How it Started

With the establishment of trench warfare all protagonists gave consideration to the classic siege technique of attacking enemy defences by mining.  On 3 Dec 1914 Gen Sir Henry Rawlinson, then Commanding IV Corps, wrote to Army HQ suggesting the formation of a special Battalion of Sappers & Miners for such work.  Simultaneously the Dehra Dun Brigade of the Indian Corps attempted, unsuccessfully, to attack a German trench using a 45lb charge of guncotton placed at the end of a shallow tunnel.

First honours on the British front went to the Germans.  On 20 Dec 1914 they attacked the Sirhind Brigade of the Indian Corps on the Givenchy-Festurbert front with 10 small mines placed under their forward fire trenches.  Though small the physical and morale effect was considerable and the shaken survivors fell back 500 yds to the reserve line.

GHQ instructed the Army HQs to proceed with offensive sapping and mining.  However the RE Field Companies (Fd Coys) were already overwhelmed with other essential duties.  Corps, Divisions (Divs) and even Brigades (Bdes) made various extempore arrangements, collecting up men with mining experience and forming miscellaneous mining platoons and sections.  Meantime the Germans continued to extend the use of mining and on 25 Jan 1915 exploded 20 or so on the Cuinchy front.

A Major Norton Griffiths had already written to the War Office proposing formation of special Companies of – what he termed – moles.  As well as being an officer in the 2^nd King Edward’s Horse, a Regiment he had personally raised, Norton Griffiths was a Member of Parliament and the head of a large firm of international engineering contractors.  In particular his firm employed many men digging tunnels for sewers below major cities in Britain, using a specialist technique known as ‘clay kicking’.

Following a reconnaissance in February 1915, and an interview with Lord Kitchener (Sec of State for War) Norton Griffiths, armed with almost plenipotentiary powers, was ordered to raise clay kickers and miners for service.  The War Office authorized formation of 8 Tunnelling Companies, originally to comprise 6 Officers and 227 Soldiers.  Qualified miners were to be paid at an astonishing rate of 7/6 per day (an infantry  private received about 1/6).

The first 18 Clay Kickers, the nucleus of 170 Tunnelling Coy, were enlisted on Thu 17 Feb 15 in Manchester, processed through the Royal Engineers Depot in Chatham, shipped to France and started work at Hill 60 on Mon the 21^st of Feb 15.  This is probably the fastest ever formation from scratch and deployment of a unit to operations.  The build up of the mining companies followed quickly with enlistment of clay kickers, and men from other mining disciplines, and a comb-out of existing units for suitably qualified personnel.  Commanding Officers (COs) were initially found from regular Royal Engineers, but most of the remainder were mineral miners from all over the world.  By June 1915 the 8th Tunnelling Coy had been formed and deployed, but by then the mine fighting had developed in intensity, and raising and training further companies proceeded.  The first Dominion Company in the Field was the Canadian 3^rd Tun Coy RCE (raised from Canadian units in France) and deployed in December 1915.

               Norton Griffiths                                Norton Griffiths on Western Front with Rolls Royce