# Meet the Human Moles that Won WW1

An episode of [Be Amazed](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1687637469), 30 Dec 2025, 25 min.

Audio: https://audio4.redcircle.com/episodes/9898a744-775a-47f5-b816-12906784a8fc/stream.mp3

On the 7th of June 1917, during the First World War, the village of Messines, Belgium, was rocked to its core by a massive earthquake... or at least, that’s what the German soldiers occupying the area thought it was. It was only when they saw the bodies of their comrades flung into the sky, which was burning orange with flames, that they suddenly realized this was no earthquake… this was a blast! One so huge it annihilated some 10,000 German soldiers, injured thousands more, and produced shockwaves felt as far away as France! But the most incredible part was that the explosion hadn’t come from a bomb or artillery that rained down from above – it had originated from right under their feet. How on earth had something capable of an explosion of this magnitude gone completely undetected by so many men? The answer lay deep underground. This was where a specialist unit of Canadian, Australian, New Zealand and British tunnellers had worked tirelessly to set up one of the largest man-made explosions in all of human history. While the horrors of the trenches have been well documented, the story of these tunnellers isn’t as widely known, though it’s arguably even more harrowing. So, get ready, because I promise what you’re about to learn about these amazing men will blow you away! Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

## Transcript

[0:00] \[SPEAKER_00\]: On the 7th of June, 1917, during the first World War, the village of Machines, Belgium, was rocked to its core by a massive earthquake, or at least that's what the German soldiers occupying the area thought it was.
[0:14] \[SPEAKER_00\]: It was only when they saw the bodies of their comrades flung into the sky, which was burning orange with flames that they suddenly realized.
[0:26] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Once so huge, it annihilated some 10,000 German soldiers, injured thousands more, and produced shockwaves felt as far away as France.
[0:36] \[SPEAKER_00\]: But the most incredible part was that the explosion had come from a bomb or artillery that rained down from above, and had originated from right under their feet.
[0:46] \[SPEAKER_00\]: How on earth had something capable of an explosion of this magnitude gone
[0:53] \[SPEAKER_00\]: the answer laid deep underground.
[0:56] \[SPEAKER_00\]: This was where a specialist unit of Canadian Australian New Zealand and British tonalers had worked tirelessly to set up one of the largest man-made explosions in all of human history.
[1:07] \[SPEAKER_00\]: While the horrors of the trenches have been well-documented, the story of these tonalers isn't as widely known, though it's arguably even more harrowing.
[1:16] \[SPEAKER_00\]: So get ready because I promise what you're going to learn about these amazing men will blow
[1:25] \[SPEAKER_00\]: There was no doorless names.
[1:35] \[SPEAKER_00\]: To uncover the full story, first we need to rewind to the start of World War I.
[1:40] \[SPEAKER_00\]: In August 1914, German forces ripped through French and Belgian defenses.
[1:45] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Their advance wouldn't last though.
[1:47] \[SPEAKER_00\]: One month later, at the Battle of Aen and Eastern France, French and British forces stubbornly halted the German offensive.
[1:55] \[SPEAKER_00\]: with both sides struggling to overpower one another a stalemate ensued.
[1:59] \[SPEAKER_00\]: They each dug trenches some 7 feet deep into the air to hold their positions while protecting troops from enemy artillery by sheltering them in lines of fortified dugouts.
[2:10] \[SPEAKER_00\]: While the trenches provided both sides with an almost impenetrable defense, it also meant it was virtually impossible to launch an attack on the enemy.
[2:19] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Unsurprisingly, a deadlock followed.
[2:22] \[SPEAKER_00\]: To try and break the stalemate, both French and German troops began mining.
[2:28] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Now you may be thinking that the battlefield isn't the best place to start looking for oil or diamonds, but they weren't digging for underground treasures.
[2:36] \[SPEAKER_00\]: They were after something far more valuable.
[2:38] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The aim was to tunnel under the strip of no man's land between them until they'd reach the underside of the enemy lines.
[2:47] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Once there, they'd plan explosives and later detonate them, hoping to obliterate the opposition's trench line.
