How WWI Soldiers Dug Tunnels Under No Man’s Land

 

Miners on the Western Front

 Article from Military Illustrated Past and Present here

Charity shop gold

Been looking for the Beneath Flanders Fields for some time but they had it for a quid in my friendly neighbourhood charity shop. 
 

Undermining the Enemy: Messines Ridge 1917 (WW1 Documentary)

 Thanks to Elliott for this. New. 

RE Clay Kickers Living History

 Facebook This living history group are doing a great job telling the story of underground warfare in the Great War. Check them out. 

In the Dark: Underground warfare 1914-1918 (1:40)

 Lecture by Simon Jones. Here

Simon Jones is a freelance military historian, battlefield guide and former museum curator. He is author of Underground Warfare 1914-1918 (2010), a subject which he has been studying for more than thirty years. His talk examines the war beneath the trenches in which an ancient method of warfare was revived on a massive scale using modern technology and a highly skilled civilian workforce.

• What was military mining during 1914-18?
• Profile of miners & mining engineers enlisted.
• Technology & explosives.
• Underground tactics.
• Evaluation of military effectiveness.

Presenter Simon Jones Simon is a former curator at English Heritage and the Royal Engineers and King's Regiment Museums. He has taught at Liverpool and Lancaster Universities and was lead historian for the exploration of a tunnel system and archaeology on the Somme at La Boisselle, 2011-2015. He blogs at SimonJonesHistorian.com.

Underground Warfare 1914-1918 Simon Jones

 One of the Library books I am reading at the moment. I didn't realise tunnelling in the war started in 1914 with the French and Germans. 

Battle of the Crater 1864 (Cold Mountain)

 

Contemporary sketch of Col. Pleasants supervising the placement of powder in the mine

Here. Today's anniversary. Wiki

William Hackett V.C.

 A short film about a recipient in my Grandfather's company. Here. He was 43.

Wiki

'Bastion du Mat, from the Central Bastion' from the National Army Museum

Coloured tinted lithograph. One of 41 lithographs from 'The Seat of War in the East - Second Series', after William Simpson. Published by Paul and Dominic Colnaghi. Printed by Day and Son.

The Bastion du Mât was a French redoubt at the far left of the British lines outside Sevastopol. This view shows part of a gun battery and several French soldiers, including Zouaves, in their entrenchments.

Crimean War tunnelling

 This image is from the Yale Center for British Art. Saw it in the Osprey below. Artist wiki

The War Underground 1914-18 Tactics and equipment. Simon Jones Adam Hook

 This Osprey (here) that is fairly new my daughter bought me for my birthday. It's very good. Stuff on all nations including French and Italian as well as German. What my Grandfather did in the Great War. Enlisted in the Coldstream Guards and when the call came out for miners transferred to the Royal Engineers. He was a Proto Man. 

THE UNDERGROUND WAR VOLUME 1: VIMY RIDGE TO ARRAS

 Just ordered this from the library. Cover image is good. 

This is the first part of a planned four-volume series focusing on a hitherto largely neglected aspect of the Great War on the Western Front - the war underground. The subject has fascinated visitors to the battlefields from the very beginning of battlefield pilgrimages in the years immediately after the Armistice, and locations such as Hill 60 and the Grange Subway at Vimy have always been popular stops on such tours. Three other volumes will follow, covering the Somme, Ypres and French Flanders. Each book in the series has a short description of the formation and development of Tunnelling Companies in the BEF and a glossary of technical terms.This volume looks mainly at the central Artois, the environs of the whole line of the Vimy Ridge to the River Scarpe and Arras. It does not aim to be a complete treatment of the intensive mining operations along this front. It concentrates on mining, in the area of Vimy Ridge, in Arras itself and at the use of ancient underground quarries, taking Roeux as a good example. There are extensive descriptions of mining on and around Vimy Ridge, including photography and explanations of systems that have been accessed recently but are closed to the public, such as the Goodman Subway. The narrative draws on French and German archival material and personal descriptions. The text is illustrated with numerous diagrams and maps, in particular from the British and German records, and there is an exhaustive guide to the Grange Subway. Other sites open to the public, in particular the Wellington Cave, are also explained and put into context."BBC History - Archaeologists are beginning the most detailed ever study of a Western Front battlefield, an untouched site where 28 British tunnellers lie entombed after dying during brutal underground warfare. For WWI historians, it's the "holy grail"."

