Crumps and Camouflets: Australian Companies Tunnelling on the Western Front (Australian Army History Collection)

Below the shattered ground that separated the British and German infantry on the Western Front in the First World War, an unseen and largely unknown war was raging, fought by miners, ‘tunnelers’ as they were known. They knew that, at any moment, their lives could be extinguished without warning by hundreds of tons of collapsed earth and debris. Australian tunneling companies took part in the battles of Fromelles, Arras, Messines, Passchendaele, Cambrai, the defense of Amiens, Lys, and the famous last 100 days. Crumps and Camouflets, is the first complete history of Australia’s role in the tunneling war of 1914-1919, of the men and units in which they served, and of life in the tomblike tunnels of the war underground. Below the shattered ground that separated the British and German infantry on the Western Front in World War I, an unseen and largely unknown war was raging, fought by miners, 'tunnellers' as they were known. They knew at any moment their lives could be extinguished without warning by hundreds of tonnes of collapsed earth and debris. Crumps and Camouflets is the first complete history of Australia's role in the tunnelling war of 1914-1919