[2:54] \[SPEAKER_00\]: In December 1914, the brutality and effectiveness of this tonal warfare was seen for the first time, but not in the Allied forces' favor.
[3:03] \[SPEAKER_00\]: At the Battle of Gavinci, 10 German mines each weighing 110 pounds, exploded under the allied lines.
[3:13] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The blasts and following infantry attack resulted in the death of over 800 men, and the entire British Indians' Sir Heinberg aid was wiped out.
[3:22] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Not only was the attack devastating to the men who lost their lives, but also to those who heard the tales of the war.
[3:29] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Soldiers were accustomed to bullets firing at them.
[3:33] \[SPEAKER_00\]: But an explosion from below, they had no idea when and where it would come from next.
[3:40] \[SPEAKER_00\]: A new method to winning the world was born, and it was terrifying.
[3:45] \[SPEAKER_00\]: In response, you'd expect the Allies, specifically that British would have stopped it nothing until they annihilated German positions with tons of explosives right?
[3:54] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Wrong.
[3:55] \[SPEAKER_00\]: In fact, it's silch.
[3:57] \[SPEAKER_00\]: British Army Generals claimed Britain didn't have enough engineers on the front line to successfully
[4:03] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And tire regiments were getting wiped out and Burton had no response.
[4:08] \[SPEAKER_00\]: It wasn't until John Norton Griffith stepped in.
[4:11] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Norton Griffiths, otherwise known by the awesome nickname Hellfire Jack, had a background in mining.
[4:18] \[SPEAKER_00\]: When War was declared his mining company, Griffiths and Co were extending Manchester's drainage and sewer systems.
[4:25] \[SPEAKER_00\]: It was then he had a eureka moment.
[4:28] \[SPEAKER_00\]: You may think that the only thing linking sewer workers in the front lines was the trench of despair, however, Hellfire Jack had an elaborate plan up his sleeve.
[4:37] \[SPEAKER_00\]: He wanted to take his own group of sewer workers known then as Moles to the tunnels on the western front.
[4:43] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Rather than using pickaxes to paint stakingly tunnel underground, health-iron jacks mulls utilized a much more efficient technique called clay-kicking.
[4:53] \[SPEAKER_00\]: This involved one man, the kicker, sitting with his back, supported against a wooden cross, which was wedged in between the wooden slats forming the gallery that supported the shaft.
[5:04] \[SPEAKER_00\]: His job was to dig a small, sharp spade into the clay in front of him using his legs.
[5:09] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Another man, the bagger, would collect any loose sediment.
[5:12] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Meanwhile, behind them a third man, the tremor would transfer the bags of clay back to the Tunnel entrance via a trolley.
[5:19] \[SPEAKER_00\]: By taking his clay kickers to dig tunnels beneath the western front health hijack believed that Britain could finally rival Germany in the underground war.
[5:28] \[SPEAKER_00\]: But despite his badass nickname and the increasing threat of German mining, the letter was dismissed.
[5:34] \[SPEAKER_00\]: It took two more months of German mines decimating Allied forces for the British War
[5:41] \[SPEAKER_00\]: So did they come up with an ingenious plan of their own?
[5:44] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Nope, instead they decided to finally approve Hellfire Jack's Letter by which point he knew he had no time to waste.
[5:51] \[SPEAKER_00\]: His sewer workers left Manchester immediately and just four days later they were tunneling underneath no man's land in France.
[5:59] \[SPEAKER_00\]: So who are these moles tasked with the small matter of helping win the war?
[6:03] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Sorry to disappoint you if you were a picture in small-round men with Grafer in a point it's now.
[6:08] \[SPEAKER_00\]: They were known as moles not for their looks but for their ability to dig.
[6:13] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Many of them were over 40 years old smaller than 5-foot 4 and had no experience fighting in a war.
[6:19] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Considering the maximum age for most soldiers was 40, and the very minimum height requirement was 5 foot 3, they weren't your typical army recruits, and Venturi soldiers would have around 9 months of preparation to train, get fit, and learn the rules of the army.
