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Sapping, or undermining, was a siege method used since Antiquity against a walled city, fortress or castle. The term has been borrowed in geomorphology to denote the undermining of slopes by groundwater erosion (see groundwater sapping). Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Undermining (also known as Removal of the Guard) is a chess tactic in which a defensive piece is captured, leaving one of the opponents pieces undefended or underdefended. ... A siege is a prolonged military blockade and assault of a city or fortress with the intent of conquering by force or attrition. ... It has been suggested that Greco-Roman be merged into this article or section. ... The defensive wall of Braşov, Romania. ... Fortifications (Latin fortis, strong, and facere, to make) are military constructions designed for defensive warfare. ... The main gatehouse of Harlech Castle, Wales. ... Surface of the Earth Geomorphology is the study of landforms, including their origin and evolution, and the processes that shape them. ... Groundwater is water located beneath the ground surface in soil pore spaces and in the fractures of geologic formations. ... Severe soil erosion in a wheat field near Washington State University, USA. Erosion s the displacement of solids (soil, mud, rock and other particles) by the agents of wind, water or ice, by downward or down-slope movement in response to gravity or by living organisms (in the case of... Groundwater sapping is the geomorphic process whereby groundwater exits a bank or hillslope laterally and erodes soil from the slope. ...

Use in antiquity

The Greek historian Polybius, in his Histories, gives a graphic account of mining and counter mining at the Roman siege of Ambracia: Polybius (ca 203 BC - 120 BC, Greek Πολυβιος) was a Greek historian of the Mediterranean world famous for his book called The Histories or The Rise of the Roman Empire, covering the period of 220 BC to 146 BC. // Personal experiences As the former tutor of Scipio Aemilianus , the famous adopted... Ambracia (more correctly Ampracia) was an ancient Corinthian colony, situated about 7 miles from the Ambracian Gulf in Greece, on a bend of the navigable river Aracthus (or Aratthus), in the midst of a fertile wooded plain. ...

The Aetolians [...] offered a gallant resistance to the assault of the siege artillery and [the Romans], therefore, in despair had recourse to mines and underground tunnels. Having safely secured the central one of their three works, and carefully concealed the shaft with wattle screens, they erected in front of it a covered walk or stoa about two hundred feet long, parallel with the wall; and beginning their digging from that, they carried it on unceasingly day and night, working in relays. For a considerable number of days the besieged did not discover them carrying the earth away through the shaft; but when the heap of earth thus brought out became too high to be concealed from those inside the city, the commanders of the besieged garrison set to work vigorously digging a trench inside, parallel to the wall and to the stoa which faced the towers. When the trench was made to the required depth, they next placed in a row along the side of the trench nearest the wall a number of brazen vessels made very thin; and, as they walked along the bottom of the trench past these, they listened for the noise of the digging outside. Having marked the spot indicated by any of these brazen vessels, which were extraordinarily sensitive and vibrated to the sound outside, they began digging from within, at right angles to the trench, another underground tunnel leading under the wall, so calculated as to exactly hit the enemy's tunnel. This was soon accomplished, for the Romans had not only brought their mine up to the wall, but had under-pinned a considerable length of it on either side of their mine; and thus the two parties found themselves face to face.[1]

Use in the Middle Ages

In medieval warfare during the Middle Ages, a mine was a tunnel dug under the walls of a castle. Once under the walls, sappers would build wooden structures to hold up the tunnel that they had made. The tunnel would then be filled with flammable material and set on fire. Later, explosives were used for greater effect. If the sapping was done well the wall above it would fall down creating an entrance for the attacking army. The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with combat engineering. ... Flammability is the ease with which a substance will ignite, causing fire or combustion. ... A large bonfire. ... This article is concerned solely with chemical explosives. ...

Peter of les Vaux-de-Cernay recounts how at the battle of Carcassonne, during the Albigensian Crusade, "after the top of the wall had been somewhat weakened by bombardment from petraries, our engineers succeeded with great difficulty in bringing a four-wheeled wagon, covered in oxhides, close to the wall, from which they set to work to sap the wall" (les Vaux-de-Cernay, 53). Location within France Cathars being expelled from Carcassone in 1209. ... The Albigensian Crusade or Cathar Crusade (1209 - 1229) was a 20-year military campaign initiated by the Roman Catholic Church to eliminate the religion practiced by the Cathars of Languedoc, which the Roman Catholic hierarchy considered apostasy. ... Medieval siege weaponry or more commonly, a siege engine is a device that is designed to break or circumvent city walls and other fortifications in siege warfare. ...

