"HOLED"

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 36, 6 November 1917, Page 5

"HOLED"

AN UNDERGROUND MEETING WITH

THE HUNS

TUNNEL WARFARE

Just as every airman has nno ambition abovo all others—namely, to bring down a Zeppelin—so every tuniwller has a pot desire, and that is to "hole" iuto a Bocho gallory. Not to destroy his gallery with a mine, which is an everyday occurrence, but to break direct iuto it. Everyone knows what a Zeppelin looks like, and quite a number have Been them brought dowa burning beautifully, ■but very few havo evor seen a tunnoller ' "hole" into a Gormun gallery. The reason is that the tunneller is usually by ' himsolf when the opportunity, long hoped for, arrives. Sometimes the result of his single-handed offorts in tho bowels of the •earth is noised further abroad than tho company's mess. Then honour comes.

The tunneller'a job is first to protect ihe infantry from enemy mining, and, secondly, to assist the infantry; to advance by gently hoisting Fritz into the air at a riven moment by meane of a ■well-laid oharge, thereby destroying sundry and badly damaging tho moral of many. Fritz's tunnellore try to do likewise—but less successfully. Tunnellers— that is, British tunnellers-hate defensive .mining. . What they really enjoy is abig job, suoh ne the last "ahow at Yprea. 'VyTioii orders come to drive a ■i gallery eomo hundreds of yards long at a depth considerably below the surface, •to Teach a given strong point in tho enemy's lines through a country known , to be infosted with Hun galleries, there lie iov in tho miners' mess. Tho tunaellef's hope of "holing" into a Boche ..gallery is usually realised during an offensive operation.. Poking along his galleries, the tunnelling officer comes suddenly upon an excited miner, who whispers hoarsely that ("thev'vn brolce into summat." _ u < "jWt look like' our.timbers neither, ■ confides the man.. ~ ! "Good lad!" mutters the "Sub, hitting his head against a P™3ectin«r tiraVγ in his excitement. Then, kicking iff the heavy gumboots, which may; make ■ too ranch noise, he creeps to the faoe in stockinged feet.. The "face" is the end ■ of the (tallery.- ■■ ■ . Another miner is crouching there m 'the dark, listening. The subaltern's electric torch, flashed with infinite canto, glitters ™meptarilr on a pick held thrjatenvnplY. lunwjttm..never, take rifles underground W "To cnV hear 'cm gabblin' German mute plain," croaks the ljstener. founds o« t.hnnsH they bo loadin , zur. The- "Sub." beckons tho man back, and, squeezing past, carefully examines the Sew which cut his own gallery at hole," and th*, in; timbers arn almost on & leyei a Boche gallery, he switches■ off the lirht and Snh hia ear to the timber . .For a minute or two he hears nothing : except the beating o{ his own heart ana :-.■«.« stifled breathing of the two men. : Suddenly, startlingly n«ar, there is a •■tramp of heavy bonk One, two, three men pass, senaraM from them only by ; %?B£t3« hold their breath. STho steps tramp on and fade away. "PeThaps they bo soiri' to tench her toff» whispers ono of the miners. 'Terhaps! And then -win perhaM W \7" reiofn* the officer. Then suddenly toming to life, "Now then.Aads down ■with this lagßiw. and make as little B InMefmiSntes the timbers are down and the bfecTc hole of the Boche gallery .'■with its unknown mysteries lies ie- > e "Smith, back you go to the shaft, tell fnp hit. and hit hard." And, the tunnelling officer pulls out an automatic> pistol and creeps forward into the darkness. ■.-..■

'Tor gallantry in entering the enemy'e system o **»!#%• unloading an enemy mine, and bringing •back prisoners nvi valuable information." reads tbo official version. "Just my luck, that I haonened to be on shift when we 'holed,'" confided lieutenant X, M.C., 8.8.. to the approv Ins mess "Any of you chaps would have don. the -»W or tter . «i!T d had the chance." *■•"•