[6:35] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Yet the moles became military men in mere days.
[6:39] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Just imagine one week you're working your normal job that days later you're tunneling under no man's land and one of the bloodiest wars in human history.
[6:48] \[SPEAKER_00\]: That's quite the career change.
[6:50] \[SPEAKER_00\]: On the face of it recruiting a bunch of short old men with no military experience or training sounds like a surefire way to lose the war.
[6:58] \[SPEAKER_00\]: But the moles had their perks, claykaking was used across Britain for being sewers, railway tunnels, and roads.
[7:05] \[SPEAKER_00\]: This meant that a large number of the moles recruited had prior experience using these methods to burrow underground, even more importantly, all the men enlisted knew what it was like to work in the cramped cold dark conditions of tunnels.
[7:18] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Plus, being a minor or sewer worker meant that you were already likely to be strong brave and used to danger.
[7:25] \[SPEAKER_00\]: and contrast Germany disregarded their miners and, instead, many were sent back home for industry used to aid the war effort.
[7:32] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And the German miners that did tunnel underneath Nobansland weren't given the same responsibility as the malls.
[7:39] \[SPEAKER_00\]: German commanders were unwilling to allow civilian mining engineers to be in charge of military units.
[7:45] \[SPEAKER_00\]: It would prove to be a fatal mistake.
[7:48] \[SPEAKER_00\]: You know what's not a mistake though?
[7:50] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Following my podcast, I make lots of historical episodes and deep dives that you can really dig into.
[7:57] \[SPEAKER_00\]: But for now, let's get back to the moles.
[8:01] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Even though the Moles didn't receive nine months of military training, they still had the spirits of true soldiers.
[8:07] \[SPEAKER_00\]: They'd go and tunnel their William Hackett, for instance.
[8:10] \[SPEAKER_00\]: After an enemy mine exploded in the tunnel he and his team were in, they became trapped in their timber supported gallery, less than four feet high and two and a half feet wide.
[8:20] \[SPEAKER_00\]: After desperately working for 20 hours, the men made a hole through the fallen earth and
[8:26] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Hack had helped 3 men to safety through the gap.
[8:28] \[SPEAKER_00\]: He could have followed 2, but refused.
[8:31] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Instead, he stayed with the fourth man who was seriously injured.
[8:35] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Even as the whole got smaller and smaller, Hack had refused to leave his wounded comrades.
[8:40] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Soon after, the gallery collapsed completely and neither man was seen again.
[8:45] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Undeniable bravery aside, the experience the moles had also proved invaluable.
[8:50] \[SPEAKER_00\]: These were men who were used to the cramp-cold uncomfortable conditions of mining work who could work like this for up to 12 hours at a time.
[8:58] \[SPEAKER_00\]: What's more, there was a huge number of recruits to call on.
[9:01] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Miners answered the call from across the UK in the British Empire, so by the summer of 1916 the British had 33 tunneling companies at the western front, with a whopping 25,000 trained tunnlers made up of mainly volunteers.
[9:17] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Now, coordinated by the Royal Engineers, the most tasked with the Messene mission came from the 170 first, 175th and 250th British Tunnel in companies.
[9:29] \[SPEAKER_00\]: There were also two Canadian Tunnel in companies referred to as Beavers, and one Australian Tunnel in Company called the Diggers.
[9:37] \[SPEAKER_00\]: I'm a little disappointed they weren't called the Wombats.
[9:40] \[SPEAKER_00\]: I can't lie.
[9:41] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Nevertheless, their target was the Messene Ridge.
[9:45] \[SPEAKER_00\]: It ran northern east of the town of Messene, known as Messen and Belgium.
[9:50] \[SPEAKER_00\]: At its highest, the ridge reached 264 feet above sea level, offering a position of immense strategic importance to the Germans, who were able to observe British positions from there.
[10:02] \[SPEAKER_00\]: By capturing the 10-mile-long ridge, the British could straighten their front line, allowing them to launch an attack towards Passen d'Indale, driving German forces further back.
[10:12] \[SPEAKER_00\]: but capturing the ridge wouldn't be easy.
