"On 12 May 1916, just four days after the Australian Mining Corps arrived at Hazenbrouck [approximately 50km SE of Calais, France], the Australian tunnelling companies were sent into action as three separate operation units.
The 3rd Australian Tunnelling Company (ATC) was under the command of Major Leslie Coulter.
On 9 June 1916, the 3rd ATC fired its first defensive mine charges in the Red Lamp system in the hope of destroying a German gallery that had been detected approaching one of its listening posts from the German Wick salient opposite.
Late on the evening of 29 June 1916, the 3rd ATC was preparing for its role in an attack against the Boar's Head salient, on the German front line, near Neuve Chapelle. Boar's Head was close to the location of the first mine attack of the war, in December 1915.
A small party (two officers, eighteen sappers from 3rd ATC) was ordered to create an instantaneous communication trench across no man's land to shield the infantry during attack and to enable the subsequent movement of supplies and wounded.
The method to create the instant trench was known as the 'push-pipe' technique. This was the first time the push pipe technique had been employed by Australian tunnellers under battle conditions. A hydraulic jack pushed hollow steel pipes two metres long through the wall of the British front line and out under no man's land. The pipes were packed with six kilograms of high explosive. Electric leads and detonators were fitted along the length of the pipe, so that a continuous explosive-packed 'pipe' was established, ready for simultaneous explosion.
Over three hours, from 11.45pm, the 3rd ATC pushed the pipe out to 50 metres from the British front line. But the shattered ground deflected the nose of the pipe upwards to exit 12 metres short of the German front line sap, clearly exposed to detection."
As the technique was top secret, the tunnellers were anxious their work remained undetected in the time between the job's completion and the assault launch. The nose pipe was sticking out right in front of the enemy... it was a long ten minutes.
Undetected, the push pipe detonated at 2.56am on 30 June 1916.
It half worked. Instantly a communications trench 18 metres long, six metres wide, three metres deep was created. But...
The 3rd ATC was not yet finished. The pipe's endplate needed to be recovered so that the technique was not discovered and copied by the Germans. Two men were involved in the recovery operation under heavy shelling and machine gun fire. There were Second Corporal 1102 William McKay and Major Leslie Coulter.
They were unable to retrieve the exposed endplate. So they wired it with a mobile charge and destroyed it.
(Source: Crumps and Camouflets: Australian Tunnelling Companies on the Western Front)
The 3rd Australian Tunnelling Company (ATC) was under the command of Major Leslie Coulter.
On 9 June 1916, the 3rd ATC fired its first defensive mine charges in the Red Lamp system in the hope of destroying a German gallery that had been detected approaching one of its listening posts from the German Wick salient opposite.
Late on the evening of 29 June 1916, the 3rd ATC was preparing for its role in an attack against the Boar's Head salient, on the German front line, near Neuve Chapelle. Boar's Head was close to the location of the first mine attack of the war, in December 1915.
A small party (two officers, eighteen sappers from 3rd ATC) was ordered to create an instantaneous communication trench across no man's land to shield the infantry during attack and to enable the subsequent movement of supplies and wounded.
The method to create the instant trench was known as the 'push-pipe' technique. This was the first time the push pipe technique had been employed by Australian tunnellers under battle conditions. A hydraulic jack pushed hollow steel pipes two metres long through the wall of the British front line and out under no man's land. The pipes were packed with six kilograms of high explosive. Electric leads and detonators were fitted along the length of the pipe, so that a continuous explosive-packed 'pipe' was established, ready for simultaneous explosion.
Over three hours, from 11.45pm, the 3rd ATC pushed the pipe out to 50 metres from the British front line. But the shattered ground deflected the nose of the pipe upwards to exit 12 metres short of the German front line sap, clearly exposed to detection."
As the technique was top secret, the tunnellers were anxious their work remained undetected in the time between the job's completion and the assault launch. The nose pipe was sticking out right in front of the enemy... it was a long ten minutes.
Undetected, the push pipe detonated at 2.56am on 30 June 1916.
It half worked. Instantly a communications trench 18 metres long, six metres wide, three metres deep was created. But...
The 3rd ATC was not yet finished. The pipe's endplate needed to be recovered so that the technique was not discovered and copied by the Germans. Two men were involved in the recovery operation under heavy shelling and machine gun fire. There were Second Corporal 1102 William McKay and Major Leslie Coulter.
They were unable to retrieve the exposed endplate. So they wired it with a mobile charge and destroyed it.
(Source: Crumps and Camouflets: Australian Tunnelling Companies on the Western Front)