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Alexander Griffin

Professor Jizi
UWRT 1103
9 December 2015

Tunnel Warfare in World War One

For years our world was at war. First came the great war, or World War one, then just
twenty years later our world faced another world war. The trials and tribulations that come along
with being at war are full of horrors, one of which is trench warfare. Utilized for the first time in
WW1 trenches became necessary to defend from enemy fire and these trenches quickly defined
the boundaries between Germany and France. The world war proved to be a brutal and
unforgiving time with mass casualties. One of the most well known battles was the battle of the
Somme (a rural region in France). This battle was home to trench warfare as well as tunnel
warfare. The tunnels beneath the Somme are still being explored by experts and the conditions
were far from hospitable which was the norm for this fierce and horrifying war. Watching The
Somme: Secret Tunnel Wars gave me an idea of the conditions of the tunnels as well as helped
me understand how the tunnels were utilized. This served to ignite my interest in tunnel warfare
specifically how it effected its participants mentally versus how combatants suffered above in the
trenches.
Tunnel warfare was also used on both sides of the US conflict in Vietnam. Looking back
to see how the soldiers were effected could help us to do two things. First it would allow doctors

to re-diagnose veterans from Vietnam who still may be suffering from their times in the tunnels
of Vietnam. Secondly it will give doctors and scientists the ability to potentially create devises to
help in the case of another war or conflict in which tunnel warfare is required. There is also
another reason, one more personal then then science, and that is understanding. Before my
research I knew very little about what these tunnelers did and what their part was in the war.
Now I have the utmost respect for the Clay-kickers that served down in the tunnels and so did
many of the men that returned from the deadly battle of the Somme. This research if put in the
hands of a descendant of a tunneler would be invaluable if they didnt know what their ancestors
did for their freedom.
The research done by Peter Barton has proven invaluable. He has been the author or
cited in all the of sources that I found on the topic. An article called Psychological Wounds of
Conflict: The Impact of World War One was very helpful in not only understanding tunnel
warfare but also the mental wounds that came with serving in The Great War. One piece of this
article shocked me because it stated that In theory, hospitals in Britain were reserved for severe
or intractable cases of shell shock.(Jones) were as it stated earlier that Specialist centers were
set up within the sound of the guns to provide rapid treatment and to discourage soldiers from
believing that they had escaped military duty. In addition, new regulations governed the use of
diagnostic terms, seeking to stem the flow of casualties across the Channel.(Jones). This
shocked me because it doesnt seem that the militaries first priority was to keep these men who
in most cases were suffering from a condition called shell shock. It made me wondering how
many people who were suffering from this serious condition were sent back into battle were they
could become mentally unstable and thus become dangerous to the soldiers around them?

Researching tunnel warfare made me realize that neither the tunnels nor the trenches
came without their horrors. A former tunneler by the name of Albert Marshall recalled the
horrors in the tunnels and spoke of the terrible silence as well as the horrors of hand to hand
combat when enemy tunnels broke through. This compared to the shell shock from shelling
above makes me believe that while different in style, both the trenches and the tunnels had
conditions that toyed with the minds of the inhabiting soldiers. Other than shell shock there
wasnt a very good understanding of mental trauma so there arent many records of other mental
issues caused in the tunnelers or the soldiers in the trenches. This being said I did discover that
many medical schools were set up in the United Kingdom that focused on the treatment and
discovery of trauma caused by war.
Instead of comparing the two I decided to look at how the tunnels effected the war and
how it may have changed the lives of other soldiers. This is where I was truly blown away
because I discovered that the first tunnelers utilized in the war by the Allied powers had to be
forced into the job because of the horrors below. I also discovered that the soldiers that fought in
the trenches had immense respect for those who served in the tunnels. This is because the
tunnelers were playing both offense and defense. On offense they built massive tunnels
underneath an area know as no mans land (Barton) and then under the enemys trenches where
the set off charges to collapse the trenches causing mass casualties. While on defense the
tunnelers fought to discover enemy trenches where they either broke through and fought the
enemy using hand to hand combat or using a strategic charge to collapse their tunnel. I still do
not have a full understanding of all the things that caused mental damage in the tunnels but
knowing some of the main fears that Albert Marshal deemed horrible enough to share gives me
an idea of what types of nightmares and demons the tunnelers left the war with.

Works Cited
The Somme: Secret Tunnel Wars. Dir. Mike Fox. Perf. Peter Barton. BBC, 2013. Film.

Barton, Peter. "Was the Tunnellers Secret War the Most Barbaric of WW1?" BBC News. BBC.
Web. 19 Nov. 2015.

Walford, Charles. "Inside the Real Birdsong Tunnels: Never-before-seen Images of the Mines
Dug by British 'clay-kickers' under German Lines in First World War." The Daily Mail
Online. Associated Newspapers, 22 Jan. 2012. Web. 19 Nov. 2015.

Jones, Edgar. "Psychological Wounds of Conflict: The Impact of World War One." The Fair
Observer 19 Aug. 2014. Web. 19 Nov. 2015.

Dowling, Kevin. "First World War Troops Recall Life in Tunnel Towns Built 50ft beneath the
Western Front." The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 8 Nov. 2008. Web. 18 Nov.
2015.

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