Ceremony will remember Hill 60’ s tunnel Diggers
FIVE Charters Towers tunnellers who fought in the infamous Battle of Messines in 1917 will be remembered this Saturday.
The occasion, hosted by the 31st Infantry Battalion Association Charters Towers Branch, will mark the centenary of the battle that saw Allied forces claim the strategically important Messines- Wyschaete Ridge from the German army.
For more than a year prior to the battle, Allied miners ( pictured as depicted in the film Beneath Hill 60) had engaged in subterranean warfare, digging a vast tunnel system under the German front line.
The Allies packed these tunnels with a high quantity of explosives, with the Australian effort focused on Hill 60.
At 3.10am on June 7, the mines were detonated, annihilating the enemy line and killing around 10,000 German troops.
Among the tunnellers were Charters Towers Sappers William Henry Hall, Andrew Hooper, John Roderick Carrington, John Henry Ford and Hedley James Williams.
The five returned from their war service and are buried Cemetery.
Association secretary Victor Nicol said the efforts made by Australian miners should not be forgotten.
“What happened on June 7 actually shortened the duration of the war. It could have gone on a lot further,” Mr Nicol said.
“These guys, the tunnellers, were actually sort of frowned on because 100 years ago that wasn’t a way to fight a war, you were expected to stand and fight in the open.
“It was a race for them, because the Germans were doing the exact same thing.”
Mr Nicol said he expected to see 60 association members in attendance, with people travelling from Bowen, Ayr, Townsville and Ingham for the day.
“The association has gone to a lot of work to bring this all together in memory of those men,” Mr Nicol said.
After the lunch, a service will be held at the Charters Towers Cemetery with wreaths to be laid upon the graves of five local tunnellers involved in the effort.
While the lunch will be for association members only, the public is invited to attend the cemetery service from 2pm. at the Charters Towers