175th Tunnelling Company
| 175th Tunnelling Company | |
|---|---|
| Active | World War I |
| Country |
 United Kingdom |
| Branch |
 British Army |
| Type | Royal Engineer tunnelling company |
| Role | military engineering, tunnel warfare |
| Nickname | "The Moles" |
| Engagements |
World War I Hooge Battle of Hill 60 Battle of Messines |
The 175th Tunnelling Company was one of the tunnelling companies of the Royal Engineers created by the British Army during World War I. 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.[1]
Background
By January 1915 it had become evident to the BEF at the Western Front that the Germans were mining 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.[2] Following consultations between the Engineer-in-Chief of the BEF, Brigadier George Fowke, and the mining specialist John Norton-Griffiths, the War Office approved the Royal Engineers tunnelling company scheme on 19 February 1915.[2]
The first nine tunnelling 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.[2] To make the tunnels safer and quicker to deploy, the British Army enlisted experienced coal miners, many outside their nominal recruitment policy. 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 office of the Engineer-in-Chief.[2] 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 unit.[3]
Twelve tunnelling companies were ultimately formed under Norton-Griffiths' leadership in 1915, and one more in 1916. A Canadian unit of tunnellers was formed from men on the battlefield, plus two other companies trained in Canada and then shipped to France. Three Australian and one New Zealand tunnelling companies were formed by March 1916. This resulted in 30 tunnelling companies of the Royal Engineers by the end of 1916.[1]
Unit history
Formation
175th Tunnelling Company was formed at Terdeghem in April 1915, and moved soon after into the Railway Wood-Hooge-Armagh Wood area of the Ypres Salient.[1]
Hooge 1915
As part of their continued operations against the Ypres Salient after the Second Battle of Ypres and the Battle of Bellewaarde, the German forces kept seeking to gain the village of Hooge between 24 May and 3 June 1915.[4] In the grounds of the Château de Hooge was a German strongpoint which was proving particularly troublesome to the British forces defending the area. The redoubt had in fact been started by the British but had fallen into German hands.[5]
In order to break the stalemate, the 175th Tunnelling Company dug a tunnel about 66 yards (60 m) long[5] under the German position and placed a mine there. This occurred during a time of relative quiet on the British part of the Western Front, when few major assaults were made. Nonetheless, the average casualty rate for the British and Commonwealth forces was around 300 per day.[6]
The officer in charge of tunneling and laying the mine at Hooge was Lieutenant Geoffrey Cassels, and the work was completed in five and a half weeks. The first attempt at tunnelling for the mine, starting from within a stable, failed because the soil was too sandy. A second shaft was sunk from the ruins of a gardener's cottage nearby. The main tunnel was in the end 190 feet (58 m) long, with a branch off this after about 70 feet (21 m), this second tunnel running a further 100 feet (30 m) on. The intention was to blow two charges under the German concrete fortifications, although the smaller tunnel was found to be off course. The explosive – used for the first time by the British – was ammonal supported by gunpowder and guncotton, making the Hooge mine the largest mine of the war thus far built.[6] The main difficulties for the tunnellers were that the water table is very high, and that the clay expands as soon as it comes into contact with the air.[5]
At 07.00 p.m. on 19 July 1915 the mine was fired. The explosion created a hole some 6.6 yards (6 m) deep and almost 44 yards (40 m) wide.[5] The far side of the crater was then taken and secured by men from the 1st Battalion, Gordon Highlanders and 4th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment. Ten of the latter were killed by debris from the mine as they waited in advanced positions.[6] The Germans tried to recover their lost position but were driven back by infantry and a heavy artillery bombardment.[5] By 30 July the German units had managed to take control of the Château de Hooge and the surrounding area.[4] Fighting continued until 1918, with the Hooge Crater (craters being strategically important in relatively flat countryside) frequently changing sides.[4]
Messines 1916/17
175th Tunnelling Company was extended to the Hill 60 in July 1915,[1] when 172nd Tunnelling Company moved into its place at The Bluff.[1] Deep mining under the German galleries beneath Hill 60 began in late August 1915 with the 175th Tunnelling Company which began a gallery 220 yards (200 m) behind the British front line and passed 90 feet (27 m) beneath. The 3rd Canadian Tunnelling Company took over in April 1916 and completed the galleries, the Hill 60 mine being charged with 53,300 pounds (24,200 kg) of explosives in July 1916 and a branch gallery under the Caterpillar filled with a 70,000-pound (32,000 kg) charge in October. The 1st Australian Tunnelling Company took over in November 1916, led in part by Captain Oliver Woodward and maintained the mines at Hill 60 over the winter.[7][8] Meanwhile, the bulk of 175th Tunnelling Company had moved briefly to Spanbroekmolen in April 1916.[1] As part of the prelude to the Battle of Messines, deep mine galleries were dug by the British 171st, 175th and 250th Tunnelling companies and the 1st Canadian, 3rd Canadian and 1st Australian Tunnelling companies, while the British 183rd, 2nd Canadian and 2nd Australian Tunnelling companies built dugouts (underground shelters) in the Second Army area.[9] The mines at Messines were detonated on 7 June 1917, creating 19 large craters.
Hermies 1918
Destroyed the entrance inclines to Hermies catacombs in March 1918, as the enemy advanced from Cambrai.[1]
Built bridges over the Ancre in the British advanced on the Somme in Autumn 1918.[1]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 The Tunnelling Companies RE, access date 25 April 2015
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "Lieutenant Colonel Sir John Norton-Griffiths (1871–1930)". Royal Engineers Museum. Retrieved 2010-06-21.
- ↑ "Corps History – Part 14: The Corps and the First World War (1914–18)". Royal Engineers Museum. Retrieved 2010-06-21.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Battlefields 14-18, undated, accessed 16 February 2007
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 http://www.webmatters.net/belgium/ww1_hooge.htm access date 24 April 2015
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Hooge on ww1battlefields.co.uk, accessed 25 April 2015
- ↑ Edmonds 1948, p. 60.
- ↑ Bean 1933, pp. 949–959.
- ↑ Edmonds 1948, p. 37–38.
Further reading
- Alexander Barrie. War Underground – The Tunnellers of the Great War. ISBN 1-871085-00-4.
- The Work of the Royal Engineers in the European War 1914 -1919, – MILITARY MINING.
- Jones, Simon (2010). Underground Warfare 1914-1918. Pen & Sword Military. ISBN 978-1-84415-962-8.
- Arthur Stockwin (ed.), Thirty-odd Feet Below Belgium: An Affair of Letters in the Great War 1915-1916, Parapress (2005), ISBN 978-1-89859-480-2 (online).