Clark visits war tunnels dug by New Zealand soldiers

By KEVIN NORQUAY

ARRAS, France - Prime Minister Helen Clark went underground in France today to witness a classic example of Kiwi ingenuity.

Helen Clark was given a preview tour of the World War 1 tunnels under French city Arras, which are not open for public view.

New Zealand and British troops hollowed tunnels through the chalk of northern France until they were beyond the German lines.

About 20,000 soldiers poured through the tunnels, emerging to attack the surprised Germans from behind.

New Zealanders were chosen as tunnellers because of their experience as miners. Their work is now a museum, being prepared to go on public show.

After her torch-lit foray into the tunnels, Helen Clark told NZPA she was sure it would be a tourist attraction.

"Absolutely incredible," she said.

"I'm really thrilled they are being opened up again for public view.

"The town of Arras hasn't really been on the Kiwi itinerary for the visit to France. Once we see these tunnels fully opened up to the public we are going to see a lot of New Zealand visitors through."

When modifications to the museum are finished it is intended an escalator will give access to a 320m circuit for visitors.

New Zealand tunnels were called Russell, Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin, with smaller tunnels bearing street names.

Archaeologists have discovered more than 30km of tunnels and many more may still lie under the battlefield.

The system allowed troops to walk underground for 4km from the centre of Arras to the front line, in the April 1917 Battle of Arras.

Entrances have been lost as the network was still protected by military secrecy after the war.

Arras was smashed by German shelling in the 1914-1918 war.

Underground Commonwealth troops built kitchens, arsenals, latrines and a 700-bed hospital.

Maori writing and ornate carvings adorn the walls of some caves.

On April 9, 1917, a surprise British offensive went through a 10km tunnel to surge from the earth ahead of the German lines.

The Germans were forced back 10km and 20,000 prisoners were taken.

New Zealander Dr Stewart Scoones, who was on the tour, had three uncles on the push. He said that in the tunnels he felt a link to those men.

"You naturally feel something, a bit difficult to say what, but it's called emotion," he said.

Rusty cans, old shoes and even a chair still lie where they were discarded 85 years ago.

In January 1917, a tunnelling company of Maori soldiers started work clearing the tunnels and chambers, some of which are up to 12m high.

They installed water and electricity supplies and created two narrow tunnels with passing places to stretcher the wounded from the front line less than a kilometre away.

Attempts to open the Christchurch tunnel have been thwarted by its unstable roof. The cave has corridors labelled Riccarton St, Worcester St, Armagh St, and Godley's Ave.

The Prime Minister commemorated Anzac Day in London, attending services and laying wreaths in St Paul's Cathedral and Whitehall and doing a reading in Westminster Abbey.

Also today she visited Belgian village Ieper, scene of some of the most brutal battles of World War 1.

Ieper was devastated in the 1914-1918 war, with more than 500,000 soldiers perishing in the Flanders fields on its outskirts. It was there poison gas was first used in war, in April 1915.

The Prime Minister, who is to spend two days in the battlefields on her nine-day visit to Europe, told NZPA she had a historical interest in the war.

She had a great uncle killed at Gallipoli, and others in France.

She will tomorrow visit the grave of one of them, Rifleman George Arthur who was killed in action at Cambrai five weeks before the war ended.

She will be the first member of her family to visit his grave.

The battlefields were of interest to all New Zealanders, she said.

"The long-term impact of World War 1 on New Zealand families was immense," she said.

"I grew up in a family where my grandfather's only two siblings never came back from the war.

"It caused great distress and heartbreak in the family. All my childhood my grandmother's house had these very fine military portraits of the two great uncles who never came back.

"That was a widely shared experienced around New Zealand."

- NZPA

Herald Feature: Anzac Day

Highlights of the 2002 Anzac photo exhibition: