Underground Battle at Arras

Les Bove d’Arras

Caves were dug out under the Place des Heroes Square from the nineth century onwards, to extract chalk or limestone material for the construction of the city’s religious buildings and the first rampart. In the twelfth century, with the development of the market, the city became concerned about the amount of traffic above the caves, so work moved on to other nearby extraction sites. The caves were then used as merchants’ storage cellars.

The caves were dug at 4, 8 and 12 m levels, and created an underground labyrinth under the city.  The caves are entered  through the basement of the city hall.

During the First World War, Arras became an English town, with the city being governed in English, and an English newspaper published to inform the British soldiers. Arras was under constant shelling, so the locals were all underground during the day, and popped up at night to run the bars, cafes and brothels to entertain the troops.

The early caves were r low, and extremely tight in places. More than once, getting through the openings felt like putting 10 lbs of sugar in a five-pound bag. I didn’t think I was claustrophobic, but these caves were snug, and it was fortunate that I visited them at the end of the day, otherwise I would not have been so keen to go underground.

The low ceilings reflected the height of the diggers back in the day.

Originally, the stone was removed by a pulley system up a shaft, once the caves became storage areas, stairs were carved out for easy access.

The merchants stored beer and wine in the caves, and the farmers stored their fruit and vegetables. The farmers kept their produce there since they were taxed when they brought it to market, and storing it underground avoided tax. Additionally, the tunnels are 11 degrees C and 89 percent humidity, so the grain swelled up, allowing them to charge more for their products.

Later access was via stairs carved in the stone.

Wellington Quarries

The Wellington Quarries Museum is just outside downtown Arras, and has an excellent display area, and underground tour.

Several other quarries were dug further from the main square, and in Sep 1915, the vast array of quarries was rediscovered, and the decision was to link them together to allow the attacking army to proceed to the front lines in safety.

A call went out to all the Commonwealth Nations for Tunneling companies, and the New Zealanders were the first to respond. The New Zealanders were mostly miners and railway construction workers, many of them over 40 so not eligible for initial enlistment. These were hard men who excelled under ground but did not care at all for military drill or discipline, much to the chagrin of the British Officer corps.

Details of the NZ experience are given in the following website.

https://www.nztunnellers.com/#the-way-to-war

The NZ forces wore distinctive headgear and were commonly called lemon squeezers because of their hats.

There were 2 sets of underground quarries outside Arras, the western collection named for New Zealand cities and the eastern collection for English cities, with the names running north to south matching the geographic locations of the cities in NZ and England respectively. So, the NZ quarries were called Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and the English quarries named London, Jersey, Guernsey, etc.

Over 500 NZ Tunnelers sailed from Auckland in Dec 1915, reaching Plymouth in Feb 1916, and were in France by mid Mar 1916.  They got straight to work working three 8-hour shifts to dig an average of 80m of tunnel a day. These were not small access tunnels but large thoroughfares that would eventually house 25,000 men for an attack on the Germans.

The New Zealanders were supplemented by men of the 17th West Yorkshire Regiment, the 9th Scottish Rifles and the 6th King’s Own Scottish Borderers strengthened the ranks of the Tunnellers at the end of November, with the reward of an extra ration each day. The English and Scottish soldiers were impressed by the New Zealanders. Most of the attached soldier consisted of Bantams, smaller soldiers than the average Tommy. For them, the New Zealanders were huge strapping men.

In December 1916, 43 Maori from the Pioneer Battalion also supplemented the workforce. The Maori were hard workers and excellent scroungers. They were responsible for building much of the Wooden structures that supported areas of the tunnels. Wood was in very short supply so the Maori regularly raided British storage depots, and when they were caught pretended not to be able to speak English and making off with their needed supplies.

As well as joining the quarries, the Tunnelers built bunk rooms, kitchens, toilets and an underground hospital. They ran electric lights through the tunnels and miles of telephone lines so the division staffs could maintain communication with the attacking troops.

A model of the tunnel system shows its construction.

The soft stone made it perfect for creating Graffiti on the walls. The quarries were also used during the Second World War so many of the original carvings were destroyed. A cast of a Maori carving is typical of the images created.

A light rail system was built to haul out the extracted stone.

The rail cars were normally pushed by hand.

The museum displays underground were first rate. They had audio guides to provide details in at least 4 different languages, plus a tour guide who provided additional details. They also had video projections on the chalk walls that showed videos from the excavation, plus commentary from the workers.

They told much of the story in the men’s voices, which enhances the experience.

They also projected maps of the tunnels and the battles that ensued. We also got to wear cool WWI helmets, unfortunately all photos of me in the helmet were lost in the subsequent attack.

Ventilation shafts were dug at regular intervals to provide airflow.

