CRATER FIGHTING
As it was a rare day for us in Flanders when the enemy or ourselves
did not "blow" a mine, we were always on our toes. Except in cases of
sudden emergency we informed the infantry of our intention to fire a
mine, and gave them the time necessary to withdraw their men to points
of safety. Often we would blow a mine at night in cooperation with the
infantry so that they might at once rush out and "consolidate" the
crater, or the nearest lip or rim of the crater. Certain positions in
No Man's Land were particularly desirable on account of their
strategic value; sometimes for the purpose of enfilading the enemy's
trenches by occupying one rim of the crater; or perhaps for the
obtaining of better observation-points, or for any other reason. The
consolidation of these craters is a wonderfully stirring business. A
little explanation of a crater might help.
The engineers fire large charges of high explosives from underground
galleries, at a depth of anything from 20 to 200 feet, with the result
that a huge hole is blown in the ground in the shape of an inverted
cone, like the average shell-hole, but very much wider and deeper. No
Man's Land in front of us, where the trenches are close, is pitted
with great numbers of these craters, some blown by the Germans and
some by us. The craters vary from the small ones, about 70 or 80 feet
in diameter and 12 to 20 feet deep, to larger ones to such dimensions
as 300 feet in diameter and up to 120 or 130 feet deep. The size, of
course, depends on the charge of high explosives used, the depth of
the mine-galleries, and the soil one springs the mine in.
The enemy is usually just as concerned with the consolidation of the
rim or lip of the crater on their side as we are with ours, and a
battle royal for their occupation results. Machine-guns on both sides
concentrate fire on the crater almost before the débris from the
explosion have had time to fall. It is a weird and wonderful sight.
From a fairly calm night, usually with only desultory fire going on,
the thunderclap comes. Before firing, which is usually done
electrically, the engineers calculate the exact diameter of the crater
to be formed, and the previous night the infantry or engineers will
have completed a trench forward from the front-line or "jumping-off"
trench, to an intersection with the rim of the proposed crater.
Directly the charge has been fired, they rush out through this trench
and hastily throw up breastworks on the lip of the crater formed. The
machine-gunners take up proper offensive and defensive positions; the
bombers, usually at the head and the flank of the "throw-up," or lip,
erect the wire screens necessary for their temporary protection; the
"wire" men place their barbed wire around the portion to be
consolidated; and all ranks dig themselves in as fast as they can,
later bringing up such timber or other material as they can to
strengthen the positions. When it is planned to hold the whole of the
crater, the "wire" men completely encircle it with entanglements, and
the Lewis gunners and bombers make such changes in disposition as are
necessary. This represents the usual procedure when a crater is blown
in No Man's Land. Thousands of these craters are so exploded.
On numerous other occasions, when we have penetrated below the surface
with our underground galleries under and across No Man's Land to below
the Germans' front-line trenches (and in many cases we go as far as
their support lines without being discovered), our little affairs are
accompanied by infantry raids. Pandemonium reigns supreme at these
times, and nothing can be likened to the noise and apparent confusion
in which these usually very successful raids are conducted. We fire
our mines under their trenches and the infantry raiding-parties
immediately cross and clean up any Germans we might have missed with
our attentions. As a result of our noiseless work below in the clay,
we would occasionally break through into each other's galleries.
Perhaps you would be interested in an underground fight which we had
with the Boche in one of our galleries twenty feet below the surface
under these trenches. Some two weeks before this we had successfully
blown a mine, and two days later had discovered and worked through the
broken German gallery we had destroyed. Passing through this gallery,
we continued our silent work in the clay, and about fifty feet farther
turned off to the left in order to strike what we thought would be the
enemy's main defensive gallery. Our miners who were working at this
face hurriedly sent up word one morning to our dugout on top, just off
the shaft-house, that they had broken into the German gallery with a
small hole in the clay. All men working underground had standing
orders that if this occurred at any time they should at once put out
their candles, observe strict silence, plug up the hole with clay, and
report forthwith to the officer on duty. Warning all men to leave the
near-by workings below, the officer on duty hurried down to the spot,
stopped long enough in our main gallery to make up a mobile, or
portable, charge of thirty pounds of guncotton from our magazine,
which we had established there for just such emergencies, then
proceeded with the utmost care to the gallery mentioned. Lieutenant G.
had connected up a dry guncotton primer to the charge, inserted a
detonator attached to a short piece of safety-fuse, which latter would
burn for about two minutes before detonating the charge. The men had
noticed and heard three, certainly, and probably more, Germans at work
in their gallery, which was lighted with electric light. Lieutenant
G., accompanied by another officer, very carefully withdrew the clay
plug, enlarged the hole, slid the box containing the charge into the
enemy gallery, lit the fuse, and swiftly and quietly withdrew from the
scene. He reached safely the main gallery, quite a distance from the
charge, in time to hear the explosion. He then climbed quickly to the
top to escape the resulting fatal gases developed by the detonation of
the high explosives.
I arrived on the scene a few minutes later and my section commander
asked me if I was "game enough," as he described it, to go below with
a sapper to investigate the damage done and see how many Germans we
had accounted for. I was very willing; so Doherty, the sapper
mentioned, and myself equipped ourselves with the "Proto" oxygen
breathing-apparatus necessary in going into "gassy" galleries, then
descended, carrying also the usual canary in a cage to test the air.
The canary soon toppled off his perch and fell dead to the floor of
his cage. Canaries and white mice are used in large numbers to detect
the presence of poisonous gases below, and, being very susceptible to
bad air, are soon killed. [It is a curious sight to see these canaries
hung up outside dugouts in all trenches where mining operations are
conducted.] Both Doherty and I had previously been trained in the use
of the oxygen apparatus, and were quite confident of its ability to
take care of the carbon monoxide so that it would not affect our
lungs. Before we reached the enemy gallery, I stopped long enough to
pick up and carry with me the air-hose, and this I left later in the
enemy's workings so that our men on top could pump good air in and
allow others down in a short time to resume the offensive. We reached
the gallery, found the remains of three Boches that "G." had "sent
west" with his charge of guncotton, then proceeded to investigate the
damage done. As the enemy gallery was very closely timbered, we had
only broken down a portion of it with the charge employed. On entering
their gallery, I had carefully searched for and cut all wires that I
found there. This was a regular practice with us, the object being to
sever all electric leads, wires, or fuses which the enemy may have
left connected to a charge or mine already laid.
[Illustration: Breathing-apparatus necessary in going into "gassy"
galleries.]
On breaking into any of these galleries the officer in charge usually
enlarges the holes in the clay until he can put his arm through; feels
around until he finds any wires, and promptly cuts them with his
pliers. Such operations of necessity must be done in darkness and
without sound, and one's heart is working like a pump-handle. I was
agreeably surprised to find that no Germans had summoned courage
enough to investigate matters as we were doing; Doherty, however, did
not share my sentiments, and gave me the impression as best he could,
enveloped in the oxygen apparatus as he was, that he distinctly
regretted their lack of sand. We were both armed with electric-torches
and revolvers, but we were not keen on using them oftener than
necessary, and so advertising our presence. After leaving the air-hose
and noting results, I picked up the cap of one of the defunct Germans,
and we came out, or rather crawled out. Our progress was mostly in the
form of a crawl, and the steel oxygen cylinders knocking against the
timber sets in the narrow galleries as we proceeded did not improve
our tempers.
We arrived safely back to the surface and I made my report. After
pumping air into the gallery for about an hour, we all went below
again, and my section commander and Lieutenant G. crawled through to
examine conditions in the enemy's gallery, while I was engaged in the
magazine in opening boxes of guncotton and getting more primers and
detonators ready for action. Captain B., the section commander, came
back presently and informed me that he and G. had been slightly gassed
during their investigation of the enemy tunnel, but had not met any
Boche; he had decided on making up some raiding-parties, would arm
them with mobile charges; attempt to explore the German gallery and
mine system, and, if possible, try and destroy their shaft. The
difficulties of proceeding farther into the German galleries, now that
the enemy was thoroughly aroused, were pretty large, but we agreed
with him that it was up to us to get them somehow if we had a possible
chance. We made up three of these parties at once; each composed of
one officer, one non-commissioned officer, and two sappers; each party
armed with revolvers and a mobile charge of thirty pounds of
guncotton, the latter being carried in boxes. Each of the sappers
provided himself with a couple of Mills bombs, their confidence in
these useful little articles on all occasions being quite touching.
It was arranged that Captain B. should station himself at the junction
of our gallery with that of the Boche, and if our plans looked like
coming "unstuck" he would blow his whistle hard. On this signal we
would all hustle back to our own galleries and shaft-head as quickly
as possible. "The plans of mice and men gang aft agley" and our luck
was not good on this stunt. The other two officers were senior to me
and, as usual in such circumstances, resolutely insisted on their
right to take their parties in first. It was rather an exceptional
affair, our breaking into an enemy gallery, as in most cases either
the enemy or ourselves would have fired their mines when within
striking distance of each other, so all the men were very keen on it.
In my own case, I was so keyed up with excitement that I entirely
forgot a bad toothache that I had--resulting from an abscess under a
large molar--and these things are usually pretty difficult to forget,
even in the trenches. Well, the first two parties passed quietly into
the enemy's gallery; and just as I was about to lead my own party in,
Captain B. blew his signal whistle, and, according to instructions, I
took myself and party back to our own shaft-head, followed soon by the
men of the other parties; last of all by the other two officers, who
had entered the enemy gallery first. Our plan had come "unstuck." It
developed that the first two parties had managed to get in a short
distance before meeting any opposition, but that the Boches had then
opened fire on them, and they had stopped just long enough to return a
few revolver shots, set light to the fuses on their two mobile
charges, and run for it. Altogether this last attempt had not been
very successful, though we fortunately had no casualties.
