by Will Davies
The high ground that was Hill 60 from the British lines. Courtesy Ross Thomas
Tunnelling on the Western Front, 1916. Courtesy Ross Thomas
British sappers at work in a chalk tunnel, probably troop accommodation as denoted by the size of the tunnel. Courtesy Ross Thomas
John Norton-Griffiths on the front, 1915. Courtesy Ross Thomas
A German boring machine under the supervision of an officer. Courtesy Ross Thomas
A German mining listening gallery in early 1917. Courtesy Ross Thomas
Two German soldiers with hand grenades at the ready in a trench on Hill 60. Courtesy Australian War Memorial (H12366)
Miners of 1ATC excavating a headquarters dugout 25 feet below the surface near the Menin Road, Ypres Sector, September 1917. Courtesy Australian War Memorial (E02094)
Members of the 1ATC excavating troop accommodation close to Hooge Crater, Ypres Sector, September 1917. Courtesy Australian War Memorial (E01396)
The entrance to the Wallangarra Dugout, also known as the Catacombs, built by the 1ATC at Hyde Park Corner, Ploegsteert Wood. Note the kangaroo above the entrance. Courtesy Australian War Memorial (E04486)
The 15-inch Howitzer that attracted enemy aerial bombing to the position of the 1ATC camped near the Menin Road, Ypres Sector, October 1917. Courtesy Australian War Memorial
Australian pioneers building a plank wagon track over recently captured ground, Chateau Wood (near the Menin Road) September 1917. Courtesy Australian War Memorial
The Lille Gate, Ypres. Australian tunnellers built accommodation and headquarters into these damaged ramparts. The destroyed town of Ypres can be seen in the background. Courtesy Australian War Memorial (J00657)
Woodward being presented with a second bar to his Military Cross by HRH The Prince of Wales in the grounds of Government House, Adelaide, 13 July 1920. Courtesy Woodward family
Officers of the 1ATC who were responsible for the firing of the mine at Hill 60. Here they are pictured at the Malhove rest camp six weeks after the big event. Back row from left: Lieutenants John Royle, James Bowry and Hubert Carroll. Front row from left: Captain Oliver Woodward, Major James Henry and Captain Robert Clinton. Courtesy Australian War Memorial (P02333.002)
Oliver and Marjorie’s wedding, Brisbane, 3 September 1920. Courtesy Woodward family
Woodward at his desk at the Port Pirie Smelters in the late 1920s. Courtesy Woodward family
1ATC Lieutenant John Royle, photographed in 1934 with one of the electrical exploders used to fire the Hill 60 mines. Courtesy Australian War Memorial (P02333.003)
Woodward, April 1943. Courtesy Woodward family
A small wooden box handmade by Private Tiffin from timber salvaged from the destroyed Ypres Cathedral and Cloth Hall. Woodward’s Military Crosses are displayed. Courtesy Woodward family
My first thanks go to Ross Thomas from Townsville, who has devoted the last twenty years to researching and publicising the story of the Australian Tunnelling Companies of the First World War. It was Ross’s work that initially led to the production of the feature film Beneath Hill 60 and to the construction of a memorial to the tunnellers to be unveiled in the near future in Townsville, Queensland.
My thanks to Bill Leimbach, the producer of Beneath Hill 60, who along with David Roach, the co-producer and screenwriter, invited me to write the book. Their support and encouragement of the writing and editing period has been much appreciated.
Thanks go to Barbara Woodward and her family for making available her father’s diary and for providing family photographs for the book. This diary is probably the greatest personal legacy and individual story of any Allied tunneller of the Great War and is quoted in most books on the subject and in the Official History.
I would like to especially acknowledge two books that were valuable references during the research and writing period, and to which I have often referred. First, the definitive history of the tunnellers by Captain W. Grant Grieve and Bernard Newman, titled Tunnellers: The Story of the Tunnelling Companies, Royal Engineers, During the World War, and a book by Alexander Barrie, War Underground: The Tunnellers of the Great War.
My thanks to Margaret Lewis and the staff of the Research Centre at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra and to the past head, Mal Booth, for advice, research information and making available files and reference materials. Also to the National Archives of Australia for making available online the personal files of our troops from the Great War, and to the Australian War Memorial for being the wonderful repository it is for Australian military history and tradition.
My thanks to David Heidtman for his legal advice and friendship, to Virginia Gordon for the loan of her volumes of Charles Bean’s Official History and to Robyn Batchelor for proofreading my early drafts.
To my publisher, Meredith Curnow, and editors Vanessa Mickan and Sophie Ambrose, and the staff at Random House Australia for their ongoing support, advice and encouragement and for the amazing marketing initiative they put behind all their books and all of their writers.
And lastly my thanks to my wife, Heather, and my boys and all their family for their love and support over the difficult and isolating period of writing. Your assistance and understanding is greatly appreciated.
