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The Kiwis
Also Dig Tunnels
By Anthony Byledbal
1914. The belligerents were engaged in a fierce and daily battle under the trenches of the Western Front. Inside tunnels dug beneath the no man's land, special soldiers excavated and listened tirelessly to protect the lines on the surface and destroy the enemy galleries.
1915. Recruited for their tunnelling experience, James Williamson, Harold Howard, George Race and Gerald Punch, four New Zealand volunteers, embarked with their special unit to take part in this secret war. However, on the other side of the earth, this deadly game was already to the advantage of the German miners.
Available in French only.
The Moles
of the Great War
Edited by Anthony Byledbal
From the first months of the War, the belligerents revived the military mining, a nearly forgotten method of underground warfare. However, the Armies were badly prepared for it. On both sides of the front, the effort was considerable to adapt to the underground constraints and to undertake a blind fight under the greatest secret.
Civilian miners were quickly called to the battlefied, especially in the British Royal Engineers which gathered them in companies specialised for this underground conflict. Their skills were essential, but the labour class from which they came from was marked by a strong culturalism, making their time in the uniform an original experience.