184th Tunnelling Company

184th Tunnelling Company was formed in Rouen in October 1915, moved immediately to the Somme area, for work at Maricourt.[1] From its formation until the end of the war the company served under Second Army.[5][8]

British-dug fighting tunnel in Vimy sector

By spring 1916, the 184th Tunnelling Company was active at Vimy,[1] an area of busy underground activity for much of the war. British tunnellers progressively took over mining in the area from the French between February and May 1916.[9] In addition to 184th Tunnelling Company, other units active around Vimy were 172nd, 175th, 176th, 182nd and 185th Tunnelling Companies.[9] From spring 1916, the British had deployed five tunnelling companies along the Vimy Ridge, and during the first two months of their tenure in the area, 70 mines were fired, mostly by the Germans.[10] Between October 1915 and April 1917 an estimated 150 French, British and German charges were fired in this 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) sector of the Western Front.[9] In May 1916, a German infantry attack, which forced the British back 640 metres (700 yd), was aimed at neutralising British mining activity by capturing the shaft entrances. From June 1916, however, the Germans withdrew many miners to work on the Hindenburg Line and also for work in coal mines in Germany. In the second half of 1916 the British constructed strong defensive underground positions, and from August 1916, the Royal Engineers developed a mining scheme to support a large-scale infantry attack on the Vimy Ridge proposed for autumn 1916, although this was subsequently postponed.[10] After September 1916, when the Royal Engineers had completed their network of defensive galleries along most of the front line, offensive mining largely ceased[9] although activities continued until 1917. The British gallery network beneath Vimy Ridge eventually grew to a length of 12 kilometres (7.5 mi).[9]

The Canadian Corps was posted to the northern part of Vimy Ridge in October 1916 and preparations for an attack were revived in February 1917.[10] Prior to the Battle of Vimy Ridge (9 – 12 April 1917), the British tunnelling companies secretly laid a series of explosive charges under German positions in an effort to destroy surface fortifications before the assault.[11] The original plan had called for 17 mines and 9 Wombat charges to support the infantry attack, of which 13 (possibly 14) mines and 8 Wombat charges were eventually laid.[9] At the same time, 19 crater groups existed along this section of the Western Front, each with several large craters.[12] In order to assess the consequences of infantry having to advance across cratered ground after a mining attack, officers from the Canadian Corps visited La Boisselle and Fricourt where the mines on the first day of the Somme had been blown. Their reports and the experience of the Canadians at St Eloi in April 1916 – where mines had so altered and damaged the landscape as to render occupation of the mine craters by the infantry all but impossible –, led to the decision to remove offensive mining from the central sector allocated to the Canadian Corps at Vimy Ridge. Further British mines in the area were vetoed following the blowing by the Germans on 23 March 1917 of nine craters along no man's land as it was probable that the Germans were aiming to restrict an Allied attack to predictable points. The three mines already laid by 172nd Tunnelling Company were also dropped from the British plans. They were left in place after the assault and were only removed in the 1990s.[13] Another mine, prepared by 176th Tunnelling Company against the German strongpoint known as the Pimple, was not completed in time for the attack. The gallery had been pushed silently through the clay, avoiding the sandy and chalky layers of the Vimy Ridge, but by 9 April 1917 was still 21 metres (70 ft) short of its target.[14] In the end, two mines were blown before the attack, while three mines and two Wombat charges were fired to support the attack,[9] including those forming a northern flank.[15]

Tunnel and mining trolley in Carrière Wellington

Before the Battle of Arras (9 April – 16 May 1917), the 184th Tunnelling Company were engaged in Arras on Fish Avenue Tunnel, and in helping construct emplacements for heavy mortars.[1] The British forces controlling Arras had decided to re-use the ancient underground quarries in the town to aid a planned offensive against the Germans, whose trenches ran through what are now the eastern suburbs of the town. The underground quarries were to be linked up by tunnels so that they could be used both as shelters from the incessant German shelling and as a means of conveying troops to the front in secrecy and safety. From October 1916, the tunnelling companies of the Royal Engineers had been constructing tunnels for the troops,[16] focusing on Carrière Wellington, a former underground quarry in Ronville near Arras. The New Zealand Tunnelling Company had carried out a first exploration of the underground quarries in the Ronville and Saint-Sauveur districts of Arras on 5 November 1916.[6] While the New Zealanders were moving into place, the 184th Tunnelling Company began work on connection tunnels at Saint-Sauveur on 25 November 1916.[16] The scale of this undertaking was enormous: in one sector alone four Tunnelling Companies (of 500 men each) worked around the clock in 18-hour shifts for two months. By the end of January 1917, the Royal Engineers had constructed 20 kilometres of tunnels linking the ancient underground quarries of Arras.[16] The tunnel system could accommodate 24,000 men and was equipped with running water, electric light, kitchens, latrines, a small power station and a medical centre with a fully equipped operating theatre.[17][18][19]

184th Tunnelling Company moved to Nieuwpoort in June 1917. Worked on underground shelters along the coast to De Panne. 184th Tunnelling Company then moved to Ypres-Brielen sector to prepare tank crossings over Ypres canal for attack on 31 July 1917,[1] the beginning of the Battle of Passchendaele. In connection with that battle, the unit helped six fighting tanks (of 8 Company, C Battalion, with 15th Division, XIX Corps, 5th Army) cross the Steenbeek on 22 August 1917. On that day, 8 Company had 10 fighting tanks and two supply tanks in action.[20]

In April 1918, the 184th and several other tunnelling companies (171st, 173rd, 183rd, 255th, 258th and 3rd Australian) were forced to move from their camps at Boeschepe, when the enemy broke through the Lys positions during the Spring Offensive. These units were then put on duties that included digging and wiring trenches over a long distance from Reningelst to near Saint-Omer.[1] The operation to construct these fortifications between Reningelst and Saint-Omer was carried out jointly by the British 171st, 173rd, 183rd, 184th, 255th, 258th, 3rd Canadian and 3rd Australian Tunnelling Companies.