Fighting the Boche Underground

It has been frequently suggested to me that I write of my experiences at the front. As one of the advance-guard of the American army who participated in the great struggle for f...

Being of British parentage and birth, most of my earlier life was spent in England. On coming of age, I left England for Canada, and after a few months there decided to study mi...

The trenches in Flanders consist, in the front line at least, of sand-bag breastworks, and are not regular trenches at all. The country is so flat that it would be impossible to...

As it was a rare day for us in Flanders when the enemy or ourselves did not "blow" a mine, we were always on our toes. Except in cases of sudden emergency we informed the infant...

In April, 1916, we were relieved of our work in Flanders, and ordered to move down to trenches some thirty miles farther south, to the chalk country of Artois. The new trenches...

Both the Germans and ourselves used huge mine-charges in the chalk and the effect of the explosion of many big mines is spread over a large area. We always felt the shakes in th...

All this time the fighting around us was fiercely waged. The Vimy Ridge was even then noted as being one of the "hottest" parts of the line, and the mining activity all along th...

Two sections of our company left Soastre the next day and proceeded to Albert. In going down we ran into a very severe thunder-storm. The roads were filled with a heavy traffic,...

After some six weeks on the Somme we were ordered to return to Hébuterne and remained there during the operations known as the battle of the Ancre. Our rest-camp was at Souastre...

In January, 1917, we were directed to proceed from Hébuterne to the trenches near Arras. Our rest-camp was at Beaumetz, a village about two and a half miles back of the lines, a...

About three weeks after the enemy had retired on our front opposite Beaurains a series of operations started which were afterward known as the battle of Arras. These were practi...

On May 20 we engineered a most successful underground operation, and very materially aided our infantry in capturing another 500 yards of the famous Hindenburg line. In order to...

From a prolonged and varied experience under shell-fire, machine-gun, rifle, trench-mortar fire, etc., and from an intimate and close association with men of all kinds in times...

Mines were employed to attack, and countermines to defend, many besieged cities in the past, but the application of mining methods in trench warfare has at no time or place reac...