AUSTRALIAN'S EXPERIENCE.

Taihape Daily Times, 21 February 1918, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN'S EXPERIENCE.

WORK OF PROFESSOR DAVID.

A returned soldier, Lieutenant Cortis, a member of the Institute of Surveyors, attended the annual meeting of the institute in Sydney recently, and gave some accout of his war experiences. He was one of Professor David's 1200 selected miners, engineers, and surveyors and he was sent with others to Hill 60, three dayes after landing in France. The first work in which he was employed was the excavation of a dug-out at Hill 60, for about 1000 men. It had a head cover of from 20 feet to 50 feet, and cost, roughly, about half-a-million of money, But it saved the soldiers. Its galleries penetrated well |nto No Man's Land, the c ost of which was high because of the timber and iron used in its construction, and it demonstrated its own efficiency.

Speaking of the tunnels dug inder Messines Eidge, the lieutenant, gave an interesting account. These tunnels were pushed forward under our own Hues deep below the surface of the ground. About 5000 sandbags were sent for every night to contain the spoil from the excavations, but the infantry usually stole about 1000 of them to keep themselves warm in the trenches. The engineers forgave them the theft. Long months they toiled in their tunnels, pushing them forward below the first, second, and third German lines. Then they dug tunnels parallel to the lines above them, and stowed therein 920 tons of ammonal, tamped the ground well, connected the explosive by electric wires with the British lines, made everything ready, and waited for about twelve months for the explosion. An ounce. of ammonal was exceedingly powerful and it could be easily seen what lifting powder 920 tons of it would have. When the explosion came it was believed to have blown up an enormous number of the enemy. British soldiers rushed forward at once, and occupied the craters, sustaining very few casualties in doing so.

Mining at the front was of two systems, offensive and defensive. The offensive was deep down, the defensive was shallow, and was designed to prevent the-"enemy from reaching our trenches. In offensive mining, it was necessary to listen to ascertain whether the' enemy was tunnelling, toward us, and" if'he was, then to allow him to approach quite close, put in a charge and blow him in. Sometimes the enemy did r t'he same, but the British had an advantage in this warfare. Somctimes'fhe men worked in awful ground —pea "soup it was called.

Maj6r'-l)avid was a grand man. Soon after arriving in France he organised a geological'survey of the ground, the men 'ptfEWtfra under his direction test bores aloiig' a section of the front, and it was 'ovfnig to the professor's geological 1 Knowledge that he could advise ' the' 'British authorities whether it was nefcessary to specially fortify any paitieuTar spot or not. If the ground iii front of our lines was a quagmire;;- there was no need to take extra '-precautions, because the enemy could n'dt cross it. The Australians, too/;' werrd at*restless set of men. Shortly after they reached Prance they j started raiding. The British were inclined to sit,-down and rest, but- the Australians were energetic. In their raids they sometimes were punished i but they developed raiding warfare They also, he believed, developed the artillery barrage, at first on small sections -Qfa'.ftfOßt, but afterwards on afterwardsr/used on the Somme, at larger ones. The barrage system was \ first introduced at the battle of Vimy Kidge, at Messines and in the last battle of Ypres with great success.