Author: Damien Finlayson
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1526740192
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 409
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Book Description
Few soldiers on the Western Front had heard of the Australian Electrical and Mechanical Mining and Boring Company, even after it had been renamed the Alphabet Company by an AIF wag. Yet many knew the work of this tiny unit which numbered fewer than 300 at full strength. Despite its small size, the Alphabet Companys influence was enormous and spanned the entire British sector of the Western Front, from the North Sea to the Somme.This is the story of the Alphabeticals who, led by Major Victor Morse, DSO, operated and maintained pumps, generators, ventilation fans, drilling equipment and other ingenious devices in extreme circumstances. Given the horrendous conditions in which the troops lived and fought, this equipment was desperately needed, as were the men who operated it in the same, often nightmarish setting.This is the first account of the dynamic little unit that was the Alphabet Company, a unit that has been neglected by history for a century. It is the story of the men, their machinery and the extraordinary grit they displayed in performing some of the most difficult tasks in a war noted for the horrific conditions in which it was waged. They do not deserve to be forgotten.
Author: Alexander Barrie
Publisher: Spellmount, Limited Publishers
ISBN: 9781862270817
Category : Intrenchments
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
The history of tunnelling and mining operations on the Western Front in World War I.
Author: Simon Jones
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472861078
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 65
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Book Description
This absorbing illustrated study reveals the evolving tactics and techniques used by all sides in the underground war during 1914–18. Covering the Western Front but also the Gallipoli and Italian theatres, this study explores three aspects of World War I below ground: military mining, attack tunnels and dugouts. In 1914–17, the underground war was a product of static trench warfare, essential to survive it and part of both sides' attempts to overcome it. In 1917–18 it was rendered largely obsolete by the development of the all-arms battle as mobility was restored to the battlefield. In the stagnant, troglodyte existence of trench warfare, military mining was a hidden world of heroism and terror in which hours of suspenseful listening were spent monitoring the steady picking of unseen opponents, edging quietly towards the enemy, and judging when to fire a charge. Break-ins to enemy mine galleries resulted in hand-to-hand fighting in the darkness. The ingenuity, claustrophobia and tactical importance of the underground war are discussed and depicted in this fully illustrated study from an acknowledged expert. The artwork plates include depictions of the specialized uniforms, weapons and equipment used underground, as well as vignettes that vividly convey the many aspects of subterranean warfare during World War I.
Author: Robert K. Johns
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473827000
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 274
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Book Description
Undermining the positions of the enemy is one of the most ancient activities. For almost 3000 years even before 1914, it was a popular siege-breaking technique. During the Great War, arguably the greatest siege the world had ever seen, it presented a conflict environment that perfectly favoured the skills of the military miner. During 1915, the Western Front was established as a static line that grew into a huge network of defence-in-depth earthworks. Siege conditions demanded siege tactics and as the ground was everywhere mineable, the Western Front was a prime candidate for underground warfare.??Royal Engineer tunnelling companies were specialist units of the Corps of Royal Engineers within the British Army, formed to dig attacking tunnels under enemy lines during the First World War. The Cornish Miners were one of these specialist units recruited from the tin mines of Cornwall.??In February 1915, eight Tunnelling Companies were created and operational in Flanders from March 1915. By mid-1916, the British Army had around 25,000 trained tunnellers, mostly volunteers taken from mining communities. This is their story.
Author: Peter Barton
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 0773573119
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 304
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Book Description
The result of over twenty-five years of research, Beneath Flanders Fields reveals how this intense underground battle was fought and won. The authors give the first full account of mine warfare in World War I through the words of the tunnellers themselves as well as plans, drawings, and previously unpublished archive photographs, many in colour. Beneath Flanders Fields also shows how military mining evolved. The tunnellers constructed hundreds of deep dugouts that housed tens of thousands of troops. Often electrically lit and ventilated, these tunnels incorporated headquarters, cookhouses, soup kitchens, hospitals, drying rooms, and workshops. A few dugouts survive today, a final physical legacy of the Great War, and are presented for the first time in photographs in Beneath Flanders Fields.
