MAJOR DAVID AND THE MINERS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 16051, 8 February 1918, Page 6

MAJOR DAVID AND THE MINERS.

ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE VEST. Lieutenant Cortis, a returned soldier a member of the Institute of Surveyors attended the annual meeting of the in statute in Melbourne recently, and gavi some account of his war experiences He was one of Professor David's 120( selected miners, engineers, and sur voyors, and ho was sent with others t< Hill 60, throe days after landing it France. The first job in which he wa: employed was tho excavation of a dug out at Hill 60 for about 1000 men. L had a head cover of from 20 to 50 feet and cost, roughly, about half a millioi of money. But it saved tbe soldiers Its galleries penetrated well out inti No Man’s Land, the cost of which wa; high because of tho timber and iroi used in its construction, and it demon Mated its own efficiency. Speaking of the tunnels dug under Messincs Ridge, tho Lieutenant gave an interesting account. These tunnels were pushed forward under our own lines deep below the surface of the ground. About 6000 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 tunficls parallel to the lines above them, and stowed therein 920 tons of ammonal, tamped the ground well, connected the explosive by electric wires with tho British lines, made everything ready, and waited for about twelve months for the explosion. An ouneo of ammonal was exceedingly powerful, and it could be easily seen what lifting power 920 tons of it would have. When tbe explosion came it was believed to have blown up an enormous number of tho enemy. Our soldiers rushed forward at once and occupied the craters, sustaining very few casualties in doing so. (Applause.) 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 tho enemy from reaching our trenches. In offensive mining it was necessary to listen to ascertain whether the enemy was tunnelling towards us, and df ho wa*. then wo allowed him to approach quite close, put in a. charge, and blew him in. Sometimes the enemy did the same to us, but tbe British had an advantage in tins' warfare of 13 to 5. Sometimes tbe men worked in awful ground—pea soup it was called.

Major David was a grand man. Soon after arriving in France ho organised a geological survey of the ground, the men put down under his direction test hores along a section of the front, and it was owing to the professor’s geological knowledge, that he could advise tho British authorities whether it was necessary to specially fortify any particular spot or not. If tho ground in front of our lines was a quagmire there was no need to take extra precaution, hccause the enemy could not cross it. The Australians, toe, wefe a restless set of men. Shortly after they reached Franco they started raiding. The British were inclined to sit down and rest, but the Australians were energetic. In their raids they sometimes were punished, but they developed raiding warfare.' They also, he believed, developed tho artillery barrage, at first on small sections of front, but afterwards on larger ones. The barrage system was afterwards used on the Somme, at Vimy Bidge. at Messines, and in the last battle of Ypres with great success.