Offensive Mining and Tunnelling in WW2

Can anyone think of any instances where WW1-style mining operations were used during WW2?

I'm not referring to underground construction work to create deep shelters or strong defensive positions (such as the tunnels of Dover and Gibraltar, the Maginot Line or Japanese tunnel/bunker networks), but the old Western Front tactic of digging out from friendly positions towards an enemy strong-point with the intention of detonating a charge underneath it.

I'm trying to work out if the mining attempts made near Donbaik (Arakan Province, Burma) by British units in early 1943 were unique. In a vast global war I'm thinking that there must surely have been other attempts somewhere at sometime, but can't find any - has anyone come across one in their reading?

The situation was unusual, with an advancing British/Indian force having been held up by a heavily-fortified Japanese position for a full three months. The position was a deep, mostly-dry creek: effectively a natural trench line. There was no way to flank the line as it ran into the sea at one end and up into steep rocky hills at the other. The defenders had constructed dugouts in the walls of the river bank, dug supporting trenches and weapons pits, and built dozens of mutually-supporting bunkers. Most of the ground surrounding it was open beach or paddy field, and repeated frontal attacks (starting from platoon-scale, building to brigade-scale with tank support) failed with severe casualties.

One bunker in particular ('Sugar 5') was indestructible: a naturally-formed hillock had been burrowed into and reinforced, and even direct hits from 25-pounders and RAF bombs appeared to have absolutely no effect on it. Under covering fire a 3.7-inch howitzer was moved in pieces to a gun pit dug 100 yards from the bunker and fired dozens of rounds into it point-blank but it still remained in action. In one attack sections from 1st Bn Royal Welch Fusiliers managed to get on top of it but could not break inside; the Japanese then called their own supporting fire down directly on top of their own positions as they were so confident of their solidity, causing heavy losses to 1 RWF.

The RE's efforts included attempts to use poles to push handcarts carrying a 500lb charge directly on to the mound but they had no luck. They then tried to dig a tunnel from the British/Indian line to run under Sugar 5 so that a huge charge could be detonated beneath it. This is from the war diary of 1st Bn Royal Scots:

23rd March 1943
RE started work on shaft for tunnel to S5 from 'C' Coy lines.

26th March 1943
Tunnel now 21 ft long.

28th March 1943
Tunnel now 31 ft long in rock

29th March 1943
Tunnel 40 ft long in soft rock handed over to 506 Fd Coy.

2nd April 1943
12 ORs (miners) attached to DLI for working in tunnel to S5​

From other war diaries and accounts I found at TNA it seems that this was the second attempt at a tunnel that month, the first abandoned after hitting solid rock. By 4th April the British at Donbaik had been encircled so the mining operation ended as they fought their way out, narrowly escaping to begin the retreat to the Indian frontier. Arguably the whole thing was a folly as the campaign to capture Akyab had already failed, but rather than pull back Wavell insisted on staying to clear the Mayu Peninsula before the monsoon hit, forcing the junior commanders on the ground at Donbaik to try to pull a miracle out of the bag with some pretty desperate schemes.

Was anything remotely like this tried anywhere else? We think of WW2 as a mobile war where there would be few opportunities for this very WW1-style of operation, but might there have been cases during the huge sieges on the Eastern Front, perhaps? Any ideas appreciated!

 

the only place I can suggest to look at is the Royal Engineers Journal, which for some unknown reason is available from a New Zealand website.