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Beneath Flanders Fields : The War Underground 1914-1918
The tunnellers war still remains one of the most misrepresented and mystifying conflicts of the great war.
The product of over 25 yrs research, the evolution of military mining, leading to its deployment in the greatest seige in military history - in the trenches of the western front.
In the Ypres Salient, the secret struggle beneath no man's land became one of engineering technology and science - and of carefully calculated assassination.
The product of over 25 yrs research, the evolution of military mining, leading to its deployment in the greatest seige in military history - in the trenches of the western front.
In the Ypres Salient, the secret struggle beneath no man's land became one of engineering technology and science - and of carefully calculated assassination.
- GenresWorld War INonfiction
320 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2003
4 people are currently reading
136 people want to read
About the author
Peter Barton (I)
13 books11 followersPeter Barton is a historian, archaeologist and film-maker. He authored The Battlefields of the First World War after researching the forgotten Imperial War Museum panorama archive for eight years. His other books include The Somme, and Passchendaele.
He continues to lead an ongoing project to recover, interpret and publish all surviving battlefield panoramas - widely regarded as the 'missing link' for our full understanding of the First World War. He has since uncovered several equivalent unseen collections of panoramas in German archives, included here.
Barton has also led several major excavations on the Western Front, and produced the critically acclaimed documentary films The Underground War, The Soldiers' Pilgrimage and Conviction. He is co-secretary of the All Party Parliamentary War Graves and Battlefields Heritage Group.
He continues to lead an ongoing project to recover, interpret and publish all surviving battlefield panoramas - widely regarded as the 'missing link' for our full understanding of the First World War. He has since uncovered several equivalent unseen collections of panoramas in German archives, included here.
Barton has also led several major excavations on the Western Front, and produced the critically acclaimed documentary films The Underground War, The Soldiers' Pilgrimage and Conviction. He is co-secretary of the All Party Parliamentary War Graves and Battlefields Heritage Group.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 27, 2015
A superb book. Very informative and relays great detail of the tunnels and work carried out by the Royal engineers.
April 22, 2022
Enjoyment - 4/5 stars. Information - 5/5. Overall - 4.5/5
I really liked it. Very in-depth. Has a lot of info on all the aspects of tunnel warfare on the Western Front in WW1. Looks very well sourced. There are chapters on pre-WWI tunnel warfare like in medieval times or the American Civil War, prewar training for mining by military engineers and on things like the geology of Flanders. There is also a lot on the specifics of mining and countermining and on the specific dangers in the tunnels (encountering the enemy but also natural things like carbon monoxide). The book also has more chronological chapters covering that cover particular years and the big mining events. The German side is also discussed in pretty good detail, not just the British and Dominion miners. All through the book personal accounts are used pretty well, mostly British and Dominion but also some German.
There are a lot of pretty high quality photographs, diagrams of mines and dugouts should be made (some from the time, some made as examples) and also some geological cross sections.
I got the book for rather cheap so maybe I liked it more because of that. Online it seems to be a lot more expensive so I would only recomend it if you are specifically interested in WWI tunnel warfare, not as a random read.
I really liked it. Very in-depth. Has a lot of info on all the aspects of tunnel warfare on the Western Front in WW1. Looks very well sourced. There are chapters on pre-WWI tunnel warfare like in medieval times or the American Civil War, prewar training for mining by military engineers and on things like the geology of Flanders. There is also a lot on the specifics of mining and countermining and on the specific dangers in the tunnels (encountering the enemy but also natural things like carbon monoxide). The book also has more chronological chapters covering that cover particular years and the big mining events. The German side is also discussed in pretty good detail, not just the British and Dominion miners. All through the book personal accounts are used pretty well, mostly British and Dominion but also some German.
There are a lot of pretty high quality photographs, diagrams of mines and dugouts should be made (some from the time, some made as examples) and also some geological cross sections.
