Tunnel warfare
Tunnels can be used to undermine fortifications and slip into enemy territory for a surprise attack, while it can strengthen a defense by creating the possibility of ambush, counterattack and the ability to transfer troops from one portion of the battleground to another unseen and protected.
A major change took place in the art of tunnel warfare in the 15th century in Italy with the development of gunpowder, since its use reduced the effort required to undermine a wall while also increasing lethality.
The Austrian general of Italian origin Raimondo Montecuccoli (1609–1680) in his classic work on military affairs described methods of destruction and countering of enemy saps.
In his paper on "the assaulting of fortresses" Vauban (1633–1707) the creator of the French School of Fortification gave a theory of mine attack and how to calculate various saps and the amount of gunpowder needed for explosions.
After a series of explosions caused by counter mine action the allies increased the depth of the tunnels but began to meet rocky ground and the underground war had to return to higher levels.
In 1864, during the Siege of Petersburg by the Union Army of the Potomac, a mine made of 3,600 kilograms (8,000 lb) of gunpowder was set off approximately 6 metres (20 ft) under Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside's IX Corps sector.
During the Siege of Vicksburg, in 1863, Union troops led by General Ulysses S. Grant tunnelled under the Confederate trenches and detonated a mine beneath the 3rd Louisiana Redan on June 25, 1863.
The subsequent assault, led by General John A. Logan, gained a foothold in the Confederate trenches where the crater was formed, but the attackers were eventually forced to withdraw.
The increased firepower that came with the use of smokeless powder, cordite and dynamite by the end of the 19th century made it very expensive to build above-ground fortifications that could withstand any attack.
In order to protect their soldiers from enemy fire and the hostile alpine environment, both Austro-Hungarian and Italian military engineers constructed fighting tunnels which offered a degree of cover and allowed better logistics support.
In addition to building underground shelters and covered supply routes for their soldiers, both sides also attempted to break the stalemate of trench warfare by tunneling under no man's land and placing explosive charges beneath the enemy's positions.
[10] The last mine fired by the British in World War I was near Givenchy on 10 August 1917,[11] after which the tunnelling companies of the Royal Engineers concentrated on constructing deep dugouts for troop accommodation.
During the Battle of Corregidor, the third lateral on the north side from the Malinta Tunnel's east entrance served as the headquarters of General Douglas MacArthur and the USAFFE.
At the vicinity of the tunnel's west entrance in the afternoon of 30 December 1941, Manuel L. Quezon and Sergio Osmeña took their oaths of office as President and Vice-president of the Philippine Commonwealth in simple ceremonies attended by members of the garrison.
When US forces reached the ground in the area of the tunnels, chosen North Korean units would emerge to engage in hand-to-hand combat, taking advantage of their numerical superiority.
According to later prisoner of war interrogations, Chinese officers had killed a number of their own soldiers in the tunnels, because the latter had wished to dig their way out and surrender to the United Nations Command.
After the French army left (they were defeated at Dien Bien Phu) the tunnels were maintained to prepare for a possible war with South Vietnam would start.
The tunnel system contained a complete world below ground, featuring kitchens, hospitals, workshops, sleeping areas, communications, ammunition storage, and even forms of entertainment.
[citation needed] During the Palestinian insurgency in South Lebanon in the 1970s, PLO leader Yasser Arafat instructed his top military commander Khalil al-Wazir (Abu Jihad) to construct a network of underground bunkers and tunnels under Beirut and the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp to defend against a possible Israeli invasion.
Wazir, who had previously travelled to China, Vietnam and North Korea, based this system on the Viet Cong's model, hiding huge quantities of military supplies and linking Beirut with the PLO's strongholds in Southern Lebanon.
The Palestinian defence at Ein El Hilweh and other refugee camps was based on hand-carried anti-tank weapons such as the RPG (Rocket propelled grenade).
The built-up area inhibited long-range weapons, created an equality between the tank and the RPG (often wielded by 13- or 14-year-old boys), and increased the number of Israeli casualties.
The method adopted by the army was to use loud-speakers to call upon the civilian population to move away, search the houses one by one, surround points of remaining active resistance and subdue them by overwhelming fire.
The base was equipped with an extensive tunnel network constructed by al-Qaeda's military chief Mohammed Atef, later one of the masterminds of the September 11 attacks.
In the end, the Mujahideen successfully held their complex system of tunnels and caves named al-Masada just outside the village of Jaji, near the Pakistani border, from Soviet capture.
[43] Due to the prevalence of bunker-busting munitions and combined arms maneuver warfare there has been a simple lack of need for such operations since the mid 20th century, making tunneling extremely rare outside of insurgencies (which often cannot use either of the former).
[44][45] In July 2006, a group of Hezbollah operatives crossed from southern Lebanon into northern Israel killing three Israeli soldiers and abducting two, which started the Lebanese-Israeli war.
[47][48] The underground network included twenty-five kilometer tunnels, bunkers, fiber optics communication systems, and storerooms to hold missiles and ammunition.
[54] A 2024 Royal United Services Institute report details Hamas's use of two types of tunnels: deep, well-equipped ones for high-ranking commanders and shallower ones for lower-level members.
Initially, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) planned to secure territory before searching for tunnels, but this strategy allowed Hamas to launch ambushes from underground.
