After the first German attacks on December 21, 1914, through shallow tunnels across No Man’s Land, exploding ten mines under the trenches of the Indian Sirhind Brigade, the British began forming suitable tunnelling companies. In February 1915, eight Tunnelling Companies were created, operational in Flanders from March 1915. By mid-1916, the British Army had around 25,000 trained tunnellers, mostly taken the coal mining communities of South Wales, and the Northeast of England covering Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Yorkshire. Almost twice that number of "attached infantry" worked permanently alongside the trained miners acting as beasts of burden.[1]
In siege warfare, tunnelling is along held tactic for breaching and breaking the enemies. From the Greek historian Polybius, in his Histories, gave accounts of mining during Philip V of Macedon's siege of the little town of Prinassos, and a graphic account of mining and counter mining at the Roman siege of Ambracia.
Mining was a siege method used in ancient China from at least the Warring States (481–221 BC) period forward. When enemies attempted to dig tunnels under walls for mining or entry into the city, the defenders used large bellows (the type the Chinese commonly used in heating up the blast furnace for smelting cast iron) to pump smoke into the tunnels in order to suffocate the intruders.[2]
WW1 Trench warfare
Mining saw a brief resurgence as a military tactic during the First World War, when army engineers attempted to break the stalemate of trench warfare by tunnelling under no man's land and laying large quantities of explosives beneath the enemy's trench. As in siege warfare, mining was possible due to the static nature of the fighting.
Formation of units
In February 1915 8 Tunnelling Companies were created, to fulfil a requirement to break through the German armies defensive positions by mining under the enemy trenches. The companies were mostly made of men drawn from the ranks of the infantry, mixed with men specifically drafted for this kind of work This was one of the most rapid acts of the First World War in which men who were working underground as civilians in Great Britain on February 17 1915 were working underground on the Western Front a mere four days later. This action showed the importance of the necessity for a counter-offensive against the aggressive German mining against the British lines. 12 Tunnelling Companies were ultimately formed in 1915, and one additional one in 1916. A Canadian, three Australian and one New Zealand tunnelling companies were formed by March 1916. All of these companies were occupied on underground work together with the digging of subways, saps (a narrow trench dug to approach enemy trenches), cable trenches, underground chambers, for such things as signals and medical services, as well as offensive and defensive mining.
A notable example was the Battle of Messines, when 450 tonnes of high explosive were placed in 21 mines after about two years of sapping. Approximately 10,000 German troops were killed when 19 of the mines were simultaneously detonated. One of the explosive caches exploded years later. The 21st cache was never found and there are still several tonnes of high explosive buried somewhere in the Belgian countryside.
Another example is recorded in Louis Trenker's Berge in Flammen. Whole mountain peaks at the Alps were exploded during the mountain war. Col di Lana, Lagazuoi and Marmolata, were a few of these peaks.
Operations since WW1
Because World War II troop movements were too fluid, and tunnelling too slow, mining proved not to be worth the investment of effort. Tunnelling was used in the Vietnam War, by both sides.
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