
The sewer men who changed the war - jackgavigan
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-36685270
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dba7dba
Tunneling in war was first done centuries before WW1. First known incident is
from Roman times.

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azernik
And even doing it with explosives in trench warfare wasn't new.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Crater](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Crater)

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dalke
Which is likely why the article says "an attempt to master the art of mining
_and reinvent it for the age of the machine gun._ " Italics mine.

The need to master mining in the first place is because "in the belief that
siege warfare tactics like this were a thing of the past, the Royal Engineers
had wound down their military mining section."

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csense
Would tunnelling robots make military sense in the 21st century?

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Viper007Bond
No. We have airplanes now, with precision guided bombs including bunker
busters.

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toomuchtodo
You can deny aircraft from an area. A TBM dragging a thermonuclear weapon
might be a bit tougher to guard against.

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Viper007Bond
With modern seismic detection devices, you'd be able to detect that from great
distances. Not to mention those dig very slowly.

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Aelinsaar
I just imagine that this was the dream of hundreds or maybe thousands of years
of sappers, carried out by 18 men.

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pacaro
This clearly inspired the early part of "The Proof House" by K J Parker (part
3 of The Fencer Trilogy)

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robterrell
The BBC show "Peaky Blinders" includes flashbacks to fighting in the tunnels
at the Somme.