[10:15] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The Germans had held it since November 1914 and had heavily fortified it to mow down any infantry attacks.
[10:22] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The only way to take it was by going underground.
[10:26] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And so in the early months of 1916 General Herbert Bloomberg gave the order for tunneling operations to be carried out under the Messing Ridge.
[10:35] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The plan was to dig 22 tunnels under German front lines.
[10:40] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Some of the tunnels would need to be more than 125 foot deep and extend more than 2,000 foot under their line, meaning it would take more than 6 months to dig out the entire network.
[10:52] \[SPEAKER_00\]: With an each tunnel, a mine would be planted and then later detonated.
[10:56] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Hopefully obliterating the German stronghold on the ridge.
[10:59] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The mass explosion would then be followed by an artillery bombardment and an infantry attack.
[11:05] \[SPEAKER_00\]: If the plan was successful, the British would take a giant step towards winning the war.
[11:10] \[SPEAKER_00\]: but to be victorious, the moles would have to avoid detection.
[11:14] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The only way to do that was by digging deeper than they'd ever done before.
[11:19] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And so that British use cylindrical steel tubes known as tubbing.
[11:23] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The tubbing was sunk through the infamous camel sands found below ground at flanders.
[11:28] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Now the camel sands were unstable terrain that acted like quixand.
[11:32] \[SPEAKER_00\]: If you were to tunnel through it, you'd be at an increased risk of flooding and cave ends.
[11:38] \[SPEAKER_00\]: But thanks to their steel topping, the moles, beavers and diggers were able to reach around 100 feet below ground, far beneath the camel's sands.
[11:46] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Here the earth was mostly made up of clay that perfect sediment for tunneling.
[11:51] \[SPEAKER_00\]: On a layer of the steel-tubbing technique, German forces struggled to find ways beneath the troublesome sands and tunnel as deep as the British.
[11:59] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Although it wasn't just advanced mining technology that helped them, while holding the machine ridge gave the Germans the observational advantage, the vantage point also meant that to tunnel to the depths of the British they had to dig much deeper.
[12:12] \[SPEAKER_00\]: But not only were British tunnels deeper the moles, beavers, and diggers also tunneled much quicker than the Germans.
[12:18] \[SPEAKER_00\]: In fact, Klaykicking made the British four times faster tunneling than the enemy, who were still using pickaxes.
[12:25] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Not only that, clay-kicking wasn't just fast, it was practically silent.
[12:29] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Unlike the constant thought of German Maddox chipping into the earth.
[12:33] \[SPEAKER_00\]: In the tunnel's silence was golden.
[12:36] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Listening devices such as geophones and seismo microphones were used by both sides to pick up on the slightest vibration.
[12:43] \[SPEAKER_00\]: One slip-up could lead to the enemy detecting their tunnel position.
[12:47] \[SPEAKER_00\]: If they were heard tunneling underground, they risk having their tunnels blown up by an underground
[12:54] \[SPEAKER_00\]: This wouldn't only waste months of excruciating work it could also entom the miners in the tunnel.
[13:01] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Working in constant silence without any music may be enough to drive you insane, but it was the least of the moles concerns.
[13:08] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Unsurprisingly, the tunnels were a claustrophobic nightmare.
[13:11] \[SPEAKER_00\]: They were extremely small to avoid detection not being much taller than fourth-foot-six inches, and even though the moles tended to be smaller than the typical soldier, it still wasn't possible for them to stand up straight.
[13:23] \[SPEAKER_00\]: As a result, they'd suffer horrendous back issues, and even if they decided to spare their back and resort it to crawling along the floor, their hands knees and nails will be coated and thick clay.
[13:34] \[SPEAKER_00\]: But that wasn't the only tool this work took on their bodies.
[13:38] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Playkicking relied on the power of the tunneler's legs over their slightly weaker arms, allowing them most to do more digging at last time.
[13:45] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Still, constantly digging out clay from the earth was exhausting.
[13:49] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Most of the time the clay kickers shared the burden, but even then they faced grueling eight-hour shifts.
