War Underground
A History of Military Mining in Siege Warfare
Published on 28. February 2025
Book
Hardback
392 pages
978-0-7006-3841-3 (ISBN)
Description
Renowned military historian Earl Hess offers the first book dedicated to the history of underground tactics and strategy in warfare from antiquity to the present.
From as early as ancient Greek, Roman, and Chinese warfare to the battles of World War I, military mining was an essential component of siege warfare. Armies have tunneled underneath castle walls, dug trenches across no-man's-land, and engineered confusing defensive countermines. These tactics for assaulting enemy fortifications and positions by creating underground access have adapted to changes in warfare, technology, geography, and culture. While its use diminished after 1918, when speed and movement took precedence over capturing strongpoints, military mining remains a viable strategy still deployed to this day. Although military historians have given mining marginal treatment in virtually every study of siege warfare, it has not yet been treated with depth or comprehensiveness as a subject in its own right. In this first book-length study of the subject, renowned military historian Earl Hess now fully addresses the topic of military mining from its earliest origins to the twenty-first century.
In War Underground, Hess offers a sweeping study of the use of offensive and defensive military mining in more than 300 sieges from around the world and across almost three millennia. The result is an impressively broad and comprehensive treatment of the grand history of military mining, which offers novel insights to the evolution and trajectory of the strategy since its ancient origins.
From as early as ancient Greek, Roman, and Chinese warfare to the battles of World War I, military mining was an essential component of siege warfare. Armies have tunneled underneath castle walls, dug trenches across no-man's-land, and engineered confusing defensive countermines. These tactics for assaulting enemy fortifications and positions by creating underground access have adapted to changes in warfare, technology, geography, and culture. While its use diminished after 1918, when speed and movement took precedence over capturing strongpoints, military mining remains a viable strategy still deployed to this day. Although military historians have given mining marginal treatment in virtually every study of siege warfare, it has not yet been treated with depth or comprehensiveness as a subject in its own right. In this first book-length study of the subject, renowned military historian Earl Hess now fully addresses the topic of military mining from its earliest origins to the twenty-first century.
In War Underground, Hess offers a sweeping study of the use of offensive and defensive military mining in more than 300 sieges from around the world and across almost three millennia. The result is an impressively broad and comprehensive treatment of the grand history of military mining, which offers novel insights to the evolution and trajectory of the strategy since its ancient origins.
Reviews / Votes
"Fortification and siege craft are key facets of warfare from antiquity to the present. Hess provides an excellent guide to the subject focusing on key episodes. As the author of two other books on the subject, I can only say how sorry I am that War Underground was not available for me to make reference." - Jeremy Black, author of Military Strategy: A Global History"This book tackles the often-overlooked role of mining in the prosecution of military operations and offers a fascinating introduction to the topic that spans the millennia. With such a broad canvas, the author demonstrates how a technique of ancient siege warfare retained its relevance deep into the twentieth century as successive generations applied the latest technological innovations to ensure that mines remained both effective and deadly as the battlefield evolved around them. A timely and welcome addition to the library of any student of military history, especially now that the horrors of near static warfare have returned to the battlegrounds of the eastern Ukraine." - Gwyn Davies, author of Roman Siege Works"War Underground is a uniquely comprehensive analysis of military mining, spanning millennia of time and examples from across the globe. Earl Hess provides both technical details and discussion of processes and large insights about the military purposes, political and economic contexts, and human experience of mine warfare. Moving beyond his acclaimed work on the American Civil War to explore patterns and trajectories across wide swathes of time and space, Hess demonstrates that, despite limited success, the quest for options and the potential promised by technological development led commanders to continue the use of mining in sieges and static warfare, and increasingly to enable concealed movement and shelter. Combining deep research with long experience of thematic analysis, Hess presents the most holistic examination of military mining available." - Samuel J. Watson, author of Peacekeepers and Conquerors: The Army Officer Corps on the American Frontier, 1821-1846
"Military mining is the ultimate method of siege breaking, a technique employed since ancient times. With the dawn of industrial warfare, offensive mining reached its peak, helping to break the WWI trench lines. In Earl J. Hess's remarkable survey of underground warfare we see it all; an eminently readable yet scholarly account that should be standard reading for all those interested in the topic." - Peter Doyle, author of Disputed Earth: Geology and Trench Warfare on the Western Front, 1914-18
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Kansas
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
38 b&w photos, 1 table
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-7006-3841-3 (9780700638413)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
03/2025
University Press of Kansas
€53.99
Available for download
Person
Earl J. Hess is professor emeritus at Lincoln Memorial University. He is the author of thirty-six books, including Civil War Field Artillery: Promise and Performance on the Battlefield and, most recently, July 22: The Civil War Battle of Atlanta, with Kansas.