Beneath Hill 60 Page #5

Like sinking a mine in a bog.

McBRIDE:
Yeah, the blue clay's

further down.

This whole area is below sea level.

McBRIDE:
Keeping the water out

was their main problem.

Was?

McBRIDE:
Now it's ours.

(WHISPERS) We're 90 feet down now.

Right below German lines.

Hill 60 is directly above us.

Eh, eh, eh? Shh-shh. Shh.

The blue clay of Flanders.

Beautiful.

Major North, 3rd Canadian Tunnellers.

Fritz has set up in the swim sand.

He can't get at us. Oh, no, no, no.

If you will.

ammonal high explosive.

WOODWARD:
I've never seen

anything like this before.

No, nobody has. Nobody.

is a caterpillar mine.

That one's 70,000 pounds.

There's 21 of them.

We've undermined the whole

of the Messines Ridge,

nearly a million pounds of ammonal.

NORTH:
Mm-hm?

You know, when this thing blows,

it'll be the biggest explosion

the world's ever seen.

Each mine has detonators and leads

running to the surface.

WOODWARD:
Mm-hm.

McBRIDE:
All we have to do

is keep the bloody thing dry

and keep it secret from Fritz.

No, no, no. No. Fritz has got no

idea.

He thinks we're digging wells.

(LAUGHS HOARSELY)

Well, this'll finish the war.

End it altogether.

Think of that, huh?

When do they plan to detonate?

(BREATHES DEEPLY)

They're pulling me out.

It's up to you now.

It's all up to you.

Poor bugger.

Yeah, he sleeps down here.

He hasn't been to the surface

in three months.

So, when are they gonna blow them?

No-one knows.

- Could be months away.

- What are they waiting for?

Well, I'm a miner not a general...

...but I reckon it's simple

arithmetic.

If we blow the mines now,

we'll kill a few hundred Fritz at best.

But if they think

there's an attack coming,

they will stack those trenches

above us like bloody sardines.

And kill thousands.

Time it right,

tens of thousands.

(SCRAPES LOUDLY)

(BANGING ECHOES)

Nein.

Ja.

Jim, check every prop and every stay,

starting here, all the way

to the bottom of the Berlin Sap.

- Take Walter and Ginger.

- JIM:
Sir.

- I'll do the same for Caterpillar.

- Righto.

Pull Through, there are

- Take Percy.

- Righto.

Fraser, you check the water line.

I want to know the depth

from the surface.

I want to know

where the water is ending up.

I want to know at exactly what depth

the sand becomes clay.

- Take Tiffin with you.

- Sir.

FRASER:
Come on, Tiffin.

(GUNSHOT)

(MACHINE-GUN FIRE)

- MAN:
To the left.

- MAN 2:
Yeah.

MAN:
Yep, yep, yep. That's another.

That's good. You got it.

(GUNSHOT)

MAN 3:
Come out!

(INDISTINCT SHOUTING)

(GUNSHOT)

(MACHINE-GUN FIRE)

(GUNSHOT)

(DISTANT SHOUTING)

(GUNSHOT)

(MAN SHOUTS ORDER IN GERMAN)

(INHALES DEEPLY)

(MUFFLED GUNFIRE)

(MUFFLED MACHINE-GUN FIRE)

- Nah. No, you're alright.

- (MACHINE-GUN FIRE SHARPENS)

(GUNSHOTS CONTINUE)

Bit bloody close.

Sniper shell, by the size of it.

Would have made a mess

of your melon.

Saw one bloke hit by one of them -

half his head blown off.

Only his smile left.

(LAUGHS)

(GUNSHOTS CONTINUE)

How old are you?

When they found out,

they made me a stretcher bearer.

Keep me away from the horrors of war.

(LAUGHS)

(BOTH LAUGH)

MAN:
(SHOUTS) Stretcher bearers!

Stretcher bearers!

Over here.

MAN:
Stretcher bearer!

- (FIRES GUN)

- Alright, come on. Let's go.

It's like trying to stop the tide

with a bloody sandcastle.

FRASER:
Top level's mostly sand.

Clay starts around 30 feet.

Water seeps down,

pools above the clay.

Where it finds a tunnel,

it funnels down like a bloody creek.

We have 60 blokes manning the pumps

night and day

just to keep the water level down.

If we lose even a few of those men,

bloody mines'll be useless.

(WATER TRICKLES STEADILY)

(WHISPERS)

Where did they get this lot?

The sappers are getting it

wherever they can find it now, sir.

All the forests have been cut down

or stonkered by shellin'.

That's oak.

Me dad's a carpenter.

After the war, I'm gonna

get me apprenticeship.

Get out of them bloody pits.

More 'an likely, it came from

that ruined church in town.

Church?

Cathedral. Ypres Cathedral.

Probably.

- That's the lowest point in the sap.

- 90 feet, yeah.

What if we sink a shaft

directly to that point

and get the water out that way?

Canadians have tried it.

So have the Tommies.

The whole middle section is unstable.

Shaft walls collapse

after about six feet.

Besides, 90 feet vertical

is a bloody long way to move water.

We've got electricity

down there, don't we?

We propose sinking a shaft

down to a gallery

beneath the Berlin Sap, right here.

- Install electric pumps.

- Should free up 60 men at least.

Rutledge?

This is over 90 feet deep.

I shouldn't have thought an electric

pump would lift water that high...

WOODWARD:
The new ones will, sir.

COLONEL:
And this shaft

simply isn't feasible.

This is not a new idea, sir.

It's impossible to go through the wet

sand without the walls collapsing.

Have you been down there, Colonel?

Alright. That will be all.

Thank you, sir, and I apologise

for taking up your valuable time.

General, our plans differ

from the ones previously tried.

- How.

- We don't dig from the surface, sir.

We build the shaft head

We construct galleries large enough

to house all the tunnellers

and hide the blue clay.

Captain Woodward, 20 feet down

will put you right in the middle

of the quicksand.

You are wrong, Colonel!

It would set us just above

the wet sand. That's the point.

We'll use steel sections

to control the water

and stop the walls collapsing.

We use jacks from the roof

of the gallery

to force the steel sections

downwards.

And how many months or years

do we imagine that this folly will take?

- Rough estimate?

- GENERAL:
How long?

Three weeks, give or take.

(ARTILLERY SHELL

WHISTLES AND EXPLODES)

MAN:
Go, go, go!

(ARTILLERY SHELL

WHISTLES AND EXPLODES)

(SOLDIERS SHOUT AND SCREAM)

(ARTILLERY SHELL

WHISTLES AND EXPLODES)

MAN:
Go! Keep going.

Aarggh!

MAN:
Run! Run, boys, keep going.

Come on!

(EXPLOSIONS AND SHOUTING)

- (EXPLOSION)

- Aarggh!

One more.

Yep.

(CLANGING AND CLATTERING)

Shh. Shh.

We're nearly there.

Bucket it out. Get those jacks back

up.

Have that steel section

ready to go on my order.

Drive it further into the clay.

(MACHINE RATTLES)

It's going, sir.

(GUNSHOT)

GENERAL:
Not exactly gushing.

What's happening, Tiffin?

- (MACHINE TICKS OVER)

- I don't know, sir.

It seems to be working.

- (GUNSHOT)

- No idea. It's working at that end.

(GUNSHOT)

COLONEL:
Ridiculous.

Must be too much pressure.

I'm sure we...

Full report by the morning.

(SIGHS)

(WATER GURGLES)

- (ALL LAUGH)

- MAN:
Yes!

(CLEARS THROAT)

(MACHINE CHUGS QUIETLY)

- What if the pump fails?

- We have backups standing by, sir.

Off the shaft head,

we've built two listening posts

and two diversion tunnels.

- What diversion tunnels?

- I'll show you, sir.

There's no need.

- It's no trouble.

- There is no need.

There's more activity

in the second diversion, sir.

I think Fritz is coming at us again.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes