The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-05-13
MUCH WORK 0F WAR DONE UNDERGROUND BY REAL MINES
Night and Day Shifts Are Used to Dig Lines of Com munications With the
 Trench System

British Headquarters Tn France, Aprll
 17-Readers of the official war com
 nioues must have noticed the frequent
 recurrence of phrases like i've sprung
 large mine and occupied the lips of the
 crater" but no one who has not been
 f., the front can realize what an im-
 mense amount of planning and of work
 is covered by these half-dozen words.
 The springing of the mine and the occu-
 patton of the crater often occupy fewer minutes than the weeks, employed in the preparatory work.
 The visitor to the firing line might wonder to see issuing from the entrance of what looks like a dugout, a squad of men whose muddy appearance and greater average age make them con spicuous among the other soldiers in the trench, and if he were very obervant person he might notice that the mud with which they were plastered was of a different color to the surrounding sur , face soil. They are miners of tunnel- ing company returning from their spall l of work at the face" of the saps. These tunnelng companies are located at intervals all along the line in France and Belgium, and their function in trench warfare is both offensive and defensive. | In the former case their work consists l in tunneling under No Mans Land to a position where a charge of explosive may be laid to blow up the enemy trenches, and in the latter preventing the enemy from doing the same thing to the British line so that while the apparent signs of warfare are infantry attacks, aSs;ilery
 bombardments, and aerial activity, all the time just as deadly a series of attacks and counter attacks are going on under ground.
 Shafts are sunk in the trenches to a certain depth, and from the bottom gal leries are dug out toward the enemy lines. These galleries are linked up with each other as much as possible, so that a well night continuous line of defenseS exist underground as well as the trenches on the surface "Observation' work forms very important part of the | miners duties, and calls for a very fine sensbility to sound and earth vibra7
 tion The water which collects in the saps is drained into the shaft bottom or "sump" and from there pumped out be- hind the trenches, though wherever pos sible advantage is taken of the ground to
 divert the stream toward the German Fife
 where it may add to the inconvenience of the occupants.
 Whenever a gallery is driven out far enough, and it is decided to explode a
 mine explosive is brought up overnight from the depot, and placed in position. Wire leads are then attached to the elec- tric detonators used for exploding the charge, and then the "tamping" is put in. This consists of solidly erected sandbag which blocks the gallery for such
 distance as will insure the full force
 of the explosion spending itself. upward, and not wasting it's power along the open passage itself The wire leads are con nected up with an electric battery in the trenches, and the mining officer has only | to press the button" to bring about the | explosion Smaller mines called "camou- flets" are sometimes exploded to destroy hostile galleries which are threatening | the British trenches or the workings of l the British mines. The methods of pro- cedure is the same as in the case of full sized mine designed to destroy enemy en- trenchments, only a lighter charge of ex- plosive is used.
 in the main from the professional miners of Britain, and you can hear In their conversation all the dialects from Corn wall to Fife Their routine duties are very similar to those of miner at home. | the customary day shift and night shift being worked, and the resemblance to a miniature colliery establishment IS | st1 engthened by the fact that their of- l ficers are all trained engineers, many l of them indeed being mining experts. l They belong to the corps of Royal Engi- neers, but many miners enlisted as fn- 1 fantrymen have been transferred from their regiments for this special service.