The AIF in Battle by Bou Jean;

Author:Bou, Jean; [Bou, Jean]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Melbourne University Publishing

CHAPTER 6

Below Ground

The AIF’s Mining Operations

Damien Finlayson

By the end of 1914 the Western Front had stabilised and become characterised by the well-known opposing networks of entrenchments and field fortifications. These trench lines created a virtual state of siege and, not surprisingly, the age-old techniques of siege warfare were soon being employed in an attempt to gain battlefield advantage. Among these techniques was the resurgence of underground mining as a method of getting under the opposition’s defences so as to be able to set large charges that, once detonated, could destroy a strong point or effect a breach for above-ground attackers to exploit. The placing of these charges, known as mines, required considerable planning and effort, as well as the application of the latest engineering standards. (The term ‘mine’ in this context may possibly confuse modern readers who tend think of mines as excavations where metals or minerals are extracted, or alternatively of self-contained explosive land mines.) As a result every combatant army turned not so much to their military engineers to carry out the work, but to men with pre-war mining experience, both mining engineers and mine workers, as a ready-made solution to their military problem. Australia and the AIF were no different, and the government raised and put into uniform a ‘mining corps’, which evolved into three Australian tunnelling companies and the Australian Electrical and Mechanical Mining and Boring Company. As in other armies, these one-time civilians had to adapt to their military environment and build on their civilian expertise to bring about success on the battlefield. In doing so they, and those like them, developed military mining to an unparalleled degree of complexity and industry.1 The purpose of this chapter is to outline the creation of the Australian mining units, examine their role in the war and consider the effect that they had.

The first significant mine explosions of the war were detonated by the Germans on 20 December 1914 against an Indian infantry division on the British-held sector of the Western Front. It was not long before their enemies responded in kind, and by the third week of February 1915, the BEF was digging its own mines.2 Between then and May 1916, when the first Australian tunnellers arrived in France, the number of British Empire tunnelling companies grew rapidly from one British (the 170th Tunnelling Company, Royal Engineers) to twenty-five British, three Canadian and one New Zealand companies. To coordinate their activities, command and control mechanisms were put in place, and as they were raised the BEF’s tunnelling companies were classed as ‘army troops’ (with the BEF having five armies). Once assigned to an army, their operations were restricted to the front covered by that army. Mining and tunnelling operations in each army fell under the command and direction of a Controller of Mines. In turn, the Controllers of Mines acted under instructions from the Inspector of Mines, Brigadier-General Robert Napier Harvey, at General Headquarters (GHQ), BEF.

While this was occurring in France and Belgium, in 1915 the AIF was serving at the Anzac Cove beachhead at Gallipoli, where mining played a notable role.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.