[13:56] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Working up to 125 feet below ground also meant that there was no natural light in the tunnel.
[14:01] \[SPEAKER_00\]: When electricity insured supply on the front line, the moles had no option but to work by the faint flicker of candlelight.
[14:07] \[SPEAKER_00\]: But even worse than the lack of light was the flooding.
[14:11] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Digging below the water line, the tunnels were often flooded and without pumps the tunnelers had no other option.
[14:17] \[SPEAKER_00\]: to work neat, deep in the water.
[14:19] \[SPEAKER_00\]: A cold, damp and unsanitary conditions that the tunnelers feet were kept and meant that it didn't take long for the dreaded trench foot to set in.
[14:27] \[SPEAKER_00\]: So the constant exposure of these horrific conditions would destroy the blood vessels in the foot and soon after, blisters and open-source would develop putting the tunnelers at risk of fungal infections.
[14:39] \[SPEAKER_00\]: If left untreated for too long, suffering moles would need their feet and legs habitated to stop the infection spreading.
[14:46] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Herenduses that sounds, there was something they feared even more.
[14:51] \[SPEAKER_00\]: You see the Allied tunneling companies weren't the only ones looking to destroy the enemy from underneath.
[14:56] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The Germans also had their own miners charge with the mission of placing explosives under British front lines, or
[15:02] \[SPEAKER_00\]: even to sabotage the moles tunneling mission.
[15:05] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Underground mines known as camouflage were used not to blow up enemy trenches but to cause cave ends to the opposition's tunnels.
[15:13] \[SPEAKER_00\]: If they were unlucky enough to be caught out by an exploding camouflage, everyone in the tunnel would be swallowed by a sea of earth.
[15:20] \[SPEAKER_00\]: an equally harrowing concern for the moles was the risk of Germans breaking through to their tunnel.
[15:26] \[SPEAKER_00\]: If two tunnels met at any point, the miners would be faced with a hard-stopping side of the enemy, just feet away from them.
[15:33] \[SPEAKER_00\]: This would spark brutal and desperate medieval like face-to-face conflicts.
[15:38] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The tonalers would attack one another with anything they could get their hands on, shovels, pickaxes, knives, even fistfighting took place.
[15:46] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The bloody contest would only end when the enemy was dead, or the tunnel was purposefully collapsed.
[15:53] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Despite the interminable threat of the enemy, either belugining them to death or drowning them in earth, there was an even greater threat.
[16:01] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Carbon monoxide Homelessly called the silent killer carbon monoxide is a colorless tasteless, odorless gas that comes from the incomplete combustion of carbon, and it's incredibly poisonous.
[16:14] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Underground specifically after an explosive action, even firing a single bullet, carbon monoxide would dissipate into the air.
[16:23] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Obviously, the bigger the explosion, the more carbon monoxide would be released.
[16:27] \[SPEAKER_00\]: So when canoflets were detonated large amounts of carbon monoxide would fill the air.
[16:33] \[SPEAKER_00\]: With the tunnels being poorly ventilated, this meant that carbon monoxide could accumulate and spurred quickly.
[16:38] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Now the inhalation of carbon monoxide so merely reduces the amount of oxygen absorbed into the blood.
[16:45] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Even as little as 0.1% carbon monoxide in the air could be deadly.
[16:51] \[SPEAKER_00\]: A concentration of 0.2% causes loss of consciousness in around 25 minutes.
[16:58] \[SPEAKER_00\]: In more extreme cases, when the air is concentrated with over 1% carbon monoxide, it leads to unconsciousness after 2 to 3 breaths.
[17:07] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And death in less than 3 minutes.
[17:09] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Hauntingly, this deadly gas claimed the lives of many moles, but with an unknown number of toddlers still missing or undiscovered, it's difficult to know how many miners succumb to it.
[17:20] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Still, many historians believe it was this deadly gas, not the bullets or bombs or cave ends that was the greatest killer of the moles on the front line.
