Book Description

Simon Jones's graphic history of underground warfare during the Great War uses personal reminiscences to convey the danger and suspense of this unconventional form of conflict. He describes how the underground soldiers of the opposing armies engaged in a ruthless fight for supremacy, covers the tunneling methods they employed, and shows the increasingly lethal tactics they developed during the war in which military mining reached its apotheosis. He concentrates on the struggle for ascendancy by the British tunneling companies on the Western Front. But his wide ranging study also tells the story of the little known but fascinating subterranean battles fought in the French sectors of the Western Front and between the Austrians and the Italians in the Alps which have never been described before in English. Vivid personal testimony is combined with a lucid account of the technical challenges - and ever-present perils - of tunneling in order to give an all-round insight into the extraordinary experience of this underground war. AUTHOR: Simon Jones is a military historian and battlefield tour guide who specializes in the First World War. He has made a particular study of gas warfare and tunneling. Previously he was exhibitions officer at the Royal Engineers Museum and curator of the King's Regiment Museum. His publications include World War I Gas Warfare Tactics and Equipment as well as articles in Military Illustrated, the Imperial War Museum Review and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. He is currently working on a book on tunneling on the Somme. SELLING POINTS: * Reassesses the impact of underground warfare on the course of the Great War * Uses vivid eyewitness accounts to recreate the experience of underground warfare * Traces the development of tunneling and mining techniques * Looks at the subterranean tactics practiced by the British, Germans, French, Austrians, Italians * Sets Great War tunneling in the longer context of military history ILLUSTRATIONS 15/20 photogrpahs *