#151639 Lance Corporal Charles Richard Leach
179TH TUNNELLING COMPANY, ROYAL ENGINEERS
CHARLES LEACH WAS A 30-YEAR-OLD married sawyer when he enlisted into the 3rd Battalion of the Manchester Regiment shortly after war was declared. He remained at home until April 1915, when he was sent to France. In February 1916, Charles applied for a transfer away from the infantry and into the Royal Engineers, not an illogical step given his occupation in peacetime. In August 1915 Charles was moved into the 179th Tunnelling Company, which was responsible for mining and other operations from Thiepval down to La Boisselle. Tunnelling here had been started by the French in December 1914 and by the time the 179th took over operations both the French and the Germans had already detonated several mines.
Tunnelling was dark, dangerous work. Men worked eight-hour shifts in almost pitch-dark conditions, in a fetid atmosphere, in cramped spaces and in almost complete silence. Tunnels were dug approaching and underneath German front-line positions. Defensive networks were also constructed that protruded out under no-man’s-land with a view to intercepting enemy tunnelling operations. The need for silence was paramount, for if the enemy got any indication of threatening tunnelling activity they would aim to detonate a small charge alongside the offending tunnel, killing the occupants or breaking in, where fierce hand-to-hand fighting took place in confined spaces.
In October 1915, the 179th Tunnelling Company started work to deepen the shafts at La Boisselle. On 22nd November the Germans blew a charge alongside the British tunnels, killing six tunnellers of the company, the bodies of two of whom were never recovered. Rescue attempts were hampered by the amount of gas caused by the explosion that remained in the tunnels. Whether resulting from enemy explosions or otherwise, gas was another worry for those working under the battlefield; like miners beforehand, tunnellers used mice and canaries to alert them of its presence.
Tunnel at The Glory Hole, La Boisselle. Courtesy of the La Boisselle Study Group. (Andrew Holmes)
In preparation for the attack on 1st July, two large mines were prepared at La Boisselle. One, just to the north of the Albert–Bapaume Road, was known as Y-Sap mine. The other was further south and known as the Lochnagar Mine. Y-Sap mine was completed at the end of June 1916. At the end of a tunnel that traversed across no-man’s-land, it was charged with 40,000lb of explosives. The 179th Tunnelling Company took over construction of Lochnagar in March 1916. Progress for Charles’ company was slow due to the need to work in almost absolute silence. The tunnellers worked barefoot on a carpet of sandbags, using a bayonet to prise chalk out of the face of the tunnel. Any noise at this stage would compromise the existence of the mine. Eventually, the tunnel was completed and an aggregate of 60,000lb of explosives was placed in two separate chambers at the end. The two mines were successfully detonated at 7:28am on 1st July along with two additional smaller ones, causing a huge explosion just to the side of Billy Disbrey’s front. ‘All these mines did considerable damage to the enemy field works … All mines caused casualties.’
Although further mines were fired during the Battle of the Somme after 1st July, the 179th Tunnelling Company was not involved directly in their construction. After the detonation of the Y-Sap and Lochnagar mines, Charles Leach and the company were involved throughout September in the construction of tunnels at Thiepval, and dugouts and shelters in Mametz Wood and High Wood, throughout September. At the end of September, Charles was promoted to the rank of temporary lance corporal. The work undertaken by Charles and the company at this time was not without risk as being out in the open increased the possibility of being hit by the enemy. On 15th October 1916, Charles was killed after he was hit by shrapnel near Thiepval. After his death his only surviving possession was one wooden charm, which was sent to his wife, Sarah, in Bradford. Charles Leach was laid to rest at Albert Communal Cemetery Extension, plot I.J.31.