rutherglen Posted 7 December , 2009 Share Posted 7 December , 2009 A Sgt W Crawford of the RE got the DCM in 1917 for 2 years tunnelling What info is there about the job of digging tunnels Were they mostly Miners What else did they do as well as putting explosives under the enemy How dangerous was their work Was there many of them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmm45 Posted 7 December , 2009 Share Posted 7 December , 2009 http://www.1914-1918.net/tunnelcoyre.htm Heres a good starting point.He should have citation on the London Gazette. Ady Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Johnson Posted 7 December , 2009 Share Posted 7 December , 2009 An older book, but very readable: War Underground by Alexander Barrie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
truthergw Posted 7 December , 2009 Share Posted 7 December , 2009 Try " Beneath Flanders Fields", Peter Barton, Peter Doyle and Johan Vandewalle. Great book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmm45 Posted 8 December , 2009 Share Posted 8 December , 2009 Lochlee...no mention of him in Tunnellers by Grieve.Was he 79100 also had service with RGA and East Kents? Ady Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rutherglen Posted 8 December , 2009 Author Share Posted 8 December , 2009 Try " Beneath Flanders Fields", Peter Barton, Peter Doyle and Johan Vandewalle. Great book. Try " Beneath Flanders Fields", Peter Barton, Peter Doyle and Johan Vandewalle. Great book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rutherglen Posted 8 December , 2009 Author Share Posted 8 December , 2009 Sgt W Crawfords number was s/n 79100 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Jones Posted 8 December , 2009 Share Posted 8 December , 2009 I would echo the remarks re the three best books: Beneath Flanders Fields by Peter Barton et al War Underground by Alexander Barrie Tunnellers by Grieve & Newman I would also shamelessly plug my Underground Warfare 1914-1918 due out in February 2010: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Underground-Warfar...9307&sr=1-1 Contents Chapter 1 Military Mining Before 1914 13 Chapter 2 Mining Operations 1914 – early 1915 29 Chapter 3 French Mining Sectors: Carency, Oise, Les Eparges and Vauquois 45 Chapter 4 British Mining operations 1915 – early 1916 75 Chapter 5 Hohenzollern and St Eloi 1916 95 Chapter 6 The Somme 1916 114 Chapter 7 Vimy, Arras and Messines 1917 133 Chapter 8 Miners and Technology 165 Chapter 9 Tunnels and the Infantry Attack 185 Chapter 10 Underground Accommodation and Communications 214 Chapter 11 Conclusion 253 cheers Simon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris_Baker Posted 8 December , 2009 Share Posted 8 December , 2009 And thereby break GWF rules on advertising. I shall remember this precedent come mid 2010! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Jones Posted 8 December , 2009 Share Posted 8 December , 2009 I await my punishment and mean no disrespect to the moderators of this forum. But am I really going to make any money out of this book? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
truthergw Posted 8 December , 2009 Share Posted 8 December , 2009 If it is half as good as your Gas book, I look forward to it eagerly. Is the Baker household looking forward to the pitter patter of tiny pages? Tell us more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rutherglen Posted 8 December , 2009 Author Share Posted 8 December , 2009 Lochlee...no mention of him in Tunnellers by Grieve.Was he 79100 also had service with RGA and East Kents? Ady Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rutherglen Posted 8 December , 2009 Author Share Posted 8 December , 2009 Andy, Same number but different W Crawford. This one was just RE He had been a Miner in Kelty Lochlee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Jones Posted 8 December , 2009 Share Posted 8 December , 2009 Lochlee I have been researching 185 Tunnelling Company and William Crawford was part of a batch of 82 men transferred to this unit on 9/10/1915 when it was being formed at the RE Base Camp at Rouen. So far I have tentatively identified 65 of this draft as RE numbers 79099-79164. A medal card for William Crawford’s DCM confirms that he was serving with 185th Tunnelling Company. The London Gazette which announced his DCM on 3/6/1918 gave no citation. His campaign medal index card shows him as serving first with the E Kent Regiment as 6922 and also subsequently with the Royal Garrison Artillery as 45089. The Unburnt (‘Pension’) record of Pte Charles Thomas Stone with the adjacent RE number of 79099 shows that he was transferred to 185 Tunnelling Company from the 1/ E Kent Regiment on 9/10/1915. The men with RE numbers 