Landships II

CharlieC · Legend

New WW1 Movie

Rectalgia · Legend

A proud group, the tunnellers - see http://www.tunnellers.net/pages/indexpag.html. Before WW2, Tobruk and the 9th Division, there was another "T" colour patch (purple for Engineers). In both world wars the diggers wore the general service badge (the "rising sun"). The colour patches were the main distinguishing "badge", an item of great significance and pride.

And their descendants aren't bad either - I recall that their last fundraiser involved the production and sale of commemorative glazed gallon jugs of rum, one (named) for each tunneller on the nominal roll, with a bronze plaque:

as a more permanent reminder once the rum had gone (quite quickly in most instances) and the dog had knocked the jug off the shelf.� Gotta love 'em.

James H · Legend

I note with dismay that the otherwise very interesting film appears to contain what I believe is referred to as "love interest". Never mind. We can fast-forward through that.

Related googling reveals this, of which I had not been aware:

http://www.puddleproductions.co.uk/2.html

And this:

Lord Kitchener had not been convinced of a quick victory in 1914 and neither had John Norton-Griffiths, an engineer and MP for Wednesbury in the Black Country of the Midlands. He had plagued Lord Kitchener to start mining battalions to undertake aggressive mining but Kitchener was reluctant to have anything to do with what he considered to be a sneaky, underhand sort of warfare. Aggressive mining had been a recognised technique of warfare but this was to be a new kind of war with terrible consequences. The army had neither the manpower nor the expertise required for mining and Norton-Griffiths volunteered his men, currently working on a sewer system in Manchester for the job until official Tunnelling Companies could be formed. Lord Kitchener finally agreed after the German attack at Festubert and Norton-Griffiths 'Clay kickers' were sent to Hill 60 in the Ypres Salient in early 1915.

The achievements of Mr. Norton-Griffiths's workforce still serve their purpose here on a daily basis.

CharlieC · Legend

An interview with Will Davies, author of "Beneath Hill 60" can heard/downloaded from:
www.abc.net.au/rn/lifematters/stories/2010/2866284.htm

The movie centres around Capt. Oliver Woodward - 1st Australian Tunnelling Corps. Woodward had been a mine manager in Charters Towers, Qld enlisted in 1916, won MC (2 bars), survived the war.

A comment made by Will Davies was that the age limits for tunnelers were raised - there were men up to 60 enlisted for their mining expertise.

Regards,

Charlie

Rectalgia · Legend

CharlieC wrote:
The movie centres around Capt. Oliver Woodward - 1st Australian Tunnelling Corps. Woodward had been a mine manager in Charters Towers, Qld enlisted in 1916, won MC (2 bars), survived the war.

His "AIF Project" record is at http://www.aif.adfa.edu.au:8080/showPerson?pid=331851

- and 34 pages of his personal file are digitised in http://naa12.naa.gov.au/scripts/ItemDetail.asp?M=0&B=8860500.� That's a record search and the identifier is not persistent. If confronted by "Part of RecordSearch unavailable" press Login to start a new seach (goes to http://naa12.naa.gov.au/Login.htm) -> choose Guest -> enter into the researcher form the keywords woodward oliver and dates 1914-1920 -> (then follow your nose to display the one resulting record and the digital copy within that).

�

[Edit - NAA search process]

-- Edited by Rectalgia on Saturday 10th of April 2010 06:23:46 AM

Hughbearson · General

I've been to Hill 60, and seen the tunnellers memorial...