#132430 Sapper Samuel Gomersall
183RD TUNNELLING COMPANY, ROYAL ENGINEERS
DIGGING UNDER ENEMY POSITIONS WAS a siege warfare tactic that had been employed over hundreds of years. In January 1915, the Germans detonated a series of mines south of the La Bassée Canal that prompted the War Office to sanction the creation of specialist tunnelling companies of the Royal Engineers; comprising of miners and other workers with suitable specialist skills, such as those involved with sewer or tunnel construction. The perceived urgency of the situation saw recruits almost bypass the usual military recruitment process. One of the early groups of tunnellers moved from working on civilian construction projects to working under the front in just four days in February 1915. In addition to civilian recruits, existing battalions from mining areas were scoured for soldiers with suitable experience and, by the end of 1915, thirteen tunnelling companies had been formed.
Samuel Gomersall was a 40-year-old miner from Darfield in Yorkshire who enlisted in Pontefract on 30th September 1915. Within a week he was at the Royal Engineers’ headquarters at Chatham, Kent where he was appointed a tunneller’s mate and was put on a salary of 2s 2d per day. By 30th October, just a month after enlisting, Samuel was in France and had been placed with the 183rd Tunnelling Company. The British engaged five such companies on the Somme and allocated each its own sector. The 183rd Tunnelling Company was responsible for the area between Carnoy and Maricourt on the southern part of the front.
With no mines to place on its frontage, before the offensive on 1st July the 183rd Tunnelling Company was responsible for the construction of a series of Russian saps in its sector; tunnels dug out into no-man’s-land just beneath the surface. Once dug all the way across, the sap offered a covered tunnel suitable for moving troops or other equipment across no-man’s-land into the enemy trenches after capture. Some of these saps constructed by the 183rd Tunnelling Company were also used to house forward machine-gun emplacements and even flame-throwers, which would be used by the British for the first time as the attack commenced.
A tunneller in action. (Simon Jones)
On 1st July one officer and six men from the 183rd Tunnelling Company went over with the attacking troops in their sector. They entered all German mine shafts, cutting all leads and wiring, and disarmed forty to fifty Germans and sent them back to the British lines. The 183rd Tunnelling Company was able to spend the first week of July exploring and surveying the abandoned German tunnel galleries at Mametz and Carnoy and collecting German plant and equipment. Work was also undertaken to connect the German tunnel networks with those of the British.
In addition to the offensive works, tunnelling companies also worked on other engineering projects required by the army. For the remainder of July, Samuel Gomersall and the 183rd Tunnelling Company were responsible for sinking new wells at Carnoy, Montauban and Mametz; constructing new dugouts and road repairs between Mametz and Bernafay Wood.
Samuel was wounded some time at the end of July or on 1st August 1916. It is not clear how he was wounded, but he was treated and ultimately died of his injuries at the 36th Casualty Clearing Station at Heilly on 1st August 1916. In August 1917 his possessions, amounting to photos and cards, a watch, a small pocket case, a tobacco pouch and bag, were sent to his sister Annie in Castleford. Samuel Gomersall was laid to rest at Heilly Station Cemetery, plot II.E.24.