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WW1 practice mining tunnel

tigbrand

tigbrand

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
Quite often you hear a rumour about something and its just that. This turned out to be true! The area west of Salisbury was a massive training area in ww1,with a lot of Australians in particular. The pics show a tunnel that was built by soldiers practicing for mining operations on the western front,it took some finding as its hidden in deep undergrowth in the middle of no where. The modern frontage prevents entry and i have no idea of its purpose?(bats?),the tunnel was originally unlined as its through chalk.You can see daylight at the far end(not in the pic though!). I wonder if any of the lads who made it survived? Cheers Tig
 
Yes Pete, a couple miles west of Fovant.BTW tunnels is plural,so that means there are more! do you have any details on who dug them etc? Cheers Tony.
 
No i don't, but i used to spend some time in that area when i was younger and knew there were tunnels.

Pete
 
Its a small world Pete! Heres another tunnel i found,i think its the escape tunnel for an auxillary hide,got scratched and stung looking for the main entrance,but no luck.The hill in West Dorset where this is to has a commanding view over the main A35 trunk road. Found this by accident.Tig:xd:
 
Good find, from what i remember there was a bunker out near Tisbury, i'll see if anyone remembers exactly where.

Pete
 
Cheers Pete,RAF Chilmark was near Tisbury,a massive underground ordnance store,perhaps thats what you are thinking of? Btw,did you get involved in any CW clearance around Porton/Gomeldon There was a big thing a few years ago about fields in the area being littered with chemical stokes etc.This was on land NOT owned by the MOD and was in the news for a while. I remember it as the anticipated cost of clearance was phenominal! Cheers Tig.
 
Could be part of RAF Chilmark, i was there a number of years ago to look at some items that had been recovered. They took us down into the tunnels for a look around, but the levels of Radon gas are so high, we could only stay in there for 15 minutes. Very interesting though.

The clearance you refer to was Operation Abbott, conducted at an area of Winterbourne Gunner and Gomeldon about 12 years ago.
This was part of a former test range for mortars adjacent to Porton Down. I was part of the team that X-rayed and evaluated the recovered items and then carried out the final destruction.
The really interesting part of this job was the huge amount of experimental mortars recovered, lots of variants of the Stokes and Newton mortars as well as all the different Mks of the 9.45" trench mortars.

Pete
 
Most of Chilmark is derelict now,some tunnels are accessable i believe. I am glad my memory serves me right,i knew a chap from Gomeldon so have been there a few times and was sure the area was related to Porton down. i went to Porton Down itself through work years ago,the immediate area around the site is a bit dodgy too,probably the reason the mod farm the immediate area themselves! I dont suppose you have any pics of items recovered from op abbott?? If info is still sensitive then not to worry. some of your post on CW weapons in the past have been very interesting. Thanks Tig.
 
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