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Government publications
Languages : en
Pages : 956
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Book Description
A seventeen-volume compilation of selected AEF records gathered by Army historians during the interwar years. This collection in no way represents an exhaustive record of the Army's months in France, but it is certainly worthy of serious consideration and thoughtful review by students of military history and strategy and will serve as a useful jumping off point for any earnest scholarship on the war. --from Foreword by William A Stofft.
Author: John Sheen
Publisher: Pen and Sword Military
ISBN: 1036100006
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 498
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Book Description
In answer to Lord Kitcheners appeal, in late August and September 1914 many men joined Alexandras Princess of Waless Own Yorkshire Regiment, better known as The Green Howards. Recruits came from around the Middlesbrough area and the ironstone mines on the North Yorkshire moors, while others came from the East Durham coalfield and the Durham City area. The 8th and 9th Battalions left the Regimental Depot in Richmond in late September and moved to Frensham on the Hampshire/Surrey border, where they trained hard until bad weather forced a move to barracks in Aldershot. They arrived on the Somme front at the end of June 1916, but were not involved in the fighting until 5 July, when the 9th Battalion captured Horseshoe trench and Lieutenant Donald Simpson Bell won the VC when he destroyed a German machine gun position. On 10 July both battalions took part in the capture of Contalmaison, a village that had been a first day objective. A second VC was awarded posthumously to Private William Short of the 8th Battalion during the fighting in Munster Alley in August 1916. The next year found the 23rd Division in the Ypres Salient, where they were in and out of the line until June 1917 when they took part in the Battle of Messines and the 8th Battalion had the honor of taking Hill 60. In November 1917 the division was sent to Italy to bolster the hard-pressed Italian Army, but the 9th Battalion returned to France in 1918 where they fought until the Armistice. The 8th Battalion stayed on in Italy and fought at the crossing of the Piave and Vittorio Veneto, which brought the war to an end in Italy.
Author: Gordon L. Rottman
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 184908047X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 66
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Book Description
During the Vietnam War, the Viet Cong (VC) main forces and North Vietnamese Army (NVA) were forced to hide weapons and supplies underground and to dig protective shelters to counter massive US firepower. Their field works defended villages, hidden base camps, and fortified complexes, and took the form of trench systems, individual fighting positions, crew-served weapon positions, bunkers, caches, and extensive tunnel complexes. Camouflage and deceptive measures, and the employment of obstacles and booby traps, went hand-in-hand with such works. This title takes a detailed look at the VC/NVA tunnel systems, field fortifications, base camps. and camouflage and concealment measures employed during the Vietnam conflict.
Author: Daphné Richemond-Barak
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190457244
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 297
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Book Description
Introduction -- Tunnels in conflict : from ancient uses to contemporary threats -- Underground warfare : from a tool of war to a global security threat -- Sovereignty over the underground -- Contending with tunnels : law, strategy, and methods -- Underground warfare and the jus ad bellum -- Underground warfare and the jus in bello : general considerations -- Underground warfare near, by, and against civilians -- Conclusion
Author: Iain McHenry
Publisher: Uniform
ISBN: 9781910500101
Category : World War, 1914-1918
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
The first history of a military tunnelling company published since the 1920's, Subterranean Sappers is a comprehensive survey of the 177 Tunnelling Company and the crucial role that they played during World War I. It details the entire history of the Company, from its formation on the Western Front in 1915 to the reasons for its eventual disbandment after the war. There is also a close study of the men of all ranks who made up the Company, including where they were from and what specific roles they played in tunnelling operations. Iain McHenry focuses heavily on the daily struggle the Company faced underground, due to the ever-present mine threat from the Germans, and details the tunnel systems and dugouts they constructed, with accompanying color plans. He also includes tense first-hand accounts of hand-to-hand altercations with German soldiers that occurred underground. Most important, Subterranean Sappers explains the vital role of tunneling companies in the greater scheme of the war and offers fascinating details on an understudied military tactic, which will be of interest to war historians and tourists alike.
