"Military Mining is the act of placing an explosive device - a 'mine' - below ground with the intention of destroying enemy personnel or enemy infrastructure. Tunnelling was necessary to place the destructive charge below the enemy position.
Allied French, British, Australian, Canadian (and Portuguese) tunnelling companies were formed to counter the German mining threat.
They created complex and elaborate underground systems of connected shafts, inclines, tunnels, drives, chambers, dugouts, subways and posts that contained medical stations, rescue stations and command posts. Underground systems with electric lighting, mechanical water pumping, ventilation equipment.
Mining systems were worked on a number of levels simultaneously.
First level - the shallow system - 3 to 6 metres deep
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Second level - the fighting system - 15 metres deep [listening posts & camouflets]
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Listening posts were established to gather intelligence as to the estimated location of the enemy tunnellers. [Defensive Tunnelling]. Camouflets were the most common means of destroying or disrupting nearby enemy workers without causing too much (if any) peripheral damage. [Defensive Tunnelling]
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Third level - the deep system - 30 to 35 metres deep [mass explosive laying]
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The Deep System was the silent and invisible means of advancing beneath no man's land to set up high explosives and to deliver devastation.
Source: Crumps and Camouflets: Australian Tunnelling Companies on the Western Front
Allied French, British, Australian, Canadian (and Portuguese) tunnelling companies were formed to counter the German mining threat.
They created complex and elaborate underground systems of connected shafts, inclines, tunnels, drives, chambers, dugouts, subways and posts that contained medical stations, rescue stations and command posts. Underground systems with electric lighting, mechanical water pumping, ventilation equipment.
Mining systems were worked on a number of levels simultaneously.
First level - the shallow system - 3 to 6 metres deep
[
[
Second level - the fighting system - 15 metres deep [listening posts & camouflets]
[
[
Listening posts were established to gather intelligence as to the estimated location of the enemy tunnellers. [Defensive Tunnelling]. Camouflets were the most common means of destroying or disrupting nearby enemy workers without causing too much (if any) peripheral damage. [Defensive Tunnelling]
[
[
[
[
Third level - the deep system - 30 to 35 metres deep [mass explosive laying]
[
[
The Deep System was the silent and invisible means of advancing beneath no man's land to set up high explosives and to deliver devastation.
Source: Crumps and Camouflets: Australian Tunnelling Companies on the Western Front