I was again asked to go below with Doherty in breathing-apparatus and
see what effect the firing of these two last charges had made on the
gallery. We did so, but found no living Germans prowling round in the
tunnel. We left the air-hose this time farther up their more or less
destroyed workings, and reported that, after pumping, we could get
down soon again to resume operations. For the time we posted six
sappers and a non-commissioned officer near the enemy's entrance to
cover any endeavor on the part of the latter to get through into our
galleries. They did not attempt to do so; in fact, they didn't seem to
care much about going near the place--which fact perhaps proved
fortunate for D. and myself, though I knew that fine little Irishman
was aching for a scrap with them.
In an hour or so, when the poisonous gas had again been blown out and
fresh air pumped in, Lieutenant G. and I, being rather concerned over
the possibility of the enemy trying to pump in gas on our men below
ground, decided to go in on our own initiative and see what we could
do. We proceeded below, armed each with revolver and torch, and were
followed by another officer, Lieutenant B., carrying a mobile charge,
and a sapper with a second. We walked and crawled very quietly and
cautiously until we reached a point about 150 feet up the enemy
gallery; here I suggested to G. that it would be decidedly unwise to
try to get any farther; the electric lights still alight in the
gallery were just a few feet ahead of us, and we could distinguish the
sounds of whispering and stealthy walking very near. In crawling in we
had, of course, used our torches as little as possible. If I had not
persuaded G. as to the wisdom of my advice, I believe he would have
attempted to go right up to the German shaft-head. I walked back a
little way along the gallery, signalled Lieutenant B. and the sapper
to hand me the guncotton charges; then instructed them to clear out.
We decided to fire the charges at this point; so after collecting,
with great care to avoid noise, a number of sand-bags filled with clay
which the Germans had left in this gallery, we used these for tamping
the charge and G. lit the fuse while I covered the gallery with my
revolver. G. said "hold on a minute while I get a souvenir," and
promptly grabbed a five-foot length of three-inch air-pipe which the
Germans used in their work, while I picked up a few empty multicolored
sand-bags of the kind favored by the Boche miner.
The shortness of our safety-fuse was also a strong factor in
preventing us from going farther. It would burn about two minutes, and
in these two minutes we had to crawl and squirm through some very
awkward sections in the galleries. In two places there was only room
enough for our bodies to scrape through. The timber and clay had been
destroyed in several places, and it was difficult at these spots to
get through without bringing in some more timber sets or invite clay
falls which would have imprisoned us with the charge. Death as the
result of an overdose of carbon monoxide is not so bad, as one just
drops into a gentle and insidious sleep from which you fail to wake;
but the concussion resulting from the detonation of the charge is not
such a pleasant affair. We fortunately reached a spot of comparative
safety just in time to hear the detonation of the charges. Afterward
we climbed to the surface.
I went below again after a half-hour had elapsed; this time without
the oxygen apparatus, as I was physically too weak to carry its forty
pounds again. Another sapper went down with me, wearing the Proto
apparatus, and I leading with a rope around me in case I should be
gassed and have to be pulled out. The lad who came with me was not of
the same stuff as D.; once, whilst I was crawling ahead of him, I
knelt on a piece of broken timber; it made a sharp noise, much like
the crack of a revolver, and this rather disconcerted him. He soon
recovered, however. No Germans were in evidence. If there were any in
their tunnels they were mighty quiet.
This was a busy day for me. I must have had that "rabbit's foot"
around my neck in going down first after the charges three times and
coming out with a whole skin. We could not quite reach the advanced
spot where we had fired the gallery; although near enough. I was
gassed a little on this trip. Some two hours later, having prepared a
large charge of guncotton, we went below and laid it. During the
process, the enemy, gathering their courage, had come back to their
gallery and, having cleared some of the débris away, fired a number of
shots at our fellows whilst they were loading. We fired the mine in
the usual way, by means of blasting machine from our dugout. This
dugout was built with an entrance leading off to the mine shaft. We
thought our troubles were over for a while anyhow, and four of our men
carelessly remained in the dugout, talking and smoking for some ten
minutes or so after firing. One of them happened to look up around the
dugout, and noticed that all the canaries which we kept there at
night, in some four cages, had toppled from their perches and were
lying with their feet sticking in the air. With one bound they reached
the dugout entrance and fresh air, realizing that the poisonous gas
must have come up the shaft before penetrating to the dugout. Poor
Captain B. was rather badly gassed and was carried away on a
stretcher. He recovered, however, after a few days at the nearest
C.C.S. Am glad to record that Lieutenant G. received the Military
Cross for his share in these operations, and Captain B. the D.S.O.
On many occasions the British Tunnelling Companies have outwitted the
cunning Hun. Here is one instance. The British miners broke into an
enemy's gallery in clay and struck the tamping of a charge they had
laid and were holding ready to fire. This tamping consisted of clay
bags built up in galleries back of the charge in order to confine and
intensify the explosion. Working through the tamping, the sappers
reached a mine charge of about 4,000 pounds of westphalite, one of the
various German high explosives. Carefully extracting this, they
connected up the enemy's leads to one of their blasting caps to insure
non-detection for electric continuity, and then withdrew. What the Hun
mining officer said and felt, when he attempted to fire his mine, may
be left to the imagination.