Call ToPick & Shovel

Miners Wanted

Early in the war, Germans and French started to dig small tunnels to blow up enemy positions. Soon, they were engaged in underground warfare, trying to find and destroy the galleries excavated from the other side of the no man's[1].

The British joined the fight beneath the trenches at the end of 1914 but, being poorly trained, could not compete with their opponent. They needed specialists to undertake the underground operations[2]. To do so, they gave carte blanche to John Norton-Griffiths, an entrepreneur and Member of Parliament, who had a civil tunnelling business, to develop military units of moles as soon as possible.

From February 1915, wide recruitment began in the United Kingdom. By midsummer, miners were in short supply. London had no choice but to seek assistance from the Dominions.

At the request of the Imperial Government, in September 1915, miners and qualified men experienced in digging tunnels enlisted to form a Tunnelling Company in New Zealand[3]. Enlistment started on 17 September 1915. Even though they were paid three times more than other soldiers from any Corps, recruits were not numerous. More miners were expected, but the Company raised men with difficulty[4].

Coal miners were not allowed to enlist because they played an essential role in the war effort. Despite the establishment of quotas to find qualified men—a rare measure in the formation of a military unit in New Zealand[5], half the company was mainly composed of men from a wide range of occupations: bushmen, workers, farmers, clerks, surveyors, or engineers. The typical enlisted man was single, lived far from his family, and was nearly 32 years old[6].

250 miners and 150 unskilled men were required to form the Company[7]. Almost 80 percent of them came from the North Island, the more populated of New Zealand's two main islands. Significant groups of men enlisted together from gold mines, quarries, or work companies—especially from Auckland, Waihi, Huntly, or Thames[8]. A minority of recruits came from the South Island, mainly from the West Coast area (Millerton, Reefton, or Blackball) and from Kaitangata[9].

Recruiting miners posed a problem. Many Tunnellers were trade union members, and some were even active leaders. The Company soon became known for having enlisted 11 secretaries from various workers' associations and more than 40 members of the Red Federation of Labor, a major workers' organization that represented a quarter of New Zealand's trade unions[10]. In fact, before the war, many miners had taken part in major strikes, such as the one in Waihi in 1912.

On 11 October 1915, in Avondale near Auckland, nearly 450 men were finally gathered on the racecourse, which had been transformed into a training field for the Tunnellers.

Training On A Racecourse

From the second week of October, the men started their basic military training. The Company was supposed to go to Wellington, but they finally moved to Auckland. However, the Defence Department could not find an appropriate place to accommodate 300 to 400 recruits. Fortunately, on 20 September 1915, the Avondale Jockey Club provided their premises at the disposal of the Army[11].

The recruits knew nothing about the military world, and even less about military discipline[12]. To make things more complicated, the camp was not in a military area. On the contrary, it was located on an open racecourse just a few minutes from the biggest and liveliest town in New Zealand.

When 2nd Lieutenant Neill discovered his recruits for the first time, he was astonished. The men were still wearing their civilian clothes, betraying their occupations as miners, workers, or bushmen[13]. The first days of the Company were restless. But it was in this special atmosphere that one of the most original companies of the New Zealand Army was born.

Every morning, the men ran around the racecourse to awaken their muscles. Then they went on long walks or practiced their drill. In the early days, the older men were frustrated because they had not enlisted to run and parade around a racecourse[14].

But the recruits took advantage of the agreeable 1915 spring. The military spirit gradually took hold, and everyone did his best to become a good soldier. The future officers and non-commissioned officers were very focused, even if they sometimes lacked initiative[15]. None of them had military experience, but their efforts were promising. The training was very basic and resembled that of the infantrymen[16].

At the end of November, after several postponements, the departure date was announced for 18 December 1915. While the recruits were still training at Avondale, the Defence Department prepared the journey that would lead the Tunnellers to the other side of the earth.