AIF
Australian Imperial Force
BEF
British Expeditionary Force
Block
Defended barricade in a trench
Camouflet
An underground explosive charge used to damage the enemy’s underground workings but not break through to the surface. The word is derived from the Latin calamo flatus – a blast through a reed or a pipe
Clay kicking
A method of digging through clay where a miner lies on a cross-bar and uses a special curved blade shovel with his feet to work the face
CO
Commanding Officer
Colour patches
Distinctive badges worn by battalions and AIF units on each shoulder to differentiate them by colour, division and battalion
CSM
Company Sergeant Major
Detonator
A very small ignition charge that sets off the main explosive charge
Duckboard
Wooden decking
Face
The end or furthest extent of the mine tunnel where the work is being undertaken
Fire step
Step in the side of the trench to raise a man to a firing position
Funk hole
Hole in the side of a trench for sleeping and protection
Fuse
A device containing a combustible material for igniting a detonator, or an electric wire that carries a charge that ignites a detonator
Gallery
A tunnel or a large area at the end of a tunnel where the explosive charges are packed
Geophone
A French invention for listening underground to enemy activity
GHQ
General Headquarters
Head cover
The distance between the tunnel and the surface of the ground
HQ
Headquarters
Listening post
A position established to listen for the enemy’s movements and give warning of an enemy attack
Mills grenade
British-issue hand grenade
Moles
English term for the ‘clay kickers’ – the miners who specialised in working in clay
NCO
Non Commissioned Officer
No-man’s-land
The dangerous land between two opposing lines
Parapet
Front edge of a trench, a rampart to protect men in the trench above the level of the surrounding ground
Pioneers
Army engineers
Platoon
Army unit of 38 men under a lieutenant and sergeant
Proto set
A self-contained breathing apparatus for mine-rescue work
RE
Royal Engineers
Respirator
Gas regulator
Reveille
Dawn wake-up bugle call
Route march
Hard marching between two points
Russian saps
Underground tunnels close to the surface and towards the enemy that during an attack can protect infantry and be broken open to form a readymade trench
Salient
A prominent or projecting part of the line often protruding out from the main frontline
Sam Browne
A leather belt worn as part of an officer’s uniform
Sap
A trench dug towards the enemy from which trenches then radiate out on each side
Section
Ten men usually under the command of a corporal. One-third of a platoon
Shaft
A vertical tunnel down into a mine
Slurry
Mud, sand or other soils saturated with water and in a semi-liquid state
SRD
Strong rum, dilute. Sometimes also said to stand for Service Ration Depot
Tamping
Packing placed in a tunnel to force the explosive upwards and to prevent the force of the explosion blowing back along the gallery