 They dug over 22km of tunnels, joining the ancient tunnels below the Square in Arras, and extending tunnels well into no man’s land for the attack. This was essential, because although Arras was only occupied for a few days during the war, the town was constantly in artillery range, and the constant shelling destroyed over 80 percent of the buildings in the town. After the war, the town was rebuilt on its exact footprint, but none of the buildings made of stone from the quarries survived, so present day Arras has none of the original stone quarried from the underground caves.

The Belfry, a 75m tower that is part of Arras city hall had construction started in 1463 and finished in 1544. The Belfry collapsed after shelling in Oct 1914.

The Belfrey and the rest of the buildings in the town were rebuilt as exact replicas of the original buildings.

The tunnels were completed on time and allowed the Allies to move forward safely and undetected.

The connections are shown below.

Almost 25,000 British troops spent a week underground waiting for the assault. By coincidence, the 2nd Suffolk Regiment, that we talked about telling the story of Lance Sgt Henry Goodfellow, was one of the units in the underground quarries.

At 0530 on 09 April, the entrances to the tunnels in no man’s land were blown, and the troops swarmed out of the ground taking the Germans by surprise. The museum presentation shows the exit stairway, with the troops exiting to join the battle.

The tunnels were quite large, built to provide access for large numbers of troops. The tunnels were also used during the second world war as air raid shelters then sealed up and largely forgotten. The tunnels were rediscovered in 1990, and the Wellington Quarry Museum was opened in 2008 after extensive work to make the Quarries safe and accessible.

Lighting, a giant elevator, raised walkways, in depth audio and numerous projection screens made the quarries an excellent memorial to the tunneling effort of the NZ diggers, and an outstanding museum experience, highly recommended for all.

Battle of Arras 09 April – 12 May 1917

French and British commanders met in Chantilly in 1916 to plan out the 1917 attacks. The French proposed an attack at the Chemin Des Dames, to provide a breakthrough of the German lines. As a diversionary attack, the British agreed to attack over an 18 km front one week before the French, to remove German reserves from the proposed French line of attack.

The Canadians would attack in the north at Vimy, the British in the centre at Arras, and the Australians at Bullecourt in the South.

The Canadian Attack in the North was very successful and by Apr 13 the Ridge and surrounding area was in Canadian hands at the cost of 10,000 casualties. Previous posts tell the story of the capture of Vimy Ridge.

The British Assault at Arras was initially very successful, gaining over 5 km of territories, the largest British advance of the war to date. The Germans diverted troops from the French sector, and the advance slowed and the casualties mounted. The British suffered over 158,000 casualties over the battle.

To the south, the Australians were part of the 3rd Army under Gen Gough, a young and aggressive commander.  His aggressive spirit coupled with poor planning resulted in heavy losses. His attack launched at Bullecourt on 11 April 1917 was a disaster. Despite this a further attack across the same ground was ordered for 3 May. The Australians broke into and took part of the Hindenburg Line but no important strategic advantage was ever gained; in the two battles the Australians lost 10,000 men.

The French attack at the Chemin Des Dames one week after the Arras Assault, had some initial gains, but far from achieving a breaktrough, quickly became a war of attrition, with 187,000 French casualties. Very little ground was taken, and Gen Neville, the architect of the attack was sacked.

Vimy Ridge Tunnels

To complete the day underground, I visited the Vimy Memorial, and did a tour of the Grange Subway just behind the visitor’s centre. The French and British had previously occupied the area and had made unsuccessful assaults on Vimy Ridge. The underground is chalk, similar to Arras, so a significant amount of tunneling had been carried out by the time the Canadians took over the region. Since the Germans occupied the heights, the tunnels were essential for safe, unobserved movement near the front lines. A series of 13 tunnels were used to allow troops to move to the front lines safely.

We toured the Grange Subway, shown on the map. The subway also had deep mining tunnels to support mining operations. At some points, the front-line trenches were 25 m apart, so both sides were very active in mining operation as evidenced by the large number of mine craters in the front-line area.

The tunnels are built to support communications and a large number of troops.

A number of areas were expanded to accommodate a troop concentration and the storage of munitions and supplies.

Command and Control bunkers were also dug out, so the battle could be monitored from close to the front lines.

The troops spent 24 hours in the tunnels prior to the attack. It was a very cramped and uncomfortable space, but safe from enemy bombardment. At 0530 on 09 Apr the Canadians burst out of the tunnels and successfully took Vimy Ridge.

Of course, no visit to Vimy would be complete without at least a few photos of the Monument. When Wine Bob and I visited in January, the French flag was missing from the twin flag poles, so I am happy to report a new flag is now in place.

The stone of the monument appears to change colour depending on the lighting conditions. The day I visited was an everything day, so the colour of the stone changed rapidly.

This picture was taken about 2 minutes later.

And as usual, the ground crew was busy keeping the site in pristine condition.