William Hackett VC

 A sapper in my Grandfather's tunnelling company 254. Awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross. Read his interesting story here

On the subject of Tunnelling the Osprey Underground warfare book The War Underground is out. Here

Forthcoming Osprey

 

This absorbing illustrated study reveals the evolving tactics and techniques used by all sides in the underground war during 1914–18.

Covering the Western Front but also the Gallipoli and Italian theatres, this study explores three aspects of World War I below ground: military mining, attack tunnels and dugouts. In 1914–17, the underground war was a product of static trench warfare, essential to survive it and part of both sides' attempts to overcome it. In 1917–18 it was rendered largely obsolete by the development of the all-arms battle as mobility was restored to the battlefield.

In the stagnant, troglodyte existence of trench warfare, military mining was a hidden world of heroism and terror in which hours of suspenseful listening were spent monitoring the steady picking of unseen opponents, edging quietly towards the enemy, and judging when to fire a charge. Break-ins to enemy mine galleries resulted in hand-to-hand fighting in the darkness. The ingenuity, claustrophobia and tactical importance of the underground war are discussed and depicted in this fully illustrated study from an acknowledged expert. The artwork plates include depictions of the specialized uniforms, weapons and equipment used underground, as well as vignettes that vividly convey the many aspects of subterranean warfare during World War I.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Underground warfare before 1914
Military mining 1914–15
Mining in 1916
Mining in 1917–18
Underground warfare and technology
Mining on the Italian Front
Dugouts, shelters and attack tunnels
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index

German tunnelers 1916

 Pioniere

A Confederate counter mine burrow at Fort Mahone, Petersburg, Virginia

 

Tunnelling in the Crimean War

 From the wiki on Tunnel warfare

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As early as 1840 Eduard Totleben and Schilder-Schuldner had been engaged on questions of organisation and conduct of underground attacks. They began to use electric current to disrupt charges. Special boring instruments of complex design were developed.

In the Siege of Sevastopol (1854–1855) underground fighting became immense. At first the allies began digging saps without any precautions. After a series of explosions caused by counter mine action the allies increased the depth of the tunnels but began to meet rocky ground and the underground war had to return to higher levels. During the siege Russian sappers dug 6.8 kilometres (4.2 mi) of saps and counter mines. During the same period the allies dug 1.3 kilometres (0.81 mi). The Russians expended 12 tons of gunpowder in the underground war while the allies used 64 tons. These figures show that the Russians tried to create a more extensive network of tunnels and carried out better targeted attacks with only minimal use of gunpowder. The allies used outdated fuses so that many charges failed to go off. Conditions in the tunnels were severe: wax candles often went out, sappers fainted due to stale air, ground water flooded tunnels and counter mines. The Russians repulsed the siege and started to dig tunnels under the allies fortifications. The Russian success in the underground war was recognised by the allies. The Times noted that the laurels for this kind of warfare must go to the Russians.

Royal Sappers and Miners in the Crimean War

 Read about them here in volume 2 of their history in the Crimea

Photograph of three soldiers of the Royal Sappers and Miners who served in the Crimean War. From left to right are Colour Sergeant Joseph John Stanton, Colour Sergeant Kester Knight and Private William Bruce. Knight, standing in the middle, is resting his right leg on a metal case and his right hand on his rifle. He is looking slightly right towards Bruce and has a rucksack on his back. Bruce is facing left and is resting his left arm on a wooden table beside him to the right. He is holding a spade in his right hand. All three are wearing military uniform.

CUNDALL & HOWLETT

Three Soldiers of the Royal Sappers and Miners  1856

From here 

Sergeant R S&M

Musket for artillery and RS&M from here

Colour sergeant J. Stanton Cundall and Howlett

Fights below the ground

 I don't remember where this was from. If anyone knows? New label on this blog Underground war. Article here on tunnelling.