Alex Griffin

Mrs. Jizi
UWRIT 1103-013
30 November 2015
EIP Essay
The Somme: Secret Tunnel Wars is a documentary that goes underground to look at and
explain the different sets of tunnels that where left behind after the first great war. These Tunnels
are untouched and it is the first time in almost one hundred years that any of these tunnels have
seen a human being. These sites that were being explored had been reinforced with new
technologies but everything else about the tunnels was kept as untouched as possible.
This Article asks the exact same question that I have been asking myself during this
project. Was the Tunnellers secret war the most barbaric of WW1? The Article breaks down
the terrors of working in the tunnels at the Battle of the Somme. Using images to paint a picture
of the battle feild the article sheds light on the war beneith the war. The article fails to answer
the original question but allows the reader to vote on if they would prefer the trenches above or
the tunnels below.
The images on this article were able to paint a picture of the battle feild that I failed to
grasp from the documentory. It is one thing to see the tunnels on camera but when it is viewed
form that perspective it is impossible to fathom the deapths that these men were working at. It
also shed some light on the topic of how every sound the Allied tunnelers made determined if
the Germans would hear them and ambush them or if the Allied forces would hear the Germans
first and set a simular trap. This death by sound philosophy must have put a lot of pressure on
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the tunnelers or Clay Kickers as they were called by the Allies. This pressure to keep each
other alive would cause even the greatest soldiers to crumble under the pressure.
Inside the Real Birdsong Tunnels: Never before seen Images on the Mines Dug by British
clay-kickers under German Lines in First World War allows the reader to view artifacts that
were left behind by the Allied Tunnelers. The Article lists and discusses the object that were
found as well as shows the conditions that the tunnels were in before excavation had started.
Researchers were able to uncover Bottles, digging instruments as well as shoes all caked in mud
and left behind. The article also included pictures from 1915 showing how tunnelers created a
bore-hole from a new secondary tunnel.
This article allowed me to think about how cramped the men must have been down in the
tunnels. Seeing the proportions of the men to the size of the tunnels I think I would have made
me claustrophobic. The excavation of these artifacts including poetry carved onto rocks could
help people understand and have a better respect for the men that waged war underneath the
trenches above.
This article allows the reader to see how medicine, especially psychiatric medicine, advanced
because of World War One as well as describes other advances made during times of conflict. It
allows the reader to start to understand the symptoms that soldiers were coming home with and
describes the differences between shell shock and PTSD. It also showed how economic crisis
in different regions put a halt to research because money was scarce and couldnt be spent on
self-improvement.
I really enjoyed reading this article because it not only contained great information but its
use of quotes and statistics really made me sympathize with the soldiers returning from war.
This article will allow me to start to comprehend and then compare the minds of tunnelers

against the minds of the men who fought in the trenches. I am starting to understand that each
scenario had its dangers and both were full of horrors that pushed every soldier to their breaking
point.

One article described what was in the3 heads of men who were actually underground in
the barracks that were built 50ft underneath the Western front. This article offered little writing
done by the author of the article and used the words of veterans. They described the sounds,
sites, and smells of these underground towns and commented on the people who surrounded
them as well as the spacing between men. The soldiers outlook on life was not to worry about
the future or the past and just do what youre told. They talk as if their lives dont cary any
worth because most men had already excepted that they were going to die on the Western Front.
This outlook on life caused me to believe that these soldiers were mentally shutting down
and becoming drones for use against the Germans. This article really helped me to almost have a
conversation with someone who was there and witnessed the horrors that the tunnels had to offer.
Including the death of one man and the injury of another because of friendly fire whilst a soldier
was cleaning his weapon. I am ecstatic that I found this article and now have enough
information to speak knowledgeably on the topic of trench warfare and its effects on the brain.