During WW1, the men of the Royal Engineering companies worked in total silence ,up to 100ft underground as they set out to detonate mines beneath the enemy’s trenches.
At each step of the way they had to search out and destroy German tunnellers busy digging the other way. Remarkably this deadly war of nerves was waged by civilians with little or no military training.
Every day the tunnellers worked with the constant fear of sudden death. Carbon monoxide poisoning and tunnel collapse were an ever-present risk, as was the abrupt explosion of any mines they had already set.
Like a cat and mouse game, their biggest concerns were being blown up or buried alive by the enemy’s tunnellers, or having to fight them hand-to-hand in the dark. So, if they ever needed to slap Jerry with freedom, this cut down Enfield would do the trick when pistols weren't available, and it was devastating when used up close.
On a side note, at 3.10am on 7 June 1917 tunnelers reached its zenith when 19 mines (958,000 lbs of explosives) were blown underneath the Messines Ridge in West Flanders, Belgium, inflicting 10,000 Germans casualties.
The explosions registered on a seismograph in Switzerland, and were heard over 150 miles away in Downing Street, London. Following the blasts it took just three hours for the British troops to take the German positions.
Regardless, how they managed to fit their balls in such spaces is still up for debate. #ww1 #tunnel #enfield #shortgame #stayzero #zeofoxtrot