The 2nd Australian Tunnelling Company was one of the tunnelling companies of the

Royal Australian Engineers The Royal Australian Engineers (RAE) is the military engineering corps of the Australian Army. The RAE is ranked fourth in seniority of the corps of the Australian Army, behind the Corps of Staff Cadets, Staff Cadets, Royal Australian Armoured C ...

during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. The tunnelling units were occupied in offensive and defensive mining involving the placing and maintaining of mines under enemy lines, as well as other underground work such as the construction of deep dugouts for troop accommodation, the digging of subways, saps (a narrow trench dug to approach enemy trenches), cable trenches and underground chambers for signals and medical services.

Background

By January 1915 it had become evident to the BEF at the Western Front that the Germans were

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

to a planned system. As the British had failed to develop suitable counter-tactics or underground listening devices before the war, field marshals French and Kitchener agreed to investigate the suitability of forming British mining units. Following consultations between the Engineer-in-Chief of the BEF, Brigadier George Fowke, and the mining specialist John Norton-Griffiths, the

War Office The War Office has referred to several British government organisations throughout history, all relating to the army. It was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, at ...

formally approved the tunnelling company scheme on 19 February 1915. Norton-Griffiths ensured that tunnelling companies numbers 170 to 177 were ready for deployment in mid-February 1915. In the spring of that year, there was constant underground fighting in the Ypres Salient at Hooge, Hill 60, Railway Wood, Sanctuary Wood, St Eloi and The Bluff which required the deployment of new drafts of tunnellers for several months after the formation of the first eight companies. The lack of suitably experienced men led to some tunnelling companies starting work later than others. The number of units available to the BEF was also restricted by the need to provide effective counter-measures to the German mining activities. To make the tunnels safer and quicker to deploy, the British Army enlisted experienced coal miners, many outside their nominal recruitment policy. The first nine companies, numbers 170 to 178, were each commanded by a regular Royal Engineers officer. These companies each comprised 5 officers and 269 sappers; they were aided by additional infantrymen who were temporarily attached to the tunnellers as required, which almost doubled their numbers. The success of the first tunnelling companies formed under Norton-Griffiths' command led to mining being made a separate branch of the Engineer-in-Chief's office under Major-General S.R. Rice, and the appointment of an 'Inspector of Mines' at the GHQ

Saint-Omer Saint-Omer (; ; Picard: ''Saint-Onmé'') is a commune and sub-prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais department in France. It is west-northwest of Lille on the railway to Calais, and is located in the Artois province. The town is named after Sa ...

office of the Engineer-in-Chief. A second group of tunnelling companies were formed from Welsh miners from the 1st and 3rd Battalions of the Monmouthshire Regiment, who were attached to the 1st Northumberland Field Company of the Royal Engineers, which was a

Territorial A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, belonging or connected to a particular country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually a geographic area which has not been granted the powers of self-government, ...

unit. The formation of twelve new tunnelling companies, between July and October 1915, helped to bring more men into action in other parts of the Western Front. Most British tunnelling companies were formed under Norton-Griffiths' leadership during 1915, and one more was added in 1916. On 10 September 1915, the British government sent an appeal to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

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Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

and

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

to raise tunnelling companies in the

Dominion A dominion was any of several largely self-governance, self-governing countries of the British Empire, once known collectively as the ''British Commonwealth of Nations''. Progressing from colonies, their degrees of self-governing colony, colon ...

s of the

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. On 17 September, New Zealand became the first Dominion to agree the formation of a tunnelling unit. The New Zealand Tunnelling Company arrived at

Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...

on 3 February 1916 and was deployed to the Western Front in northern France. The

formed four mining units – initially grouped into the Australian Mining Corps – for the British Expeditionary Force, all of which were operational by March 1916. Three were specialist companies of tunnellers (

1st First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

, 2nd, 3rd), while the Australian Electrical Mechanical Boring and Mining Company was tasked with carrying out related repairs. A

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

tunnelling unit was formed from men on the battlefield, plus two other companies trained in Canada and then shipped to France, resulting in 30 tunnelling companies being available by the summer of 1916.

Unit history

Formation

In early 1915, while the

were deployed in Egypt, the

battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of up to one thousand soldiers. A battalion is commanded by a lieutenant colonel and subdivided into several Company (military unit), companies, each typically commanded by a Major (rank), ...

-sized "Australian Mining Corps" was assembled from men with a background in civilian mining. The intention was to employ this unit, which was at that time about 1,000 strong, with the

ANZAC The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) was originally a First World War army corps of the British Empire under the command of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. It was formed in Egypt in December 1914, and operated during the ...

at Gallipoli, but instead it was moved to France in May 1916, where it also appeared as the "Australian Mining Battalion". Soon after arriving in western Europe in May 1916, the battalion was split into three tunnelling and one repairs company, and the corps headquarters dissolved.