I got the book for rather cheap so maybe I liked it more because of that. Online it seems to be a lot more expensive so I would only recomend it if you are specifically interested in WWI tunnel warfare, not as a random read.
September 17, 2020
There's an old Pogues song, from the days when Shane McGowan had most of his teeth and much of his wits, called Down in the Ground where the Dead Men Go. The chorus runs, with Spider Stacey bashing an empty beer tray on his head for percussion, "I don't want to go down in the ground where the dead men go."
That was exactly where these men did go during the First World War, fighting a silent battle beneath the ground that remains virtually unknown to this day yet, eerily, remains still largely untouched beneath the fields of Flanders where above ground the scars of the war have disappeared beneath the plough.
This was a silent war, a dark war, a secret war, of tunnellers digging in absolute quiet under enemy lines to lay mines there, sending up volcanoes of earth and rock and bodies when they blew. For the troops, sheltering in trenches from the shells and artillery from above, to have the earth below erupt and swallow them was particularly demoralising.
Peter Barton and his co-authors do an extraordinary job of bringing this forgotten theatre of the War back to life, mingling first-hand reports and memoirs with broader history and recent archaeology, much of it their own. It was one theatre of the war where the British gained complete mastery, outengineering the Germans, and this underground dominance played a large part in the British victories of 1917.
A superb history of a largely unknown aspect of the war.
That was exactly where these men did go during the First World War, fighting a silent battle beneath the ground that remains virtually unknown to this day yet, eerily, remains still largely untouched beneath the fields of Flanders where above ground the scars of the war have disappeared beneath the plough.
This was a silent war, a dark war, a secret war, of tunnellers digging in absolute quiet under enemy lines to lay mines there, sending up volcanoes of earth and rock and bodies when they blew. For the troops, sheltering in trenches from the shells and artillery from above, to have the earth below erupt and swallow them was particularly demoralising.
Peter Barton and his co-authors do an extraordinary job of bringing this forgotten theatre of the War back to life, mingling first-hand reports and memoirs with broader history and recent archaeology, much of it their own. It was one theatre of the war where the British gained complete mastery, outengineering the Germans, and this underground dominance played a large part in the British victories of 1917.
A superb history of a largely unknown aspect of the war.
May 3, 2024
Found this book in the sources of a Wikipedia page that I searched for after reading an interesting news article about craters in Flanders. If you are reading this you likely know how these rabbit holes open.
I highly rate this book. But not for every reader. It’s somewhat like reading a textbook for a college course on subterranean warfare. I don’t mean this disparagingly. I simply mean that you can’t jump ahead to chapter IX and expect to find a page turner. You gotta start at the beginning and learn all the terms and stuff.
Very well researched. Amazing first person anecdotes just peppered all throughout. The drawings and maps are frickin’ great to pore over.
I didn’t order this book as someone with a huge interest in WWI or WWI Mine Warfare. I’m just a history buff that enjoys reading different takes on well covered subjects. This book fits the bill exceptionally.
-Not a quick read (In a good way).
-Fairly technical (In a marvelous way).
-Makes me glad my time in combat was above ground (before drones).
I highly rate this book. But not for every reader. It’s somewhat like reading a textbook for a college course on subterranean warfare. I don’t mean this disparagingly. I simply mean that you can’t jump ahead to chapter IX and expect to find a page turner. You gotta start at the beginning and learn all the terms and stuff.
Very well researched. Amazing first person anecdotes just peppered all throughout. The drawings and maps are frickin’ great to pore over.
I didn’t order this book as someone with a huge interest in WWI or WWI Mine Warfare. I’m just a history buff that enjoys reading different takes on well covered subjects. This book fits the bill exceptionally.
-Not a quick read (In a good way).
-Fairly technical (In a marvelous way).
-Makes me glad my time in combat was above ground (before drones).
Read
May 16, 2013An excellent insight into a period of history previously unknown in such depth the photographs are superb a thoroughly good read
Read
August 8, 2009Very interesting and informative but to be completely honest, I didn't read it cover to cover.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews