This definitive history of Tunnellers and mining operations on the Western Front in World War I tells the fascinating and unknown story in a detailed but accessible way. - In 1914 the British Army was gloriously unprepared; it took an Imperial adventurer, businessman and Conservative MP, one Norton Griffiths, better known as Empire Jack, to convince the military authorities that not only was mining a possibility in the Flanders mud, but that without a mining organization the army would soon be underrun by the Germans. Norton Griffiths got his way and soon proved he was right. - There were over 20,000 men on each side, British and German, actively engaged in attempting to blow the enemy out of his trenches. - There were miles and miles of tunnels under the muddy battlefields of France and Flanders, some with chambers as large as decent sized rooms, filled with explosives. - Small charges were laid to bring down the enemy's tunnel on his head - sometimes tunnels met and there was hand-to-hand fighting and firing in the dark and confined space 100 feet below ground. - Painstakingly researched from many interviews with veteran tunnelers and official records. The author lives in London.