The New Zealand Tunnelling Company

Listening underground with a geophone

Recruited in New Zealand in 1915, the men of the Tunnelling Company arrived in France in March 1916 under the command of 33-year-old regular soldier and Boer War veteran Major J.E. Duigan. The first New Zealanders to reach the Western Front, they were a so-called non-divisional unit – not part of the New Zealand Division, which arrived from Egypt the following month.

Most of the tunnellers were quarrymen, gold miners from Waihi and Karangahake, or labourers from the Railways and Public Works departments. Others were coal miners from the West Coast of the South Island, but these workers were generally discouraged from enlisting due to the essential nature of their industry. The hardbitten tunnellers gave Duigan some disciplinary headaches. He later grumbled that he had '17 ex-secretaries of Labour Unions in the Unit', as well as members of the 'Red' Federation of Labour. But with both the Allies and the Germans trying to tunnel under each other’s lines to lay mines, their experience was invaluable. At first, they were involved in successful efforts to foil German mining – known as counter-mining operations – just to the north-east of Arras.

Writing in the Arras tunnels

In November 1916 the tunnellers moved to Arras itself. Over the next five months the New Zealanders extended the two existing underground systems and created new tunnels. They constructed a complex system of galleries, subways, kitchens, headquarters and hospitals – facilities capable of housing 20,000 men. To assist orientation, the locations in one of the systems were all given New Zealand place names, from Bluff at one extremity to Russell at the other (another tunnel system had British place names). Godley Avenue, named after the New Zealand Expeditionary Force commander, Sir Alexander Godley, linked the locations. The New Zealanders also left graffiti on the walls, including a large ‘Kia Ora’ flanked by ferns.

The men of the Tunnelling Company were not the only New Zealand troops involved in this work. For two months they were assisted by the New Zealand Pioneer Battalion, many of whose members had been part of the Native (Maori) Contingent; this unit would eventually be renamed the New Zealand (Maori) Pioneer Battalion. Later, infantrymen from the New Zealand Division also helped out.

Christchurch cavern, Arras, 1917

With a major Allied push planned for April 1917, the tunnellers shifted to a more offensive role early in the year. They tunnelled towards the enemy lines from inside the cavern system and laid three mines under German trenches for detonation when the attack began. Tunnels were also driven to positions just short of the German trenches so that when the offensive was launched, troops could rapidly break through to the surface and man covering machine-guns, while others stormed the German positions. Following the attack on 9 April, the German line was pushed back 11 kilometres, and the Canadian Corps seized Vimy Ridge. As with most Western Front battles, this victory was achieved at a great cost in lives, with more than 12,000 Canadians being killed.

Following the April 1917 offensive, the tunnellers were deployed on a number of tasks in the vicinity of Arras. The underground system they helped create would prove vital to the Allies during the German offensive of 1918. The Tunnelling Company finally left the Arras area in July 1918, having suffered 41 deaths and 151 injuries during more than two years of service. The tunnels were closed after the Second World War and not rediscovered until 1990.