79099-79105 were all transferred from the E Kent Regiment to the Royal Engineers. Are you aware of his having been working in the Kent coalfields in 1914? I was looking last week at the West Fife Echo (which covers Cowdenbeath and Kelty) for 1915-16 and if you want I could take a look at June 1918 to see if his DCM is mentioned. On 2 November 185 Tunnelling Company went to Albert where it took over the left portion of the La Boisselle mining sector from 179 Tunnelling Company. It developed the Inch Street workings and started the Lochnagar tunnel which was completed by 179 Coy to lay the charges which created the famous mine which remains today. On 4 February 1916 in the Inch Street workings 185 suffered a serious loss of 19 miners and two officers, including the OC, killed by a German camouflet and secondary explosion of methane. In early March 185 were withdraw and moved to Arras and took over part of Vimy Ridge where they remained until I think mid-1917. Simon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rutherglen Posted 8 December , 2009 Author Share Posted 8 December , 2009 Lochlee I have been researching 185 Tunnelling Company and William Crawford was part of a batch of 82 men transferred to this unit on 9/10/1915 when it was being formed at the RE Base Camp at Rouen. So far I have tentatively identified 65 of this draft as RE numbers 79099-79164. A medal card for William Crawford's DCM confirms that he was serving with 185th Tunnelling Company. The London Gazette which announced his DCM on 3/6/1918 gave no citation. His campaign medal index card shows him as serving first with the E Kent Regiment as 6922 and also subsequently with the Royal Garrison Artillery as 45089. The Unburnt ('Pension') record of Pte Charles Thomas Stone with the adjacent RE number of 79099 shows that he was transferred to 185 Tunnelling Company from the 1/ E Kent Regiment on 9/10/1915. The men with RE numbers 79099-79105 were all transferred from the E Kent Regiment to the Royal Engineers. Are you aware of his having been working in the Kent coalfields in 1914? I was looking last week at the West Fife Echo (which covers Cowdenbeath and Kelty) for 1915-16 and if you want I could take a look at June 1918 to see if his DCM is mentioned. On 2 November 185 Tunnelling Company went to Albert where it took over the left portion of the La Boisselle mining sector from 179 Tunnelling Company. It developed the Inch Street workings and started the Lochnagar tunnel which was completed by 179 Coy to lay the charges which created the famous mine which remains today. On 4 February 1916 in the Inch Street workings 185 suffered a serious loss of 19 miners and two officers, including the OC, killed by a German camouflet and secondary explosion of methane. In early March 185 were withdraw and moved to Arras and took over part of Vimy Ridge where they remained until I think mid-1917. Simon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rutherglen Posted 8 December , 2009 Author Share Posted 8 December , 2009 Thats wonderful Would be obliged if you would kindly check the local paper Didnt know he'd been working in West Kent coalfields. Though dosen't surprise considering the vagaries of mining Tunnelling is a most interesting subject. Thanks for the info about the book Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Jones Posted 8 December , 2009 Share Posted 8 December , 2009 Lochlee That's no problem. Are you related to him, by the way? Tom Simon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rutherglen Posted 8 December , 2009 Author Share Posted 8 December , 2009 No sorry not related Lochlee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J Banning Posted 9 December , 2009 Share Posted 9 December , 2009 I would echo the remarks re the three best books: Beneath Flanders Fields by Peter Barton et al War Underground by Alexander Barrie Tunnellers by Grieve & Newman I would also shamelessly plug my Underground Warfare 1914-1918 due out in February 2010: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Underground-Warfar...9307&sr=1-1 Simon – very much looking forward to your book too. I had a quick jaunt to Ypres for the day yesterday with Peter and he told me the good news that the publishers have agreed to reprint a few thousand softback copies of ‘Beneath Flanders Fields’ in March 2010. Peter is just adding some new information about Sapper Hackett’s VC action at Givenchy in June 1916 which is taken from Sapper John French’s newly found diary. This will be a welcome relief considering the inflated prices of second hand copies available. So, there’ll be at least two great books on the subject….! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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