Mining activity by the tunnelling companies of the Royal Engineers had begun at St Eloi in early 1915. Much of the mining in this sector was done by the 177th Tunnelling Company and the 172nd Tunnelling Company, the latter commanded by Captain William Henry JohnstonVC. Mining and counter-mining at St Eloi continued at a pace and in the planning for the Battle of Messines it was decided that tunnelling for a deep mine at St Eloi would have to start some distance away. The work was begun with a deep shaft named Queen Victoria and the chamber was set 42 m (138 ft) below ground, at the end of a gallery 408 m (1,339 ft) long and charged with 43,400 kg (95,600 lb) of ammonal, the largest single charge of explosive used during the whole war.[33] (According to Holt and Holt, the Queen Victoria shaft was begun in the area of Bus House Cemetery, behind a farm-house called Bus House by the British troops 50°48′46.8″N2°53′13.6″E / 50.813000°N 2.887111°E / 50.813000; 2.887111.) From there, the gallery was extended to the area of the mine chamber.[33] When the St Eloi deep mine exploded, it destroyed several of the craters created by the six British mines fired below German lines on 27 March 1916.
Ailbhe Goodbody, "Tunnelling in the deep: Battle of Messines", in: Mining Magazine, 13 September 2016, London: Aspermont Media 2016 (online)Archived 2016-12-18 at the Wayback Machine
Ailbhe Goodbody, "Tunnelling in the deep: Battle of Messines", in: Mining Magazine, 13 September 2016, London: Aspermont Media 2016 (online)Archived 2016-12-18 at the Wayback Machine
Bülow et al. 1943, pp. 103–104. Bülow, K. von; Kranz, W.; Sonne, E.; Burre, O.; Dienemann, W. (1943) [1938]. Wehrgeologie. Translated by Lowe, K. (Engineer Research Office, New York ed.). Leipzig: Quelle & Meyer. OCLC44818243.
Kuhl 1929, p. 114. Kuhl, Hermann von (1929). Der Weltkrieg, 1914–1918: dem deutschen Volke dargestellt (in German). Berlin: Verlag Tradition W. Kolk. OCLC695752254.
ww1battlefields.co.uk
"Messines". Archived from the original on 20 March 2015. Retrieved 16 February 2015.
