The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1918-08-08

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les depended on this, the work was
conducted almost noiselessy. Wheh
we reached within striking distance OF
the enemy, we would build a charge
chamber and load it with guncotton'
| connecting up with detonators ana a
double set of leads to the charge, ana
at the right moment fire these charges
from the trench above by means OF
blasting machines From this clav
feet. we would blow craters 60 or ~
feet wide with a small charge of 800 or
700 pounds of guncotton. AS mat
ter Of fact, when we met the Hun pc
low ground under mo Mans Land,
we would endeavor to fire "camou-
flets" that is, a charge calculated TO
destroy enemy galleries but not to
break the surface of the ground. We
would usually carry nour work I'M
til we heard the Germans talking.
When you can hear the enemy talking
in clay you can bet they are pretty
close On some occasions we have In
this way fired our mines within three
or four feet of enemy mines. In March,
1915, we broke into a German gallery
and had a fight with them under
ground.
Mining Work at Depth of $50 Feet.
Trench mining in clay is much more
dangerous than in chalk, on account of
the fact 1 have mentioned-the diff
Guilty of hearing operations until one
lis almost on top of them. In the chalk
country further SOUTH in the Vimy
Ridge trenches and the Somme area,
we were mining at much greater
depths Some of our mines were 100
feet deep and after the battle of the
Somme we found the Germans at Fri
court had a mine system 200 feet deep.
For these chalk mines we used dif-
ferent and much stronger high eXplo-
sive than guncotton. With the British
we used individual mine charges as
large as 100000 pounds These would
blow cone shaped craters several hum
bred feet in diameter and well over
100 feet deep. Some idea of the ter
rife force of these mines can be OBJ
tanned when you compare the burst
ing charge of the Mills bomb, which
contains ounces or u pound of am
monal, with the single mine charges of
100, 900 pounds, or 100000 times that
amount. You can not see hand
bomb, like the Mills, burst without
having some respect for its destructive
qualities-particular if you are close
up.
Nearly all of our work on these
Flanders mines was done by hand AT
times our galleries and tunnels would
be half full of water, and it required
constant pumping, day and night, to
carry on the operations Hand water
pumps and hand air pumps were used.
Vertical shafts were sunk in this clay,
usually of case timber, and light pit
prop, sets were used for the galleries.
All the dirt was handled in sand bags
from the face, and brought out from
the main galleries on rubber tired mine
cars and hoisted to the surface by
windlasses The sand bags were used
for reveting and repairing trenches,
which are being continually destroyed
by enemy fire and action of the wea-
ther, and the surplus bags were emp
tied at night into shell holes and old
mine craters.
We were fortunate in our work be-
low ground, in not losing more men
than we did, but it required constant
and careful listening to avoid casual
ties. We could distinguish in time the
mature of the sounds of the enemy
miners when charging their mines, as
distinct from everyday work. and
mighty useful it was that we could do
so. When we suspected the enemy
We're about to fire one of their mines,
we would warn the infantry and have
were on guard on top at Threatened
points. Sometimes they would keep
us guessing, and would hold their
mines, just as We did ours, for sew
fore firing them. The fact that min
ing Is going on between the trenches
Is easily established after several
weeks work, but every effort is made
to conceal the exact location of the
galleries.
Although 1t was our business as en-
lgineers to carry on the work we were
responsible for we would occasionally
find time to do what we called "strafe
the Hun" which, interpreted. means to
open fire on them and their trenches
with any weapon that was handy. On
top at the time We were using the
vickers machine gun, the Lewis au-
tomato rifle, hand grenades and sew
eral kinds and weights of trench NOR
tars and number of hand bombs The
Mills hand bomb had not yet been is
sued. but we threw number OF other
varieties, from the old handle bombs
with cloth froo N, a,.c n ohoJ 81 ,s,,;ao