MINES AND TUNNELS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue LXXIV, 28 March 1918, Page 6

MINES AND TUNNELS.

NEYv ZEALANDERS' .WORK

SOME SURPRISING DISCOVERIES

LONDON, December 28

The following account of the work done by the .New Zealand Tunnelling Corps for the i'ourth Army in preparation for tlie battle of A*rras is furnished by General Godley. Apart from the unique military interest of the work it developed an archaeological aspect of very great importance: The aeveldpmerit of underground skelter for at- • tacking troops to the extent carried out at Arras" by the New Zealand Tunnelling Company was, it is believed, unique in military history. A land like Northern" France, which has so frequently been the scene of battle, naturally has associated with it fabulous stories of long galleries, leading to . and from widely-separated monasteries and villages., and used formerly by the old-time tyrants and well-mean-ing but retiring ch.urch.-men. it was while engaged in a search, for such; with the purpose, of passing behind the enemy's lines, that a great system of -caves, largely forgotten or wrapped in mysterious tales, was discovered. Their value for sheltering attacking troops, where all available roads and billets were under fire and peculiarly susceptible to interference from enemy barrage, was at once realised and pointed out by the company. Th© suggestion was taken up and the huge enterprise launched or, in. four and a half months, making six miles of gallery, levelling 15 'acres'of caves, laying goods' tramways throughout, and lighting up the whole with electricity ; this, too," at a time when not only were supplies difficult to obtain, but when either the grin of the hardest frost known in Europe for a decade was, by radiator troubles, daily re*during the available transport. Or, should a. thaw come, thaw regulations absolutely forebade heavy traffic on the roads. RELICS OF THE SPANIARDS. Their age and artificial origin gives the caves a particular interest. They are really great chalk mines, from' which building stone has for ages been obtained for adjacent villages and towns. Their extensive development appears to date from the time of the Spanish, occupation, when building went on briskly. ' Several carved records of names with dates .going back to the 15th century were found, also on© mouldering felt hat of the shape affected in Armada days. The cnalk stone is white, resembling the Oamaru stone of New Zealand, only finer and denser in structure, and capable of being more finely carved. Though there is great thickness of chalk, buildingquality stone, which must be solid and comparatively free, from flints, is not found throughout, and near Arras lies 40ft to 50ft below the surface, hence the necessity for mining instead; of quarrying in the open. It was mined in much the same manner as a coal seam, pillars of stone being left to support the ground overhead. Noteworthy is the fact that a better quality of chalk was sought and used in the old, than in the later days. Arras is more or less a circular city, about a mile across, and was once defended with a continuous encircling wall and moat. The buildings nearly all have cellars, particularly those in the Spanish quarter, where1 they are well builtj large and close together. The defences were, except in one part, demolished about 30 years ago, and along the eastern or enemy side a large sewer was built along the bottom of the old moat—for some distance. 60ft below the surface —before it was filled in, thus providing a good subway. The caves lay outside the town in the eastern suburbs, and beyond was "No Man's Land," about 2500 yards from the centre of the town. THE SCHEME OUTLINED. To effect the purpose of providing secure billets for 20.000 troops whilst ■in waiting, and. later, a safe passage 15D to the attack, the cellars in the old Spanish quarter, that is the northeastern quadrant of. the town, were all connected together, and, also, at three points to the sewer.. From the sewer exits were provided to several ><ppen communication trenches," and in addition two galleries. 4ft wide, were •made to the front line, one to the right known as Godley Avenue, passing i .through and connecting the Ronville /group of caves, called" Russell, Auckland. New Plymouth. Wellington, N,el'son, Blenheim, ChrishchureH.,l>unedin •'.Bluff, and that on the left known as King street, connecting ,the St Sauyeur group of 10 caves, named after British towns.

It was intended +~ t~oVo, each, of the two main galleries serve a front of 1000 yards by forking the. ends. This intention was only fully developed on the left, where five forks'were made, all reaching to within a few feet of the German" lines. On the right .a premature withdrawal of the enemy rendered the full realisation of the scheme unnecessary, though the gallery provided a very valuable safe means of communication to the immediate neighborhood of operations. THE MINES EXPLODED. Not only were main through galleries constructed, but each cave was provided with from two to eight exits to the surface serving for ventilation and as emergency means of withdrawing troops. Four other isolated caves

were similarly dealt with and fittedup as munition dumps, with hoisting gear for handling shells in quantity^ Another cave was opened up by the miners' unit and fitted by the Royal Medical Corps for use as a casualty clearing station. The further work entailed in levelling off cave floors, cropping roof, ventilating, fitting gas doors, finding miniing timber; laying tsramways,:. pfovid? ing forward dugouts: off galleries for headquarters, stores, etc, fitting up elec- | trie-power plant, and.; all gal- ; leries and caves was prodigious, and ; Britisn generals were very free in their /oraise of colonial- capacity for sustained effort, organi&ationy and iof accomplishing the apparently impossible I AH participants felt duly compensate^ . for their efforts when, at'the appointed time, the mines were safely blown, the galleries opened out, and the infantry1, fresh after a good night's rest, passed, with only very slight casualties, into the German lines to win a great victory—Auckland Herald. •'