The Long, Long Trail

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The war on the Western Front bogged down into siege conditions by November 1914. Both sides faced the need to break through the enemy's defensive entrenched positions. It was not long before an ancient art was remembered and used most effectively: mining under the enemy lines, placing explosives and blowing them up. In some areas, both sides mined and counter-mined intensively. For the infantry above ground, the wait for underground explosions was nerve-wracking indeed; for the men underground, hard toil often came accompanied by sudden death.

First Use of Mining - by the Germans

The pre-war British Army had no specific organisation for carrying out sapping, mining and tunnelling operations, although most men of the Royal Engineers received some training in the subject. Digging beneath an enemy position with the object of destroying it is essentially an act of siege warfare, and military planning did not believe that this was a serious possibility. However, by the end of 1914 it was clear that the entrenched positions of the Western Front were akin to siege conditions.

On 20th December 1914, ten small mines - each subsequently discovered to have been 50kg of explosive, driven under the British positions from saps in the German front-line system - were blown at Givenchy. An infantry attack followed, and over 800 men of the Indian Corps were lost. From that day, the constant threat of mining was one of the worst fears of the infantry. By January 1915, it was evident that the Germans were beginning to mine on a definite system.

British response

On 3 December 1914, the CO of IV Corps, Sir Henry Rawlinson requested the establishment of a special battalion to assist with mining duties. On 28 December 1914, in the tense time following the first German mine attacks, Major John Norton Griffiths - a larger than life character, formerly an MP and an officer of the 2nd King Edward's Horse - suggested the hiring of 'clay kickers', men with a particular skill who had been employed in mining for the London Underground.

The Armies were ordered to proceed with offensive mining operations using any suitable personnel they could find from within the ranks. These men were formed into Brigade Mining Sections. On 17 February 1915, the first British mine was blown at Hill 60 by RE troops of 28th Division.

A decision was taken in February 1915 to form 8 Tunnelling Companies, made of men drawn from the ranks, mixed with drafts of men specially recruited for this kind of work. This has been described as the quickest intentional act in the war: men who were working underground as civilians in the UK on February 17th were underground at Givenchy only four days later! Such was the urgency of needing countermeasures against the aggressive German actions. Another 12 Companies were eventually formed in 1915, and one further one in 1916. A Canadian Tunnelling Company was formed in France, and two more arrived from home, by March 1916. Three Australian and one New Zealand Tunnelling Companies arrived on the Western Front by May 1916. All of these units were engaged on underground work including the digging of subways, cable trenches, saps, chambers (for such things as signals and medical services), as well as offensive or defensive mining.

Underground warfare continues to develop

Once both sides had embarked on mining operations, there was a determined struggle for tactical superiority in those areas where conditions were favourable. At Hill 60, The Bluff, St Eloi, Aubers Ridge, Hooge, Givenchy and Cuinchy, where the front lines were relatively close together and the geology suitable for tunnelling, the mining companies sought ways to not only drive mines for destroying enemy positions, but developed measures of detection of the enemy mine systems. When detected, an enemy mine would be immediately destroyed by the explosion of a camouflet, often at the cost of severe damage to ones own system. There were many underground encounters, as one tunneling team, breaking into an enemy position, met the enemy underground. Sometimes these encounters included fighting in the tunnels and chambers.

The blowing of mines below enemy front line positions became a regular feature of local actions. Infantry tactics developed that would enable the rushing and capture of the crater formed by the explosions. The craters were often themselves a dominant ground feature, as the lip of earth thrown up was usually higher than the ground in the area, giving possible observation over the enemy. Crater fighting became a highly dangerous and unpleasant feature of many actions in 1915 and early 1916.

A Mine Rescue School was formed in Armentieres in 1915.

Mining in support of larger infantry offensives was also adopted, with increasing numbers of mines of increasing size being used in the first minutes of the major British attacks at Aubers Ridge (May 1915), Loos (September 1915), the Somme (July 1916).

Some mine craters still exist

Some impression of the scale of the Lochnagar Crater, blown on 1 July 1916 at La Boisselle on the Somme, can be made by comparing the crater slope and depth to the tiny figures of people on the lip.

The aim was to destroy large areas of enemy trenches, and to disorientate the defenders nearby. Mining warfare reached its zenith in June 1917, when 19 huge mines blew under the Messines Ridge.

The Messines mines

The Messines mine craters still exist, and are now deep pools. This is Kruisstraat numbers 1 and 4 mines. Tunnellers of the Royal Engineers had dug a mine 1500 feet from behind the British line to reach this strong point under the enemy lines. 49500 pounds of explosive, mostly ammonal, buried 57 feet below the surface, blew on 7 June 1917. This photo kindly supplied by Iain McHenry.

After this immense and successful demonstration of the superiority that the British Tunnelling Companies had achieved, there was relatively little mining activity. The troops were more often engaged in construction work, and in creating underground subways for infantry to shelter in and to reach the front lines without molestation. In the crises of Spring 1918 were often called upon to act as emergency infantry. When the tables turned and the Allies began to advance in 1918, they worked on making safe the many towns, villages and facilities they captured, including the very dangerous work of rendering harmless the many explosive devices that had been left behind.

Principal areas of mining activity on the British sector of the Western Front

Northern sectors: between Ypres and Armentieres	Central sectors: between Armentieres and Arras	Southern sectors: on the Somme battlefield

French mining extended down into the Champagne, the Argonne and further south. A particularly impressive site, with extensive remains of craters and underground galleries, is the mine-riven hill at Vauquois.

Tunnelling Companies and other mining units

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