Battle of The Lys, 09 April 1918
"After dark there was placed in the line of the flank, where it bent towards Erquinghem, a tiny detachment of the 3rd Australian Tunnelling Company, forty in all, who had being doing special duty near Armentières, with Neil Campbell in charge.* Alarmed at their billets at Pont de Nieppe by a previously silent British battery firing directly rearwoods over their heads, the tunnellers had reported to the 34th Division for orders, and by order and counter-order, had been marched for miles, forward and backward, from one of its brigade headquarters to another, until after dark they reached a position to which they had first been hurried. They were allocated to a scratch battalions of cooks, batmen, and various detachments, commanded by a Major Jackson ** (himself a South Australian serving in the British Army), and known as 'X' Battalion. The tunnellers posted a line of sentries and kept guard for the night.
* Footnote 1: "Lieut N. Campbell, 3rd Tunnelling Coy. Mining Engineer; of Blackwood, S. Aust., b. Adelaide, 11 Sept 1882. Killed in action, 10 April, 1918"
** Footnote 2:"The records of this fighting are scarce, and further particulars are not yet available'."
The Australian Imperial Force in France during the Main German Offensive, 1918 (8th edition, 1941) Volume V – p. 427
Near Bethune, France, 1917 - Third Australian Tunnelling Company Officers at the Company's Headquarters at Noeux Les Mines, Pas De Calais, France.
Included in the photo are:
Maj. Sanderson MC DSO; Lt. West; Lt. Dow & Lt. Campbell
Original photo kindly provided by Robin Sanderson, grandson of Maj. Sanderson
"The tunnellers helped to defend Armentieres from the south. Lieutenant Campbell was placed in charge of a company of a scratch battalion, and was killed in the confused fighting on this front before the order was given to evacuate the town. The detachment of tunnellers under Lieutenant J. Dow continued to fight as infantry throughout the next few critical weeks when the Germans threatened to capture the important railway town of Hazebrouck the loss of which would have forced the retirement of much of the Allied army in Flanders"
The Royal Australian Engineers 1902-1919 - Making and Breaking
The 2nd volume of the history of the Royal Australian Engineers by Maj.Gen. R.R. McNicoll, C.B.E.' with the kind permission of Royal Australian Engineers Head of Corps
