World War I · Film · 2010
Beneath Hill 60
An Australian mining engineer leads a company of tunnellers in a silent war thirty metres below the Western Front, racing German diggers to guard the huge mines under Hill 60.
Where it happened
Follow the story across 2 places.
Stop 1: Tunnels near Armentières
Underground below the front, Woodward's men fight German tunnellers hand to hand and cross no man's land to blow up a fortified house.
Stop 2: Hill 60, Ypres Salient
Key location
Guarding two enormous mines beneath the German-held hill, the tunnellers must keep them hidden and dry until the day they are needed.
What really happened
The film is based on the diaries of Oliver Woodward of the 1st Australian Tunnelling Company. Tunnelling companies, many recruited from miners, dug under no man's land to plant explosives beneath enemy lines while listening for enemy tunnellers doing the same.
In November 1916 the Australians took over the Hill 60 and Caterpillar mines near Ypres, dug by British and Canadian tunnellers, and kept them dry and undiscovered for months. At 3:10 a.m. on 7 June 1917 they were fired with 17 others to open the Battle of Messines; the blasts, heard as far away as London, killed thousands of German soldiers, and Woodward himself pressed the plunger.
Where to watch
Checking streaming services…
Full details
- Original title
- Beneath Hill 60
- Directed by
- Jeremy Sims
- Countries
- Australia
- Languages
- English
- Released
- 2010
- Period
- –
- Theaters of war
- Western Europe
- Themes
- Combat
- True story
