LAYING THE HUGE MINES.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 145862, 22 June 1917, Page 5

LAYING THE HUGE MINES.

AUSTRALIANS’ WORK. JUBILATION AMONG SAPPERS. LONDON, June 11. Telegraphing on Sunday night, Air. PerciTiil Phillips says ;—'There are no happier men in this happy array of the north than the miners. They toiled underground for months, and prepared the chambers for the explosive charges. They courted death as freely as the infantry charging through broken wire. They dug and carved a way through narrow, tortuous channels beneath No Alan’s Land, some passages being only, 3ft. by 2ft., using infinite pains and skill, working in semi-darkness, breathing foul air, and facing a variety of hidden dangers, boring their way cautiously foot by foot, with ears attuned for the slightest sound. The success of these tunnellcrs, who came to Prance with years of experience in mining, fully compensated them for their weary efforts and days and nights of semisuifocation in the bowels of the earth. They regarded Hill 60 with ferocious delight. During the months of preparation they got to know Hill 60 as “Our Hill,” using the phrase in a grim busi-ness-like way._ It woukUhave been extremely disquieting to tiio complacent Wurtembergers if they could have heard these dangerous, square-jawed Australians quietly prophesying the doom of the German position as they wielded pick and shovel. NEIGHBOURS. WITH DEATH. The miners narrowly escaped discovery and death. The German pioneers ncro unconscious of the proximity of the Australians—so wanly had the Australians crept forward—but the Germans actually rained Within 40ft. of the Australians’ main charge under Hill 60, and within 20ft. of a gallery, hut wore unaware of their presence. On another occasion flic enemy was so close that he dislodged portion of the roof of an Australian mine chamber, the earth falling upon a stack of explosives. The Australians heard a guttural conversation. Only a thin layer of earth separated them from their enemies. The Australians overcame many difculties. At one time 100 minors together pumped out the water from a 400foet stretch of gallery. On another'occasion the Germans blew in the front line. 'Die miners ran out’of their dugouts without their boots and chased out the raiders. A week ago the Germans blow in a new mine gallery, and two Australian listeners were buried alive. One was imprisoned 17 hours and the other 40 hours before they were dug out, unliurt. Both throughout their critical situation recorded every sound they heard in the darkness. “I have found no liner record of cool courage and devotion to duty in the annals of this war,” says Mr. Phillips, “than that of those two men. 1 ”

WAITING FOR THE EXPLOSIONS,

MV. Phillips then paints a picture of the scene preceding the explosion of the mine. In the misty moonlight thousands of figures wore lying or crouching on the ground; they had been brought up from their dug-outs in order to bear the tremendous shock better. Two minutes before, the appointed moment men poured up silently . from the depths, passing a group of officers who, in a. dug-out, were surrounding the fatal brass lever. One of them afterwards said that the final two minutes seemed interminable. The final 30 seconds, as they watched the second hand crawl round the dial of the watch, were the most intense strain. When a young officer jammed down the lever the ground billowed. The noise 'of the explosion was prolonged by a mighty cheer. Tho men could not help it. Tliey had been ordered to observe the strictest silence, and there were even police oa duty fo enforce silence, but when the mines lifted, and the miners realised that their long work was a glorious success, they could not restrain their jubilation. Anyhow, the Germans were past hearing their cheers.