Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/86/1 - August 1917 - Part 3

8    22

all bn connected by / French.

A notice on one of these

passages said pointed / way - To "No 3 Section"

This means No 3 Section of

the 2nd Aust. Tunnelling Coy.

A little later we struck

to / right down one of these

passages, then onto /

surface; & behind the l side

of a house;  across the

main street - it runs

straight to / German lines

& was hung across with

a rather battered low

screen of bao sacking through

which you looked straight

up to some distant sandhills

across the Yser.  The houses

bn on / other side have

their backs onto the sand

dunes & you are straight

away out of sight o /

8    23

Germans there.  They were

pitching 5.9 or 4.2

at two or three points

in / sand but we came

near none of it.  Presently

we saw a burrow in the

back of a dune.  This ws

one of / entrances of

the Reserve Tunnelled

Dugouts of wh we are

putting in 750 ft of 6 & 4

tunnelled dimension.  It

runs in abt odd angles

-wh I did not understand

until Mulligan explained

tt it follows the hummock

of the dune.  Wherever there

is enough sand above it

-say 20 feet- there the

tunnel wanders.

The sand is the best

8    24

possible protection - it

explodes a shell very

quickly after impact.  On

the top the shell is danger-

-ous as it makes a shallow

crater & throws its fragments

very wide &, I believe, low;

but it is the best possible

head cover.

Our miners knew

how to work in sand at

once.  They had been used

to working through sandy

drift in Australia -

They simply sank a steep

incline (60 degrees from

the horizontal is the best.

[*sketch*] - put a stairway in it

eventually for an entrance

for the garrison).  Then they

drive in at about one

or two inches above

8    25

water level.  They

put in first strong 'bridge

sets" (drawing) resting

on cleats

spiked into

the "legs"

(or sidebeams

of the tunnel

timbers)

they then drive in over

the beam which is blackened

in the above sketch "spiling"

or "spilling", in order to

keep up the roof

(drawing) they hold up the

face with "face

boards" supported

by "dogs" fixed driven

into the face at

one end & the

"sets" at the other.  The

upper face board is then

8    26

removed by taking out

its dog, & the sand scooped

out by hand or trowel

to abt 6 in. & the face

board then set back again.

the second face board is

then removed, & the sand

behind this also scooped

out & the board replaced

-& so on, working from

top to bottom until the

whole face is set back 6 in

when it begins again.

The 2nd A. Tunnel Coy

had driven two tunnels

well out towards the

two German strong points

-the Black Dune on the

right & the strong point on

a similar dune near the

sea, when the Germans

8    27

attacked of July 10.  This

was a sheer tragedy.  The

Germans had (so far as

we know) no knowledge

of these methods, & had not

tunnelled the dunes.  Our

tunnels, beginning well

back in our lines, had

abt reached a point under

our own front trenches.  There

were tunnellers in them;  &

if the Germans filled them

up with whisky, as

Mulligan says, they may

quite likely have got them

talking about their method,

-& if so they can convert

the whole dune region

into a fortress of immense

strength. That we had not

done so - that we had not even

tunnelled under the Yser after

8    28

these 2 years, is a monument

to the want of enterprise

of the French who held the place.

The British when they

came in seem to have made

two mistakes.  They firstly

let the French withdraw their

guns before we had ours in 

position already, replacing

them;  & secondly they started

to "liven things up" with their

infantry, in the dour British

manner, before their artillery

was in a positn to support

them.  The Germans decided

tt / British were going to attack

there;  tt they would have

far more difficulty in attacking

if they were south of the Yser

than N. of it;  & consequently

pushed them back, at once,

across the Yser mouth.

8    29

G.H.Q tried to make light

of it - but it ws a very

heavy score for the Germans &

a really serious misfortune

for us.  We have now, as

a preliminary, to xxxxxx attack across

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx the river in ? boats xxx (shorthand)

a not very good divn is

being put in to do it

(line of shorthand)

our monitors have bn lying off / coast

(line of shorthand)

registering from the sea.  the attack ws to have come

(line of shorthand)

off by this, but has bn put off.  In / meantime

(line of shorthand)

all day long we saw / Gs. shooting into /

(line of shorthand)

sea.  Nobody seemed to know why they were

(line of shorthand)

doing this.  Of course they have noticed

(line of shorthand)

our monitors there & are registering / positns from wh

(line of shorthand)

they think / naval attack or bombt will take place.

(line of shorthand)

The tunnellers are driving

out a runnel (shorthand) from the (shorthand) to the

8    30

last house in / town (called the (shorthand) )

(line of shorthand)

& wh is to be complete by a certain date.

(line of shorthand) These

tunnels are pushed on 

very quickly by working

from both ends & also by

sinking an incline abt

halfway & working from

both ends there.

____________________________

On the day after the

(Drawing)

North bank of Yser was lost

the Australian tunnellers sent

out a party (as above)

to tunnel dig a bit of trench

at once on the S Bank

of the Yser.  They had to

creep from cover to cover

but got thro w a loss of 3

men.  Undoubtedly / Germans

saw them.

They are old men

compared w most of ours.

31

X 4^th Army want to make

use of them  (or rather half of 

them) as a carrying party

-as there will be no work

for them at first.  Mulligan

has protested.  I told White,

& he & Gen Birdwood, later,

when they went up to see

Rawlinson, spoke to him

abt it.  They say they want

them for it because it will

ensure the stuff getting

through.  But it seems

sheer waste to use such

a company in tt way.

 

 

8    32

But a splendid set;  ^X & Mulligan

Gen Harvey, Director of Mining

at G.H.Q. had just been up

the afternoon we arrived, &

was, so Mulligan told us,

exceedingly surprised at their

work.  The Australian miner

will always take tremendous

risks - and works very fast.

They were working at one face

without face boards - when we

saw them - cutting forward.  Mulligan

sd quietly to the man in charge there -

"Daniels, old man - if anything

happens tonight, you are for it -

you understand."  I only realised

afterwds tt he meant tt if the face

falls in he wd punish him - At

another face - from (shorthand) we found

the _^solitary man there struggling w a huge

heap of tumbled sand.  It had

fallen in - not irremediably however.

they were working agst time

(shorthand)