Tapes
Cotton tapes laid down to designate the starting line for an attack
Tunnel
A horizontal gallery in a mine Wire Barbed wire
Wiring party
Group of men who put up barbed wire
Linear Measure
1 inch
= 1000 mils
= 2.54 centimetres
12 inches
= 1 foot
= 0.3048 metre
3 feet
= 1 yard
= 0.9144 metre
220 yards or 660 feet
= 1 furlong
= 201.168 metres
Weights
1 ounce
= 28.3495 grams
1 pound
= 453.59 grams
14 pounds
= 1 stone
= 6.35 kilograms
Chapter 1: Mobility to Stalemate
1 Woodward, Oliver, Unpublished Diary, Vol. II, p. 6
2 Ibid., p. 8
3 Australian Dictionary of Biography
4 Woodward, Vol. II, p. 9
Chapter 2: The War Goes Underground
1 Barrie, Alexander, War Underground, pp. 110–111
2 Grieve, W. G. & Bernard Newman, Tunnellers, pp. 28–29
3 Barrie, War Underground, p. 26
4 Ibid., p. 27
5 Ibid., p. 28
6 Ibid.
7 Ibid., pp. 30–31
8 Grieve & Newman, Tunnellers, p. 35
Chapter 3: In the Darkness and Mud
1 Barrie, War Underground, pp. 32–33
2 Ibid., p. 33
3 Grieve & Newman, Tunnellers, p. 39
4 Ibid., Tunnellers, pp. 39–40
5 Ibid., Tunnellers, p. 44
6 Bean, C. E. W., Official History, Vol. IV, pp. 949–950
Chapter 4: The Experience of Gallipoli
1 Bean, C. E. W., Official History, Vol. II, pp. 199–200
2 White, Capt. T. A., History of the Thirteenth Battalion, p. 39
3 Ibid.
4 Bean, Official History, Vol. II, p. 233
5 Ibid., p. 279
6 Ibid., p. 203
7 Ibid., p. 233
8 Ibid., p. 280
9 Ibid.
10 Ibid., p. 327
11 Ibid., pp. 280–281
12 McNicoll, Ronald, The Royal Australian Engineers, p. 44
13 Bean, Official History, Vol. I, p. 60
14 McNicoll, The Royal Australian Engineers, pp. 56–57
Chapter 5: White Feathers and the Call to Arms
1 Woodward, Vol. I, p. 3
2 Ibid.
3 Woodward, Vol. II, pp. 9–10
4 Ibid., pp. 10–11
5 Ibid., p. 11
6 Ibid.
7 Ibid., p. 12
8 Ibid., p. 15
9 Ibid.
10 Woodward, Vol. V, p. 1
11 Ibid.
12 Ibid., p. 2
13 Ibid.
14 Ibid., p. 3
15 Ibid., p. 5
16 Woodward, Vol. II, p. 13
17 Ibid., pp. 12–13
18 Ibid., p. 15
19 Ibid., p. 14
20 Ibid.
21 Ibid.
Chapter 6: The Earthquake Idea
1 McNicoll, The Royal Australian Engineers, p. 50
2 Grieve & Newman, Tunnellers, p. 58
3 Ibid.
4 Barrie, War Underground, p. 72
5 Ibid., p. 73
6 Ibid., p. 74
7 Grieve & Newman, Tunnellers, p. 61
Chapter 7: Along the River Somme
1 Barrie, War Underground, pp. 101–102
2 Ibid., pp. 103–105
3 Ibid., p. 109
4 Grieve & Newman, Tunnellers, pp. 97–98
5 Barrie, War Underground, pp. 109–111
6 Ibid., pp. 126–131
Chapter 8: Misspent Energy and Wasted Effort
1 Grieve & Newman, Tunnellers, p. 73
2 Barrie, War Underground, p. 138
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid., p. 82
5 Grieve & Newman, Tunnellers, p. 98
Chapter 9: Off to the Western Front
1 Woodward, Vol. II, p. 17
2 Ibid., p. 18
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid., p. 19
5 Ibid.
6 Ibid., p. 22
7 Ibid., p. 23
8 Ibid., p. 25
9 Ibid., p. 26
10 Ibid.
11 Ibid., p. 27
Chapter 10: Back Near Messines
1 Bridgland & Morgan, Tunnel-Master and Arsonist, p. 198
2 Grieve & Newman, Tunnellers, p. 210
3 Ibid., p. 209
4 Ibid., p. 215
5 Ibid., p. 222
6 Barrie, War Underground, p. 218
7 Grieve & Newman, Tunnellers, p. 223
8 Ibid., p. 225
9 Ibid., p. 228
10 Ibid., p. 236
Chapter 11: Just out from Armentières
1 McNicoll, The Royal Engineers, p. 63
2 Woodward, Vol. II, p. 28
3 Ibid., p. 30
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid., p. 31
6 Ibid.
7 Ibid., p. 30
8 Ibid., p. 31
9 Ibid., p. 33
10 Ibid., p. 34
11 Bean, Official History, Vol. III, p. 217
12 Grieve & Newman, Tunnellers, pp. 110–111
13 Woodward, Vol. II, p. 37
Chapter 12: The Red House
1 Woodward, Vol. II, p. 39
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid., p. 40
4 Ibid., p. 41
5 Ibid., p. 42
Chapter 13: The First Big One
1 Grieve & Newman, Tunnellers, pp. 116–117
2 Ibid., p. 117
3 Ibid., p. 118
4 Ibid., p. 120
5 Ibid., p. 123
6 Ibid., pp. 126–127
7 Ibid., p. 128
8 Ibid., p. 129
Chapter 14: Sojourn at Ploegsteert Wood
1 Woodward, Vol. II, p. 45
2 Ibid., p. 46
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid.
6 Ibid.
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid.
9 Australian Dictionary of Biography
10 Barrie, War Underground, pp. 240–41
11 Bean, Official History, Vol. IV, p. 951
12 Ibid.
13 Woodward, Vol. II, p. 48
14 Ibid.
15 Ibid.
16 Ibid.
Chapter 15: The Move to Hill 60
1 Woodward, Vol. II, pp. 58–59
2 Ibid., p. 66
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid., p. 68
5 Ibid.
6 Woodward, Vol. III, p. 67
7 HQ Report 1 ATC, Ypres Salient, 1 December 1916
8 Ibid., 6 December 1916
9 Ibid., 8 December 1916
10 Ibid., 15 December
11 Ibid., December–January 1916/17
12 Woodward, Vol. II, p. 69
Chapter 16: A Month Today
1 Strachan, Hew, The First World War, p. 237
2 Woodward, Vol. II, p. 73
3 Bean, Official History, Vol. IV, p. 958
4 Woodward, Vol. II, p. 75
5 National Archives of Australia personal file
6 Woodward, Vol. II, p. 78
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid., p. 77
9 Ibid.
10 Bean, Official History, Vol. IV, p. 958
11 Ibid., pp. 958–959
12 Report by Oberstleutnant Otto Füsslein, entitled Miners in Flanders, in Heinrici, Paul
Chapter 17: The Days Before
1 Barrie, War Underground, p. 253
2 Grieve & Newman, Tunnellers, p. 229
3 Barrie, War Underground, p. 254
4 Woodward, Vol. II, p. 80
5 Quoted in Robins, Simon, British Generalship on the Western Front, p. 57
6 Cave, Nigel, Hill 60: Ypres, p. 101
7 Royal Engineers’ Institute, Military Mining, pp. 40–41
8 Oberstleutnant Otto Füsslein, Miners in Flanders, in Heinrici, Paul, p. 13
9 Woodward, Vol. II, p. 81