Chapter 3

French Mining Sectors: Carency, Oise, Les Éparges and Vauquois

Carency

Mining operations between the French and Germans reached an intense level in 1915. Initial French success in some sectors was followed in 1916 by German supremacy. An early and celebrated French success was against the German-held village of Carency at the north of Vimy ridge. Sapping and mining preparations towards the defences of Carency were set in motion by the French on 1 January 1915. Three points were identified for attack (designated Alpha, Beta and Gamma salients) and preparations for five saps made by widening the communication trenches and bringing up two trench guns. Continuous rain and vigorous bombing accompanied the sapping, and the French lost a sapper killed and four wounded when a German bomb fell into a sap head. As the saps neared the German lines they were linked to form a new front line. On 6 January, before the new defences were complete, the French began to mine towards Beta salient, and the next day heard the first German countermines. On the 8th the rain rendered progress impossible and the trenches became impassable, as the labour needed for sapping and mining meant that the engineers were unable to build shelters or drain the trenches. From 18 January the French heard more noises, which became so distinct in Gallery 1 that they feared the Germans would break into their gallery. They used a hand borer to drill from the front line towards the noises, which they blew with 10kg of cheddite, a commercial blasting explosive introduced by the French for military use in November 1914. As the mine galleries progressed, the scale of timber and materials required became a problem. The Germans had clear observation over their rear positions and began to shell the dump immediately behind the trenches. The mine timbers had to be carried up 800m of communication trenches to the mines and large fatigue parties were needed for this dangerous and unpleasant duty. By 29 January, however, the French had charged three mines in front of each salient, ready for an attack on Carency. The attack, however, was postponed and the engineers were redeployed onto the defensive works, which had been neglected while mining. Not for the last time were miners to experience the difficulty of coordinating their intensive labour to the timetable of a wider operation with which, to be effective, they must be synchronized. Their predicament was now that they did not know how the charges would fare if left: the gunpowder was susceptible to damp and the detonating cord was liable to be damaged by mortar fire. In addition, the Germans now had time to mine themselves. When the French heard them approaching the charge laid at Gallery 1, they detonated a small bored mine of 10kg of cheddite, the largest they could blow without affecting the charge already laid. They decided to use the threatened charge in conjunction with a raid, at 0445 the next morning. As the debris fell the infantry ran forward, temporarily occupying the resulting crater, which was about 15m in diameter, and entered the adjacent German trenches. They did not remain in the crater, but found evidence in the German trenches of numerous new mine entrances. On the 8th the Germans blew their first mine. They did not damage the French positions, but the blow served as a warning that mine warfare was now fully engaged in. The French, having only Gallery 1 to counter the large number of workings begun from the Alpha salient, soon discovered that they had lost the initiative. As a rather desperate defensive measure, they drilled a large number of boreholes from their front line trench, with which to blow charges. They hoped that these would impede German progress underground by breaking up the ground, making it unstable and saturating it with hazardous gas. This did not prove viable, but they used the bores as a means of listening and deepened two shafts in the front line to 8m (G2 and G3). They also prepared new tunnels towards Beta and Gamma from points behind their front line trenches, to begin a new, deeper, underground attack. Previously the practice had been to begin galleries as close to the enemy as possible and to drive short, shallow tunnels with the maximum speed and minimum effort. In order now to drive beneath the German tunnels, they started further back to get greater depth. Not having to incline the tunnel too steeply facilitated more rapid removal of spoil.