Examples of mining and countermining a fortress, from the 1915 'Scientific American War Book: The Mechanism and Technique of Warfare.
Mining and countermining in the attack and defense of a fortress.
"The 17th April [1915] passed quietly, the weather was fine and sunny, and, as evening approached, there was complete stillness, not a shot being fired by either side. Suddenly at 7.5 P.M. two pairs of mines and one single mine were exploded at 10 seconds interval. As the columns of earth from the explosion of the first pair rose into the air, the crash of bombardment broke the silence and the XV. and XXVII. Field Artillery Brigades and the IX. Heavy Artillery Brigade, the 130th (Howitzer) Battery and the 48th Heavy Battery, with two batteries of French and three of Belgian artillery opened fire on all the approaches to the hill. With the firing of the last mine, the storming party, C Company 1/Royal West Kent and sappers of the 1/2nd Home Counties Field Company R.E., climbed from their trenches and rushed forward. In two minutes they reached the top of the slope and occupied the craters in what remained of the German trenches to the southeast. The surprise was complete . . ."
Southeast of Ypres, Belgium, and held by the Germans, Hill 60 was named for its height, a mere 60 meters high, an artificial hill created from the soil of Messines Ridge when a railroad line was cut through the Ridge. The first underground attack of the war took place on December 20, 1914, near Festubert, Belgium against troops of the Indian Corps. Other attacks followed, including those of March 14 and April 14, 1915 at St. Eloi, south of Ypres. In all these cases, the mines were German. At Hill 60, both German and British miners dug. The Germans planned to set off their mines on April 19. On April 17, the British set off theirs.
Military Operations France and Belgium, 1915, Vol. I, Winter 1914-15: Battle of Neuve Chappelle : Battle of Ypres [Second] by J. E. Edmonds, page 168, copyright © asserted, publisher: Macmillan and Co., Limited, publication date: 1927
1915-04-17, 1915, April, mine, mining
