After the Armistice, the pace of operations eased, giving the Tunnellers a bit more free time to play rugby and football matches. Nevertheless, work continued on a bridge at Pont-sur-Sambre, a village located about 13 miles east of Le Quesnoy, while half the Company was sent to Maubeuge, 3 miles north of Pont-sur-Sambre, to erect two new bridges[1].
The people of Maubeuge, waving tricolour flags and Union Jacks, gave the Tunnellers a warm welcome[2]. Part of the town was built on an island in the middle of the Sambre River. The Germans had severed all communication links, isolating the islanders. The only access remaining was a small wooden walkway laid on barrels floating on the river.
The Tunnellers began erecting the two bridges at 6am on 15 November 1918. The first bridge measured 76ft and spanned the main canal, while the second, 96ft long, connected the island to the outer gate. As the Tunnellers set to work, numerous refugees—having heard about the construction—streamed into the town and gathered on the riverbanks[3].
The people of Maubeuge were fascinated by the New Zealanders’ work. Each day, curious onlookers watched the Tunnellers raise both bridges on either side of the island. On the evening of 18 November, both bridges were completed. The mayor of Maubeuge expressed his deep gratitude to the New Zealanders for the speed with which the work had been completed. The town council even wished to award the Company a medal of honour, but the official ceremony was never organized due to lack of time[4].
The Company received orders to move to Fayt-le-Franc in Belgium on 20 November. They left France, although some men returned at the end of December. The Tunnellers remained engaged in bridge construction, though the work pace relaxed. The New Zealanders were accustomed to not working on Sundays, and by this time the first demobilized men had begun to depart from their comrades[5].
From the signing of the Armistice, the question of returning the men home raised an enormous logistical challenge. Demobilization began with the soldiers who had enlisted first, based on their length of service6. Then, at the beginning of December, married men were also sent home from all New Zealand units.
The demobilization of the New Zealand Engineers Tunnelling Company, however, was an exceptional case. Although some men were demobilized under the general system established after the war, the Tunnellers were urgently required at home. Members of the Tunnelling Companies were seen as a latent labor force, and New Zealand’s mining industries were pleading for their immediate return7.
To expedite their repatriation, two large groups of Tunnellers were demobilized at the end of December 19188. Their numbers were no longer sufficient to maintain four sections. The Company was reorganized into a headquarters and two sections, made up of men enlisted in 1917 (the first group) and those who had joined in 1916 (the second group).
After several months of urgent appeals for the return of miners and engineers, the Company was fully demobilized on 22 January 1919. Only the New Zealand Māori Pioneer Battalion shared the distinction of returning home as a complete unit9. The journey to New Zealand was still long. In early 1919, the high number of demobilized soldiers made the scheduling of return voyages difficult to organize.
Before their embarkation, the Tunnellers had to wait at the New Zealand Depot in the United Kingdom, located at Larkhill on the Salisbury Plains. The wait became seemingly endless. The Tunnellers were kept occupied during the first days of February: they underwent medical examinations, and their kit bags were packed beginning on 7 February—even though their departure date had not yet been confirmed. It was finally announced for 14 March 1919.
The Company, under the command of Captain Daldy, sailed aboard the Steam Ship Ionic for the final journey home. Most of the Tunnellers left the United Kingdom and Europe forever. The voyage proceeded without incident. The troopship navigated through the Atlantic Ocean, passed through the Panama Canal, and crossed the Pacific Ocean before reaching the shores of New Zealand.
On the evening of 23 April 1919, the last Tunnellers arrived at the port of Auckland. Such a journey—marked by war, violence, and also strong camaraderie—inevitably left lasting traces in each of these men.
As the Tunnellers gradually parted ways and returned to their lives, military authorities had already made the decision to disband the small Company[10]. On 24 April 1919, the New Zealand Engineers Tunnelling Company was officially dissolved. It no longer had a role in a conflict that was ending. Moreover, the majority of the Tunnellers were urgently needed in their civilian professions.
Miners, engineers, and Public Works Department labourers could not remain in the Army. Their employers had been notified of their return and awaited them with the same urgency the military had shown during recruitment back in September 1915. With no personnel and no remaining purpose, the Company had no further reason to exist.
Dissolved as quickly as it had been created, the unit experienced a brief but intense existence—one confined entirely to wartime. Its continuation within the regular army was never intended[11]. Even in the absence of the Tunnellers, the skills of mining and sapping were expected to be preserved. However, despite many expressions of interest, no concrete measures were taken to ensure their legacy[12].
1. The National Archives United Kingdom, WO 95/407, War Diary of the New Zealand Engineers Tunnelling Company, 11 November 1918.
2. James Campbell Neill,The New Zealand Tunnelling Company, 1915-1919, Auckland, Whitcombe & Tombs, 1922, p. 135.
3. Ibid., p. 136, “Unable to convey their queer vehicles and goods across the river these poor people camped in ever increasing numbers in the sodden fields, waiting patiently till the bridges could be replaced.”
4. Ibid., p. 137.
5. Ibid., p. 139, “The strenght of the Company was then 20 officers and 350 other ranks and it steadily dwindled as members with special claims for speedy demobilization were despatched to London en route for New Zealand.”
6. Christopher Pugsley,On the Fringe of Hell, New Zealanders and Military Discipline in the First World War, Auckland, Hodder & Stoughton, 1991, p. 290, “first to join, first back.”
7. Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, ACID 17592 WA1 16 / 8/2, Demobilisation – Tunnelling Corps [New Zealand Tunnelling Company], 11-27 February 1919, Letter of the administration of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force to the secretary of the War Office in London, 18 November 1918, “I have the honour to ask wether, in view of the fact that the above Companies [New Zealand Tunnelling Company and New Zealand Light Railways Operating Company] are largely composed of mining engineers and others personnel of pivotal categories who are urgently required in New Zealand”.
8. Anthony Byledbal,Les Soldats fantômes de la Grande Guerre souterraine, 1915-1919. De l'Immigrant pākehā au vétéran oublié : les hommes de la New Zealand Engineers Tunnelling Company, Doctoral thesis, under the supervision of Sophie-Anne Leterrier (University of Artois) and in collaboration with Nathalie Philippe (University of Waikato), University of Artois, 2012, p. 933-934.
9. Christopher Pugsley,On the Fringe of Hell…,op. cit., p. 289.
10. James Campbell Neill,The New Zealand Tunnelling Company…,op. cit., p. 143.
11. The Work of the Royal Engineers in the European War, 1914-19, Military Mining, Uckfield, The Naval & Military Press, 2004 (1922), p. 56, “… it is not desirable that any special units for this purpose should compose a part of the regular Army.”
12. Captain W. Grant Grieve et Bernard Newman,Tunnellers: The Story of the Tunnelling Companies Royal Engineers, during the World War, Londres, Herbert Jenkins Limited, 2002 (1936), p. 319.
Anthony Byledbal, “After The Armistice“, New Zealand Tunnellers Website, NaN (2009), Accessed: . URL: www.