[17:29] \[SPEAKER_00\]: While carbon monoxide poisoning is believed to be a painless way to pass that didn't stop it from being terrifying, there reduced oxygen supply to the brain with lead to palpitations shortness of breath and even getting this.
[17:42] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Imagine the horror of being in a dark tunnel and seeing your friend will laugh themselves to oblivion.
[17:47] \[SPEAKER_00\]: with a knowledge that you'll be next.
[17:50] \[SPEAKER_00\]: However, have you ever heard of the phrase, Canary and a coal mine?
[17:54] \[SPEAKER_00\]: It originated from miners bringing Canary's down into coal mines with them.
[17:59] \[SPEAKER_00\]: They're more susceptible to the effects of the gas, so any change in their condition would alert the miners to the invisible gas, giving them precious time to evacuate.
[18:09] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The canary often known as the miners' friend would be kept in a cage by the tunnelers, though it wasn't just canaries that were used in this way.
[18:17] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Mice and rats were also used to identify the dangerous gas before the miners lost consciousness.
[18:23] \[SPEAKER_00\]: If the rodent passed out or the canary fell off its merch, the men knew that they needed to evacuate and fast.
[18:30] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Animals weren't their only savers, however.
[18:32] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The proto man also came to the rescue to any tumblers and danger of gas poisoning.
[18:37] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Despite the name and the get-up, the proto man wasn't a World War I superhero.
[18:42] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The title comes from the special breathing equipment caught proto apparatus used by those sent underground on rescue missions.
[18:49] \[SPEAKER_00\]: It pinched their noses closed and fixed a flow of oxygen from cylinders to a mouthpiece by a harness set of tubing.
[18:57] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Experience Proto Man could last underground for up to two hours searching for any fallen comrades.
[19:02] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Good as their intentions were I can't imagine the horror of passing out in the tunnel and opening your eyes to the set of a Proto Man.
[19:09] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Unsurprisingly, the constant anxiety of tunnel life pushed many balls to breaking point.
[19:15] \[SPEAKER_00\]: For this reason, Alka Hall played an important part in their daily lives.
[19:19] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Well, that may have helped the tunnlers use their anxiety.
[19:22] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Drinking at war was a big no-no for commanding officers.
[19:27] \[SPEAKER_00\]: One clay kicker named Charles Williams was sentenced to 21 days feel punishment number one, but drunkenness in February 1917.
[19:34] \[SPEAKER_00\]: As a result, Williams was tied up to a fixed object like the wheel of a car or a pole for up to two hours per day.
[19:42] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And total he would have been tied up for over 40 hours.
[19:46] \[SPEAKER_00\]: While getting drunk in an active war zone definitely doesn't sound like the smartest idea, you'd think that the commanding officers would have been slightly more sympathetic to the most blind, considering the hellish conditions they were working in.
[19:59] \[SPEAKER_00\]: That said, why would they take up such a terrible job in the first place?
[20:03] \[SPEAKER_00\]: I mean, love of king and country will only get you so far.
[20:06] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Well, clay kickers could earn as much as 6 shillings a day, equivalent to around $22 today, a decent wage for workmen at the time.
[20:15] \[SPEAKER_00\]: By comparison, inventory men in the trenches pocket had just 1 shilling in 3 pence, merely marking what would be a $5 bill today.
[20:24] \[SPEAKER_00\]: At Asperity and Wages, unsurprisingly, led to Anna Mossidy between Amphrine Tremend and the Moles.
[20:30] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Those in the trenches even made songs mocking the Tunnelers for stealing a living.
[20:34] \[SPEAKER_00\]: But I'm willing to bet that they wouldn't have said that if any of them had spent a few hours in the Moles' cold, glossedrophobic, very damn shoes.
[20:44] \[SPEAKER_00\]: In June 1917, mere days before the explosion was planned that Moles' all reached their final positions.
[20:54] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Amazingly, only one of the tunnels was discovered and destroyed by the Germans.
[20:58] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Work then began transporting the mines to their final locations and the remaining undiscovered tunnels were collectively charged with mines.
[21:06] \[SPEAKER_00\]: It didn't use 10 tons or 20 tons or even 50 tons, but around a 500 tons of explosives.