Vimy

The 2nd Australian Tunnelling Company relieved the 172nd Tunnelling Company in May 1916 in the Neuville-Saint-Vaast/

Vimy Vimy lemish: Wimi or ; ) is a commune in the French department of Pas-de-Calais. Located west of Vimy is the Canadian National Vimy Memorial dedicated to the Battle of Vimy Ridge and the Canadian soldiers who were killed during the First Wor ...

area. In this sector was the German "Labyrinth" stronghold, located between

Arras Arras ( , ; ; historical ) is the prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais department, which forms part of the region of Hauts-de-France; before the reorganization of 2014 it was in Nord-Pas-de-Calais. The historic centre of the Artois region, with a ...

and

and not far from

Notre Dame de Lorette Notre Dame de Lorette (), also known as Ablain St.-Nazaire French Military Cemetery, is the world's largest French military cemetery.185th Tunnelling Company had been relieved at Roclincourt-Chantecler by the New Zealand Tunnelling Company, following which it moved to Neuville-Saint-Vaast. The 176th Tunnelling Company moved to Neuville-Saint-Vaast in April 1916 and remained there for a considerable time; the 185th Tunnelling Company dug subways near Neuville-Saint-Vaast until early 1917.

Ypres Salient

In January 1917, the company relieved the 1st Canadian Tunnelling Company at The Bluff in the Ypres Salient. They moved to Nieuport in the same month, to construct subways as part of Operation Hush. On 10 May 1917, the company took over the 1st Canadian Tunnelling Company's workings at the ''Lock Hospital'' position. The Canadian unit had used a Whittaker

tunnel boring machine A tunnel boring machine (TBM), also known as a "mole" or a "worm", is a machine used to excavate tunnels. TBMs are an alternative to drilling and blasting methods and "hand mining", allowing more rapid excavation through hard rock, wet or dry so ...

for their work, but tunnelling by machine in the Belgian blue clay was problematic and their

War Diary A war diary is a regularly updated official record kept by Military organization, military units of their activities during wartime. The purpose of these diaries is to both record information which can later be used by the military to improve its ...

lists numerous stoppages for repairs. The ''Lock Hospital'' position was located at Lock 6 on the Ypres-Comines canal, and the tunnel extended from there to a point beneath the British lines some 400 metres away. The final approach gallery beneath no-man's land to the German trenches was to be completed by the silent clay-kicking method. In the end, problems with the machinery and the geology led to this project being abandoned.

Messines 1916/17

As part of the preparations for the Battle of Messines in June 1917, the 2nd Australian Tunnelling Company began work on deep dugouts in the Ypres Salient. The Battle of Messines was a prelude to the much larger Third Battle of Ypres (31 July – 10 November 1917). The underground building activities of the Royal Engineer units consisted of a series of deep mines dug by the British 171st, 175th, 250th, 1st Canadian, 3rd Canadian and 1st Australian Tunnelling companies to be fired at the start of the Battle of Messines (7–14 June 1917), while the British 183rd, 2nd Canadian and 2nd Australian Tunnelling companies built underground shelters in the Second Army area. The mines at Messines were detonated on 7 June 1917, creating craters.

Belgian coast

In the coastal sector at Nieuport/Nieuwpoort, the 2nd Australian Tunnelling Company was involved in repelling a German spoiling attack – Operation Strandfest – in July 1917. The British 256th and 257th Tunnelling Companies were also involved. Afterwards the 2nd Australian Tunnelling Company constructed deep dugouts in the sand dunes of Nieuport Bains to assist 66th (2nd East Lancashire) Divisional Engineers in strengthening the defences. By 14 November 1917, the 2nd Australian Tunnelling Company was still engaged in the Nieuport Bains/Nieuwpoort-Bad sector. In April 1918, troops of the 2nd Australian Tunnelling Company fought a large fire in Peronne.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* Anon, ''A History of the East Lancashire Royal Engineers by Members of the Corps'', Manchester, 1920/Uckfield: Naval & Military Press, 2003, . * *

External links

Australian War Memorial: Messines – Tunnellers and Mines

* ttp://simonjoneshistorian.wordpress.com/2014/02/14/born-fighters-who-were-the-tunnellers/ 'Born Fighters: Who were the Tunnellers?' Conference paper by Simon Jones. Tunnelling companies of the Royal Engineers Tunnel warfare in World War I Engineering units and formations of Australia Military history of Australia during World War I Military units and formations established in 1916 Military units and formations disestablished in 1919