page_title: 1st Canadian Tunnelling Company
section_title: Hill 60/Messines
hierarchical_section_title: 1st Canadian Tunnelling Company / Unit history / Hill 60/Messines
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of St Eloi with evidence of British mining: craters of the six mines fired on 27 March 1916 at the start of the Battle of St Eloi Craters and plan of the deep mine dug from the "Queen Victoria" gallery and fired on 7 June 1917 as part of the mines placed by the tunnelling companies of the Royal Engineers in the Battle of Messines. This drawing is based on the plans published in Roger Lampaert, De Mijnenoorlog in Vlaanderen 1914–1918, Roesbrugge/Belgium (Drukkerij Schoonaert) 1989; and Simon Jones, Underground Warfare 1914-1918, Barnsley (Pen &amp; Sword Books) 2010, p. 100
context_page_description: The 1st Canadian Tunnelling Company was one of the tunnelling companies of the Canadian Military Engineers during World War I. The tunnelling units were occupied in offensive and defensive mining involving the placing and maintaining of mines under enemy lines, as well as other underground work such as the construction of deep dugouts for troop accommodation, the digging of subways, saps, cable trenches and underground chambers for signals and medical services.
context_section_description: 1st Canadian Tunnelling Company next took over the tunnelling operations at Hill 60 in preparation for the Battle of Messines (7–14 June 1917). In November 1916 the unit handed the operation at Hill 60 over to the 1st Australian Tunnelling Company and moved to St Eloi where it took over from 172nd Tunnelling Company and continued driving the tunnel system beneath enemy lines. The deep mine at St Eloi was the largest of the mines in the Battle of Messines. The work was begun with a deep shaft named Queen Victoria and the chamber was set 42 metres (138 ft) below ground, at the end of a gallery 408 metres (1,339 ft) long and charged with 43,400 kilograms (95,600 lb) of ammonal. Building preparations had started on 16 August 1915 and the mine was completed on 11 June 1916. The mines to be fired at the start of the Battle of Messines were dug by the British 171st, 175th, 250th, 1st Canadian, 3rd Canadian and 1st Australian Tunnelling companies as part of the prelude to the Battle of Messines, while the British 183rd, 2nd Canadian and 2nd Australian Tunnelling companies built underground shelters in the Second Army area. 1st Canadian Tunnelling Company saw the tunnelling operations at St Eloi through to 1917 and successfully fired the mine on 7 June 1917. When the mines at Messines were detonated, they created 19 large craters. The joint explosion of these mines ranks among the largest non-nuclear explosions of all time. When the St Eloi deep mine was fired, it destroyed some of the earlier craters (code-named D2 and D1) which had been created in 1916 by the 172nd Tunnelling Company, although a double crater (H4 and H1) can still be seen (see image). The successful detonation  allowed the capture of the German lines at St Eloi by the British 41st Division.
  The 1st Canadian Tunnelling Company used a Whittaker tunnel boring machine for their workings at the Lock Hospital position in 1917, this tunnel was handed over to the 2nd Australian Tunnelling Company on 10 May 1917. The tunnelling by machine in the Belgian blue clay was problematic and the War Diary lists numerous stoppages for repairs. The  Lock Hospital position was located at Lock 6 on the Ypres-Comines canal, and the tunnel extended from there to a point beneath the British lines some 400 metres away. The final approach gallery beneath no-man's land to the German trenches was to be completed by the silent clay-kicking method. In the end, problems with the machinery and the geology led to this project being abandoned.
  In October 1918, 1st Canadian Tunnelling Company fought with the 4th Canadian Division in operations to prevent the demolition of bridges on the Canal de L'Escaut, north-east of Cambrai, during which Captain Coulson Norman Mitchell earned the Victoria Cross.
caption: Plan of the deep mine dug from the "Queen Victoria" gallery and placed by the 1st Canadian Tunnelling Company at St Eloi before the Battle of Messines
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