[21:13] \[SPEAKER_00\]: For a little perspective, that's roughly the same way
[21:20] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Now, I'm no TNT expert, but even I know that's enough to make one bloody big boom.
[21:25] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Hours before the attack, General Charles Harrington briefed the press and delivered the chilling words.
[21:31] \[SPEAKER_00\]: I do not know whether or not we shall change history tomorrow, but we shall certainly alter geography.
[21:38] \[SPEAKER_00\]: his remark would soon ring true.
[21:40] \[SPEAKER_00\]: In the early hours of June 7, 1917, the last mine was primed and ready.
[21:46] \[SPEAKER_00\]: All it was left to do was to detonate the charges.
[21:49] \[SPEAKER_00\]: British artillery stopped firing minutes before the blasts as they waited for the other worldly offensive to begin.
[21:55] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The deafening noise of constant artillery fire and chilling stop and an airy silence filled the battlefield.
[22:02] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Then at the Re-17 AM, the silence was shattered.
[22:06] \[SPEAKER_00\]: 19 of the mines underneath the ridge exploded within 20 seconds of each other.
[22:11] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The eruption was monstrous.
[22:14] \[SPEAKER_00\]: According to witnesses, the bodies of German soldiers were flung into the air like ragdaws, huge tongues of flames shut out of the earth, and the ground shook for rociously.
[22:25] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Many historians believe that the eruption killed around 10,000 German soldiers
[22:36] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Strangers it sounds the German soldiers who perished were the lucky ones.
[22:41] \[SPEAKER_00\]: If being blasted into the air and suffering a bone-shattering fall wasn't enough, the masses of Earth that rained down afterwards smothered many where they lay.
[22:50] \[SPEAKER_00\]: The simultaneous explosion shook the earth for 19 seconds and were so violent that geologist at Lyle University 12 miles away mistook the tremors for an actual earthquake.
[23:06] \[SPEAKER_00\]: That's 480 miles from the blast site, reported hearing the boom of the eruption.
[23:12] \[SPEAKER_00\]: It's difficult to truly determine the power of the blast, but it's believed that this was the largest man-made explosion at that point in history.
[23:21] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And it remained that way until the 1945 Trinity Atomic weapon test.
[23:25] \[SPEAKER_00\]: aka the world's very first nuke.
[23:28] \[SPEAKER_00\]: As right, it literally took a nuclear explosion to surprise it.
[23:33] \[SPEAKER_00\]: With most German soldiers either slain or concussed from the explosion, allied troops swept through the translines and reached the ridge in less than a day.
[23:41] \[SPEAKER_00\]: For the next seven days British forces continued to push forward, taking territory and repelling German counterattacks.
[23:48] \[SPEAKER_00\]: By the end of the battle, German troop casualties were thought to be 25,000, with 10,000 of those occurring during the mine explosions.
[23:57] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Undeniably, the work of the malls who tunneled under the Messene Ridge helped change the course of the war.
[24:02] \[SPEAKER_00\]: British captain Grant Greve claimed that never in the history of warfare has the minor plates such a vital part in a battle.
[24:09] \[SPEAKER_00\]: While Herman von Kuhl, a senior German army commander called the Messene attack, one of the worst German tragedies of the war.
[24:16] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Even long after the war, the impact of the Moles' work was felt.
[24:20] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Their veiled creed, the German official history of the war published in 1939, placed the machine-rich explosion second in a list of reasons for the German defeat.
[24:31] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And say that's a pretty large impact for a group of miners and sewer workers to make.
[24:35] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Back home, these moles might have been looked down upon, but after that, they were considered some of the most valued troops on the Western Front.
[24:43] \[SPEAKER_00\]: It just goes to show sometimes the biggest heroes can come from the most unexpected places.
[24:49] \[SPEAKER_00\]: What part of this story shocked you the most?
[24:52] \[SPEAKER_00\]: And do you know of any other little-known warrior heroes that deserve to have their praises song?
[24:57] \[SPEAKER_00\]: Thanks for listening.

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