New Zealand Tunnelling Company

New Zealand Tunnelling Company

Sue Baker Wilson, Waihi Heritage Vision

In September 1915 the Imperial Government requested the New Zealand Government raise an Engineer Tunnelling Coy of three or four hundred men. Newspapers of the day reported that men would be required to be aged between 21 and 40 and to be mostly experienced facemen. Only a limited number of coal miners were to be accepted, as continued production of coal was important. In spite of the fact that most of the unattached and adventurous had already enlisted in other units, no difficulty was found in filling the ranks.

Waihi was the second largest group of enlistments in New Zealand after Auckland and about fifty men left from this community. A smaller number would come from Thames.

A number of men from Waihi had links with Thames. Sapper Harry Brown, who I will talk about in more detail later, gave his enlistment address as Davell, Waihi, Thames, NZ. His NOK was listed as Mrs W J Golding, Exchange Hotel, Thames. Charles Lomas’ enlistment address was from Waihi but his NOK was his daughter from Thames. Another, Lieutenant Robert Daldy’s enlistment address was Waihi and his NOK was his wife from Tararu Creek, Thames. In early October, there were hearty farewells in small centres such as Waihi and Thames for the men leaving to join the camp.

Tunnelling Company enlistments were, on the average, middle aged, ranging from thirty up, though there were some younger, and we are told, ‘All were strong and hardy. These were no boys playing at war, but mature men, hard of muscle, hand and face.’

By the second week of October 1915, the entire company was assembled on Avondale Racecourse in Auckland.

The full establishment would include four blacksmiths, four carpenters, two fitters, three clerks, two draughtsmen, two electricians, two bricklayers, two plumbers, four cooks, two medical orderlies, two sanitary and water duty men, and a shoemaker, mason and tinsmith. Just about everything for a self-sufficient unit.

In the ranks were also four fully qualified civil engineers – one gave up a practice worth over £500 a year, – overseers of Government works, mechanical engineers from railway workshops, foreman of county councils, men from the Auckland University and School of Mines, skilled miners, who were earning up to £6 and £7 a week, and road and bush contractors who at times made as many pounds sterling in a week as they would get shillings from the camp paymaster.

It was found during a preliminary inspection of the men that very few had teeth in good enough condition to chew the hard army food they would find served to them in France. A number of dentists visited the camp to do extractions and fillings and the records showed that up to 24 November there had been 624 fillings, 411 extractions, and over 90 plates were being made for men in the camp.

It was felt at the time that as the men were “experts in the class of work for which they were called up,” that there was no need for technical training, as in learning how to dig tunnels and use the equipment of the day. Instead, the men, “most of them strangers to military matters,” were taught squad drill, without arms, learning to take orders, and routine duties. Lectures were be given on saluting, dress, military law, health and sanitation, camp sanitation, and other subjects, and the syllabus of training generally was drawn up to make men ‘already efficient in an important phase of modern warfare, smart in their movements, and soldierly in appearance’.

These men may have known little about discipline in the army sense but they had been trained in many a camp to obey orders promptly and intelligently. Where they saw a need for doing something, the men didn’t muck around. They were also anxious not to be left behind due to being unfit. A gallop around the racecourse followed by six hours marching and counter marching in blazing Auckland sun had a wonderful effect in reinvigorating an old stiffened worker.

The 10 Dec 1915 Grey River Argus newspaper reports:

‘The Tunnelling Company, at present in camp at Avondale, Auckland is reported to have earned the name of the “Red Feds’. There are at present in camp with this company eleven members who were formerly secretaries of various trade unions, whilst there are over forty who are erstwhile members of trade union committees.’

In a turnaround of events, men previously called troublemakers had tunnelling skills which were now highly valued during the war. In the one platoon there were also now comrades and ‘pals’, men who at Waihi not long ago, tried to break each other’s heads. Their differences, seemed then, irreconcilable, were now put aside.

J. C Neill, in his 1922 book on the New Zealand Tunnelling Company, suggests that the choice of Avondale Racecourse for the camp seemed at the time “the grossest of blunders.” The Defence authorities had chosen an open area, “within easy reach of New Zealand’s largest and gayest city.” There were to be a number of conflicts between the tunnellers and civilian authorities, many writers describing the company as shaking up the near-by city of Auckland as it had never been shaken before.

There was at least one disturbance in downtown Auckland which was watched by a crowd.

According to the Auckland Star, two soldiers had made themselves “objectionable to women”, accosting two women, who pushed past them, and then “tried their blandishments on three other respectable women, who would also have nothing to do with them”. When they tried stopping two more women, a constable then interfered.

According to the police one of the men took up a pugilistic attitude, and the constable proceeded to arrest him on a charge of being disorderly while drunk. The constable received a heavy blow on the jaw, and the attack was followed by blows delivered from behind. He managed to retain his grip on his prisoner, and endeavoured to get him to a taxicab. The surging of the crowd forced the policeman and his prisoner in another direction. Another constable arrived and rendered assistance, but the efforts of the two men and the crowd were too much for the police. The men escaped.

The two men were arrested at the Avondale camp the next day after parade, one later charged in the Police Court with being disorderly while drunk, resisting the police, and assault, the other with obstructing the police while in the execution of their duty, and with assaulting the police. Rather than send them to gaol for three days of their final leave, the magistrate instead fined them 20/- each. This was apparently not an isolated incident, the court referring to other cases of drunken soldiers from the company accosting women. Despite incidents such as these, however, the Minister of Defence, the Hon. James Allen commented, on inspection of the camp on 24 November, that he “considered that the discipline of the men reflected much credit on the officers responsible for their training.”

