Who's Who - Sir John Norton-Griffiths
Sir
John Norton-Griffiths
(1871-1930), known as "Empire Jack" for his keenness for all things
imperial, established an engineering company - Griffiths & Co. - prior to
the war which specialised in the construction of tunnels through clay.
Once war was declared, in August 1914, Norton-Griffiths was quick in
approaching the British War Office to recommend the establishment of mining
companies dedicated to the construction of underground mines using the
silent and efficient techniques honed by his own company (known as
'clay-kicking').
The War Office, after some persuasion from the eccentric Norton-Griffiths
(who would lose no opportunity in demonstrating the mechanics of
clay-kicking to senior officers), took him up on his offer of help and
appointed him liaison officer to the Engineer-in-Chief, R.N. Harvey.
Working well together with Harvey, Norton-Griffiths took to touring the
British lines on the Western Front in his battered Rolls Royce loaded with
crates of fine wine. These he used to persuade commanding officers to
release men who Norton-Griffiths believed to be ideally suited to mining
(generally those men who had previously worked in engineering companies
before war broke out).
Ironically, Norton-Griffiths had been redeployed by the War Office before
the culmination of British mine laying was reached on 7 June 1917, when the
Battle of
Messines was launched with the blowing of 19 enormous mines. The
explosions are said to have been heard by the British Prime Minister,
David Lloyd George,
in Downing Street.
The attack itself was one of the great British successes of the war, and
confirmed the value of Norton-Griffiths' work (although curiously mine
construction never again reached the peak witnessed at Messines, either in
this or any subsequent war).
The year before the Messines attack Norton-Griffiths himself had been sent
to Romania in order to arrange for the destruction of oil wells there before
they fell into German hands. However by this time the mining companies
of the Western Front were capable of operating without the necessity of
Norton-Griffiths' enthusiastic vigour (and which had proven so vital earlier
in the war).
Click here to read Lord Northcliffe's account of the early stages of the Battle of Verdun.
"Devil Dogs" was the nickname given to the U.S. Marines by the German Army.
- Did you know?
