A Memorial Was unveiled in Waihi to honour the men of The New Zealand Tunnelling Company who were sent to the Western Front in World War 1, to dig under enemy trenches and destroy them It was a secret underground war that received very little public recognition during and after World War 1
About 1300 men , mainly miners and engineers, served in the Tunnelling Company, which was part of the New Zealand Division. At least 62 were killed.
The war of the Western Front quickly reached a stalemate, so the idea of burrowing under enemy lines and surprising those above quickly took off.
The Germans thought of it first, but the Allies quickly cottoned-on and put a call out for tunnellers from the Empire - and New Zealand responded.
Most of the men came from mining area such as the West Coast, Nightcaps, Huntly and Waihi.
Military historian Chris Pugsley said the men were a rugged bunch who didn’t take too kindly to army discipline.
“These guys were good at their job but not particularly good at drill and soldiering and the NCOs that were trying to train them were tearing their hair out.
AN UNDERGROUND CITY
The tunnellers were the first New Zealand’s to serve in France, arriving there before the New Zealand Division.
They worked mainly around the city of Arras and were able to expand existing underground 16th century limestone quarries and tunnel out towards the German front lines.
They connected these quarries with drives and shafts and developed an underground city which was capable of taking thousands and thousands of soldiers, and they put in light-railway and electric light and were city managers for this enormous complex.
The tunnels showed their worth on 9 April 1917 at the Battle of Arras. Suddenly all these soldiers who were living underestimated taken by train through to the front line, where the New Zealand tunnellers blew holes so they could get to the surface and take part in the attack.”
TUNNELLERS ‘DIED JUST LIKE ANYONE ELSE.”
The tunnellers spent more time on the front line than most soldiers.
They spent years on the front line without being rotated off and it was often regarded that they were non-combatants and that just was not true.
Tunnellers died just like anyone else and they were fighting just like anyone else, and what that meant was people regarded non-combatants as not quite as interesting as the daring and the huge feats of bravery that were being reported from the trenches and from other areas.
They left New Zealand after the first flush of men headed away and they arrived home much later because , as sappers or Engineers who also looked after the roads and bridges, they didn’t get home until April 1919.
By this time , everybody had forgotten the war and were keen to get on with life - and so , when the tunnellers arrived home, people were look to the future.
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The memorial includes a metal sculpture, by Nick Brumder from Waihi Melal Studios, featuring a T -the universal symbol for tunnellers. It’s a radical reinterpretation of the shape of the T, which also takes in a cross, cupped hands holding a globe, symbolising the fact tunnellers came from all over the world. So what we now have is a fascinating memorial that takes as its primary shape a T-shape but then from there it really has become whatever people think it is.
TO LOG THIS CACHE YOU NEED TO :
1. Visit the posted co-ordinates.
2. Take a photo of the cross or wall, or both and include in it proof of your visit, Eg yourself, GPS, or something of Geocaching origin. Include this photo with your log post.
3. Email or message me with the answers for who built the wall, the brick layer (Look, hard to find but name is there),, and also who donated the two seats in front of the memorial,
4. You can post your log immediately, but if you provide the wrong answers I may remove your posts and seek clarification to ensure you have actually visited the memorial.
5. Enjoy your visit.
Virtual Rewards 2.0 - 2019/2020
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between June 4, 2019 and June 4, 2020. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 2.0 on the Geocaching Blog.