Fighting the Boche Underground

by H. D. Trounce

Handicapped as were the British and French from this cause, they have succeeded by energetic and daring work since that time in more than outmatching the enemy below ground, until now mining beneath the trenches no longer consists, as it did then, in almost exclusively defensive operations. Of its use as an offensive measure, the launching of the attack in the battle of Messines last year serves as an excellent illustration.

In our part of the line at Fromelles, however, at that time the Germans had succeeded in exploding many mines with disastrous effect under our trenches, with the resulting loss of life of many infantrymen and some engineers, and in our early operations they gave us much cause for concern. They "blew," that is, exploded mines, under several of our shaft-houses or mine-shafts whilst the latter were under construction, and destroyed several of our galleries before we could get within striking distance of them. When I joined the company, many of our shafts had been constructed and a considerable footage of galleries completed. In this work below ground in clay it was necessary, of course, to be as quiet as possible so that the Germans could not locate our exact position. Of the fact that we were engaged in counter-mining, and that they were mining also, every one on both sides of No Man's Land was aware, but the point was to keep the Hun guessing as to our exact whereabouts while we discovered all we could about his. Many devices were employed both by the enemy and ourselves to try and fool the other. Our lives and the lives of the men on top depended on our success in outwitting them. Silence below ground was absolutely essential, and every possible precaution to secure this was rigorously insisted on. When we approached, as we often did, in these clay galleries, to within three or four feet, before firing our mines, the men underground would work without boots, often without lights; blankets would be hung at different places along the galleries to drown noise; the floors of the tunnels covered with sand-bags; all timbering done by wedging, no nails being allowed in construction, screws being used instead, and any and every other device thought of to prevent noise adopted.

On many occasions, and particularly when engaged in loading a mine-charge (work always done by the officers), connecting up the detonators or electric leads necessary, etc., when within a few feet of the enemy, and when at the same time we could hear them plainly at work, and were convinced they were employed, by the sound, on the same errand as ourselves; namely, laying a charge of high explosives with which to blow us to eternity, some crazy sapper would fail to stifle a cough or subdue some throat trouble. We always felt inclined to brain these chaps with anything handy, although, poor fellows, they were doing their best to be quiet. Luck certainly was with us on these occasions, and not in one instance in our work in Flanders did the Germans succeed in blowing us when we had more than one or two men underground at the time. How we escaped I don't know. I am sure it was only by the exercise of great care and good judgment, a lot of luck and a kind Providence. Farther south in the chalk country of France everybody below was killed by the resulting concussion, or poisonous gas, which developed on several occasions when the enemy caught us.

The "jumpiness" which all new troops are subject to at first had its influence on us, as on the troops above ground; and in the month or two previous to my joining the company sometimes a mine had been fired when probably by delaying it a little longer we might have secured more satisfactory results in damage and casualties to the enemy. That condition, however, wore off and we very seldom blew any mine unless we had the most certain evidence that we could get a good toll of Germans. We would frequently hold our mines for several days or a week or two, and when the listeners reported that the enemy could be heard in sufficient number in their tunnels just near our charges, we would connect our double set of electric leads to dynamo exploders or blasting-machines, push the handles home hard, and lift them to a higher sphere of operations.

Our galleries in the clay were for the most part from four and a half to five feet in height and from thirty inches to three feet in width, with numerous listening-tunnels, or "rabbit-holes," in size three feet by two, leading off them as we approached the enemy lines.

It was our practice to build a rough mine-chamber or shelter, constructed of walls of sand-bags filled with clay with a few corner-posts of wood, and to cover this shelter with a sheet or two of corrugated iron and sometimes a layer of sand-bags.

These chambers were built usually at from ten to twenty feet back of the sand-bag breastworks which formed our only protection from enemy fire. From these so-called mine-chambers we sank vertical telescope-shafts, sometimes using case-timbers, and sometimes collar-sets with logging or spiling driven in behind. In Flanders, where only these surface shelters can be built, we would usually construct a dugout alongside or connected with a mine-chamber. In the trenches farther south we used the deep dugouts, twenty or thirty feet deep, and often started our systems of tunnels or galleries from them.

Much difficulty was experienced in sinking these shafts. On account of the shallow water, level pumps were resorted to at once, often two or three being necessary to keep the water down. With constant pumping and digging we attained depths of from twenty to twenty-five feet below the surface. At the bottom of the shaft we put in sumps from which to pump the water, and then proceeded to drive our galleries ahead. For the smaller tunnels we used two-inch case-timbers or small timber-sets and excavated the clay with small, specially constructed shovels which we called "grafting-tools."

The man in the face would lie with his back across a plank stretcher placed across the nearest timber set, and would work the grafting-tool with his heel, whilst a second man would very carefully shovel the dirt into sand-bags, and pass them when filled to the man behind him. The latter would in turn pass the sand-bags along to other men as far as the foot of the shaft, when the bags would be attached to a rope and hauled to the surface by means of a rough prospector's windlass.

As the work progressed we would often screw wooden rails to the floors of galleries, and then use small rubber-tired trolleys or cars to move our sand-bags from the face.