The dynamo, Hill 60

Hill 60’s prominent position in the relatively low-lying region of Messines, Belgium, made it a key objective and it was continually fought over from late 1914. Tunnelling began in early 1915 and by 1916 British engineers had constructed a series of explosive-filled mines under German lines that were to be detonated in an Allied offensive slated for the second half of 1917. The 1st Australian Tunnelling Company was tasked with protecting the Hill 60 explosive mine from the hundreds of German tunnellers who dug furiously trying to find it. For seven months the Australians lived and worked in silence undermining German saps in cramped tunnels lit by candles, lamps and electric generators called dynamos.