Battle Beneath the Trenches: The Cornish Miners of 251 Tunnelling Company RE by Johns Robert K

Author:Johns, Robert K.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Bisac Code 1: HIS027090; HISTORY / Military / World War I
ISBN: 9781473855366
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2015-03-30T16:00:00+00:00

Dec 29th regret to inform you Officer Commanding 33rd Casualty Clearing Station reports 25th Dec died 25th Dec 132352 H.W. Thomas RE from Gunshot wounds perforated and lesion of spine.

As was apparently usual, and as a mark of courtesy, all post addressed to his mother would have been held back by the Post Office until the telegram was delivered.

After the Christmas festivities, the 251st enjoyed the mutual support so often given by the tunnelling companies when, on Boxing Day, one officer and twenty five other ranks from 176 Tunnelling Company reported for duty to help drive a tunnel at Pont Fixe, which was to carry power cables, and also to assist with the installation of a suction pipe for a water-cooling pump at the power plant located there. On New Year’s Eve three more officers and 150 other ranks from the 1st Battalion Portuguese Miners reported for duty, now attached to the 251st. The Commanding Officer of the Portuguese Mining Company took command of the attached Portuguese infantry and assumed responsibility for the billets occupied by Portuguese troops.

Looking back, 1917 could be considered as a year of consolidation. The Germans’ supremacy in mine warfare on the Western Front enjoyed in the early years of the war was over, whilst their capacity for offensive mining had been significantly reduced. After Messines, the main thrust of the work for the 251st and the other tunnelling companies was the new defensive positions constructed for the infantry, work which was going to prove to be so very important in the spring of 1918.

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