Sapping and Mining I.

This is coolbert:

Sapping and mining have been used by militaries all over the world ever since the advent of fortifications. And the practice of mining and sapping continues to this day, in certain rare circumstances.

To properly understand the concept of sapping and mining, the development of fortifications must be understood at least in a rudimentary manner.

The original fortifications, as best can be seen from archeology, were "barrows" or "bergs", as found in ancient Europe.

A naturally occurring hill modified for defense by a settled people. Settlers that feared attack by nomadic marauders who would appear suddenly and with intent for murder, rape, arson, plunder. A suitable hill would be modified to provide for defense in case of attack, the hill being leveled at the very top and a wooden stockade erected to provide an enclosure for the defenders.

These barrows or bergs, signifying a high place, could be considered in the case of Europe to be the first towns. The commonly occurring names of Berg, Burgess, and Bourgeois all are from the word meaning "town dweller".

As man's culture and technological sophistication progressed, the earth and wood stockade type of fortification was found to be inadequate, and the development of stone fortifications began.

These stone fortifications, found all over the world, follow a similar pattern.

An outer wall of stone protects a small town and town dwellers [most ancient towns were small area wise, with exceptions such as Jerusalem or Constantinople, which occupied a large area].

A further fortification of stone, much more massive, acted as a more formidable defense than the outer wall. This is usually referred to as a castle. Protects the ruler of the town, his liege men and retainers, in case of sustained and determined attack. These stone walled towns and castles did provide formidable defense and were a deterrent to attack by unsophisticated marauders. Click here to see a web site about Krak of the Chevaliers, perhaps the ultimate in Crusader castles.

As I have said, the stone walls of most towns provided adequate defense against horse mounted nomadic marauders. Not so against more sophisticated opponents.

Attackers possessing a variety of technologies were with enough effort and time able to defeat even the most formidable of stone wall and castle defenses.

Over time, a variety of weapons were developed that could be employed to defeat stone wall defenses and castles. Rams, towers, catapults all were successfully employed by attackers to defeat stone fortifications.

In addition to the above mentioned weaponry, the technique of sapping was also developed to a high degree. "Sap - - to wear away gradually, to undermine." This is the definition of sap. And this is what would occur if a prolonged siege would develop. A siege where the normal weaponry of rams, towers, and catapults proved to be inadequate.

Now, it should be fully understood that the decision to employ sapping techniques meant that the attackers were determined for the long haul. That this was a siege of a town that the attackers meant to carry through to the end. Sometimes this sapping was a very prolonged affair. ONLY the most resolute and determined attackers would employ sapping as a last resort.

A siege campaign involving sapping would usually commence as follows:

The attacker, having made the decision to commence sapping, would build a line of defense encircling the besieged town. A line of defense that would face outward to repel relieving forces, and inward also to prevent occupant of the besieged town from escaping. [Caesar used just such tactics during the siege of Alesia in Gaul].

The attacker would then bring forward a contingent of miners to conduct the sapping operation. These miners, most of the time slaves [not always so, but most of the time], were experienced in mining techniques, and accustomed to the dangerous, hard physical pick and shovel labor exertions of the time.

The miners would then proceed to dig a tunnel from the lines of the attacker toward the stone wall fortifications of the defenders. The object was to dig a tunnel long enough so that the face [the actual point where the pick and shovel work is occurring. The foremost point of the tunnel] of the tunnel was directly under the walls of the fortified town. It should be noted that many of these tunnels had to be dug through solid rock. Fortified walls of a town or the even more ponderous fortifications of a castle were of an enormous weight. This weight could only be supported if the underlying base was of itself rock! Digging a tunnel through solid rock, given the tools of the time, must have been an arduous task, probably only best performed by slaves!

Once the face of the mine shaft was measured carefully and determined to be directly underneath the stone walls of the town, the miners would then proceed to excavate a cavern underneath those same walls, working from the face of the mine shaft to expand this cavern in all directions.

As the cavern under the walls would be expanded, the miners would install shoring, consisting of vertical wooden timbers, to support the roof of the cavern so that it would not collapse upon them. As the cavern would expand, it would resemble a forest on the inside as more and more timbers were erected.

At some point, when the cavern was expanded to large enough a size, the entire cavern would be densely packed with dried brush.

The cavern and mine shaft would then be evacuated, and the dried brush set on fire.

As the brush burned, it would in turn set the shoring timbers afire and they would slowly burn as well. As they burned through, the timbers, the support mechanism for the roof of the cavern, would slowly but surely collapse, one by one. When enough timber supports had burnt through and collapsed, the support for the roof would no longer exist and the roof of the cavern would collapse under the enormous weight of the walls or castle above it.

As the ground or stone above the cavern would give way, so would the stone walls of the town in turn collapse, the primary defense of the town or castle eliminated. The attackers at that point making a frenzied and more than likely successful attack upon the once impregnable secure defenders.

Sapping as was carried out in ancient times often having disastrous consequences for those inside the fortified castle and walls, death at the hands of the attackers, no-quarter being the normal practice!

Sapping!

coolbert.