LAYING THE HUGE MINES.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 21 June 1917, Page 3

LAYING THE HUGE MINES.

AUSTRALIANS' ..WORK. JUBLICATION AMONG SAPPERS. LONDON, June 11. Telegraphing on Sunday night, Mr. Percival Phillips says:—There are no happier men in this happy army of the north than the miners. They tolled underground for months, and prepared the chambers for the explosive charges. They courted death as freely as the infantry charging through broken wire. They dug and carved a way through narrow, tortuous channels beneath No Man >s Land, some passages being only 3ft by 2ft., using infinite pains and skill, working in semi-darkness, breathing foul air, and facing a variety of hidden dangers, boring their way cautiously foot by foot, with ears attuned for the slightest sound. The success Prance with years of experience in mining, fully compensated them for their weary efforts and days and nights of semi-suffocation in the bowels of the earth. They regarded Hill 60 with ferocious delight. During the months of preparation they got to know Hill 60 as "Our Hill," using the phrase in a grim business-like way. It would have been extremely disqueiting to the complaceent Wartembergers if they could have heard these dangerous, square-jawed Australians quietly prophesying the doom of the German position as they wcilded pick and shovel.

NEIGHBOURS WITH DEATH. The miners narrowly escaped discovery and death. The German pioneers were unconscious of the proximity of the Australians—so warily had the Australians crept forward —but the Germans actually mineet within 40ft. of the Australians' main charge under Hill 60, and within 20ft of a gallery, but were unaware of their presence. On another occasion the enemy was so close that he dislodged portion of the roof of an Australian mine chamber, the earth falling upon a stack of explosives. The Australians heard a guttural conversation. Only a thin laver of earth separated them from their enemies. The Australians overcame many difficulties. At one time 100 miners together pumped out the water from a 400-feet stretch of gallery. On another occasion the Germans blew in •the front line. The miners ran out of their dug-outs without their boots and chased out the raiders. A week ago. the Germans blew in a new mine gallery, and two Australian listeners were ,buried alive. One was imprisoned 17 hours and the other 40 hours before they were dug out, unhurt. Both (throughout their critical situation recorded every sound they heard in the darkness. "I have found no finer record of cool courage and devotion to duty in the annals of this war, says Mr. Phillips, "than that of these two men." WAITING FOE THE EXPLOSIONS Mr. Phillips then paints a picture of the scene preceding the explosion of the mine. In the misty moonlight thousands of figures were lying or crouching on the ground; they had been brought up from their dugouts in order to bear the tremendous shock better. Two minutes before the appointed moment men poured up silently from the depths, passing a group of officers who, In a dugout, were surrounding the fatal brass level. One of them afterwards said that the final two minutes seemed interminable. The final 30 seconds, as they watched the second hand crawl round the dial of the watch, were the most intense strain. When a young officer jammed down the lever the ground billowed. The noise of the explosion was prolonged by a mighty cheer. The could not help It. They had been ordered to observe the strictest silence, and there were even police on duty to enforce silence, but when the miners lifted, and the miners realised that their Jong work was a glorious success, they could not restrain their jubilation." Anyhow, the Germans were past hearing their cheers.