as building ways to overcome trench-war stalemate canaries to taken into tunnels to detect roads and bridges, or investigating the by experimenting with new ways of war. for gas. enemy’s underground workings – often As well as this, on the walls of The use of underground systems for defusing booby traps and delay mines innumerable dark, claustrophobic both defence and attack was standard left behind by the retreating Germans. tunnels and deep, cavernous practice on the Western Front, as it was As the conflict finally opened up, souterraines are inscribed thousands of objects that reflect the thoughts of the men that fought in the conflict. The On 3 November, the Western Front underground war was no mere sideshow. Association will hold its A World It was the foundation of a complex and at War 1914-1918 conference in multi-dimensional world, an intrinsic Birmingham. This promises to be part of trench warfare, and the habitat an in-depth day of talks covering all of a conflict culture involving millions aspects of the Great War. Tickets Go EXPLORE of men. And today it survives largely are £25 and include a buffet lunch. intact as a unique and multi-vocal Full details can be found at: www. landscape that offers perhaps the truest westernfrontassociation.com reflection of life and conflict during the Great War.
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