On the 12th December, Dr. Averill, the Anglican Bishop of Auckland, held a morning service at the camp. In a short address the Bishop expressed his pleasure at being able to say a few words to such a fine corps on the eve of its departure. He urged the men to uphold the honour of their country wherever they might be sent, not less in friendly communities than in the fighting line.

The New Zealand Tunnelling Corps of Engineers left Avondale finally on 18 December 1915. J. C. Neill noted that, in his opinion, “the only enthusiasm the citizens (of Auckland) showed to the company was when they bade it farewell.”

A Salvation Army Padre had been appointed to accompany the Tunnellers, but owing to some squabble he was left behind. The unit would never have a chaplain.

On the two-month journey overseas, with around 450 enlistments from the Tunnelling Company aboard, nine men would be disciplined. Both were miners. Two of these were from Waihi, with one having a shared connection with Thames.

4/ 1602 Sapper Harry Brown was disciplined for obscene language and disobeying a lawful command and was given three days’ pack drill. Harry’s records give his ‘apparent age’ as 39 years and describe him as having ‘iron grey hair colouring’. On his Attestation papers filled out in Avondale in October 1916 Harry indicated he was willing to serve in the Expeditionary Force as a miner and underlined this for emphasis. He gave his place of birth as ‘Son of Africa’. As with some others in the Tunnelling Coy, Harry was also a Boer War veteran. Once overseas, Harry would continue to be no stranger to discipline charges.

The Tunnelling Company disembarked at Plymouth and entrained for Falmouth, Cornwall.

‘In a few days the Tunnellers settled down to training under British instructors, or rather they settled down to it as much as they were ever likely to do, which is not saying a great deal. Such men did not take kindly to drill and were later famed throughout the Expeditionary force as being the toughest and roughest Company’.

When it came to training for mining practice the officers recognised that the men probably knew more about this activity than they did, and left them to do it in their own way. What they did not know about was the size and loading of the charges. As it turned out, a special instructor who came down to show them this part of the business knew less. The tunnellers completed a practice drive. The ‘expert’ came and looked at the ground and estimated a certain sized charge to blow a crater. An old Waihi man tried to argue with him that the charge was too small, and offered to sit on top of the mine for a sovereign. The instructor ignored him and carried on. If the instructor had taken up the offer he would have lost a sovereign, and the Waihi man would have been quite safe. The ground was hardly ruffled.

The Main Body reached the Western Front in March 1916 while members of the Tunnelling Coy First Reinforcement remained in England.

Sapper Harry Brown, staying at the New Zealand Depot in Hornchurch, was awarded 28 days detention for attempting to release a prisoner in arrest, threatening to strike a W.O. and for using insubordinate language to a W.O. Harry would eventually join the rest of the Tunnelling crew in France in August. By then he would have further added to his conduct sheet.

The first men to arrive in France with the New Zealand Tunnelling Company operated initially at the foot of Vimy Ridge near Arras, in a counter-mining role. The underground war was a deadly affair, which hinged on the speed of the digging. Tunnellers would dig a long shaft under the enemy trench system and carve out a bigger cave at the end of the tunnel. They would then pack the end cave with about 3000 pounds of explosives, retreat and detonate it. When an explosion of this size went off underground, everyone in nearby tunnels, even unconnected to the explosion, was killed by carbon monoxide created by the blast.

As they dug, the tunnellers would listen to the digging sounds of the enemy. When digging stopped you could hear the enemy packing explosives and knew that if you weren't ready to blow, you’d lost the race. The New Zealand tunnellers dug at three times the rate of the German tunnellers and won the race virtually every time. Only once during the war did the enemy blow a mine before the Kiwis were able to counter-mine.

Sources speak of the strikingly independent attitude shown by the New Zealanders in France at this time. They were also noted, from time to time, as failing to properly salute officers of the British Army, while their language also left an indelible impression.

‘Lofty and a chap named Collins were working it and Leith was filling the sandbags. I took the officer down and, getting to the face, Lofty was picking in hard ground. The officer said, “Do you think Fritz can hear you?” Quick as lightning came the reply from Lofty: 'They'll have to be bloody f-----g deaf if they can't.” That satisfied the officer that it was no place for him and he left straight away, saying, “Fearful language your men use.” He didn't ask to go down again.’

While overseas, the New Zealand Tunnelling Coy men were no strangers to fighting for what they believed was a just cause and they went in to bat for a group of English Tunnellers.

‘The Bantams had no evening meal and no crib for our 1 o’clock snack, so of course we had to share with them. We were very short rations ourselves, so we all got together and decided to lessen our footage until the Tommies got better conditions’

The English officers would concede to the New Zealand Tunnellers’ demands.

In March, the tunnellers were transferred to Arras, staying there for the next two years. It was at Arras that the New Zealanders abandoned the Royal Engineers’ method of tunnel, switching to a more “Kiwi version” -- a typical New Zealand gallery, according to Neill, would be 6 feet by 3 feet 6 inches wide, for “decent room to swing a pick.”

Here, also, the New Zealanders are credited with the discovery of old underground quarries, limestone caverns that been used to rebuild the city of Arras in the seventeenth century. Perhaps typically, it is reputed that the discovery was made while officers were amusing themselves while off duty.

With a major Allied push planned for April 1917, the New Zealand Tunnellers created a system of assembly galleries and subways under the city of Arras, with kitchens, headquarters and a hospital.

The New Zealanders gave the caverns along their line names from home: Russell, Auckland, New Plymouth, Wellington, Nelson, Blenheim, Christchurch, Dunedin and Bluff. The caves were fitted with gas doors, ventilating plant, electric light, running water and other facilities, serving eventually to shelter between 11,000 to 20,000 men during the cold winter months of the campaign known as the Battle of Arras. They tunnelled towards the enemy lines from inside the Arras cavern system and laid three mines under German trenches for detonation when the attack began.