As in the siege of Carcassonne, defenders worked to prevent sapping by dumping anything they had down on attackers who tried to dig under the wall. Successful sapping usually ended the battle since either the defenders would no longer be able to defend and surrender, or the attackers would simply charge in and engage the defenders in close combat.

There were several methods to resist under mining. Often the siting of a castle could be such as to make mining difficult. The walls of a castle could be constructed either on solid rock or on sandy or water logged land making it difficult to dig mines. A very deep ditch or moat could be constructed in front of the walls, as was done at Pembroke Castle, or even artificial lakes as was done at Kenilworth Castle. This makes it more difficult to dig a mine and even if a breach is made the ditch or moat makes exploiting the breach difficult. The defenders could also dig counter mines. From these they could then either dig into the attackers tunnels and sortie into them to either kill the sappers or to set fire to the pit-props to collapse the attackers tunnel. Alternatively they could under mine the attackers tunnels and create a camouflet to collapse the attackers tunnels. Finally if the walls were breached they could either place obstacles in the breach for example a chevaux de frise to hinder a forlorn hope, or construct a coupure. The great concentric ringed fortresses like Beaumaris Castle on Anglesey were designed in such a way that the inner walls were ready build coupures which if an attacker succeeded in breaching the outer walls would have left them in a killing field between the lower outer walls and the higher inner walls. Part of Pembroke Castle. ... The castle, as seen from the gatehouse Kenilworth Castle is in Kenilworth, Warwickshire, England. ... Sortie is a term for deployment of one military aircraft or a ship for the purposes of a specific mission, whether alone, or with other aircraft or vessels. ... A Camouflet is military science term to describe an artificial cavern created by an explosion to undermine a structure. ... The cheval de frise (plural: chevaux de frise) was a Mediaeval defensive obstacle consisting of a portable frame (sometimes just a simple log) covered with many long iron or wooden spikes or even actual spears. ... Forlorn hope is a military term that comes from the Dutch verloren hoop, which should be translated as lost troop although in Dutch it can also mean lost hope. The Dutch phrase fortutiously sounding like a accurate statement of the units future in English. ... During a siege a Coupure is a ditch or an earthenwork or wooden palisade built behind a breach in the walls of a fortress, or a city, made by the attackers guns. ... Beaumaris Castle and moat. ... Anglesey (Welsh: Ynys Môn, pronounced (IPA), roughly unniss mawn), is an island and county at the northwestern extremity of north Wales. ... In military science, a killing field is a field of fire, usually covered by machine guns in modern warfare. ...

Use in the American Civil War

During the Siege of Vicksburg in 1863 Union troops led by General Ulysses S. Grant tunnelled under the Confederate trenches and detonated the mine beneath the 3rd Louisiana Redan on June 25, 1863. The following assualt led by General John A. Logan gained a foothold in the Confederate trenches where the crater was formed but the attackers were eventually forced to withdraw. Combatants United States of America (Union) Confederate States of America (Confederate) Commanders Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee Strength 2,200,000 1,064,000 Casualties Killed in action: 110,000 Total dead: 360,000 Wounded: 275,200 Killed in action: 93,000 Total dead: 258... Battle of Vicksburg Conflict American Civil War Date May 18 - July 4, 1863 Place Warren County, Mississippi Result Union victory The Battle of Vicksburg was an American Civil War siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi, on a well-fortified west-facing cliff on the Mississippi River. ... 1863 (MDCCCLXIII) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar). ... Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant, April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885) was the 18th President of the United States (1869–1877). ... June 25 is the 176th day of the year (177th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 189 days remaining. ... 1863 (MDCCCLXIII) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar). ... John Alexander Logan (February 8, 1826 – December 26, 1886), American soldier and political leader, was born in what is now Murphysboro, Jackson County, Illinois. ...

A more famous instance occured during the Siege of Petersburg, Union troops dug a tunnel under the Confederate lines at Elliott's Salient and packed its end with vast amounts of gunpowder. When set off, the resulting explosion killed about 300 soldiers. It might have been decisive if not for the faulty Union tactic of storming into, rather than around, the resulting crater, allowing the defenders to shoot down onto attackers unable to climb the steep crater sides. The combat was accordingly known as the Battle of the Crater. Combatants United States of America Confederate States of America Commanders Ulysses S. Grant Robert E. Lee Strength 67,000 – 125,000 average of 52,000 Casualties 53,386 ~32,000 The Richmond-Petersburg Campaign was a series of battles around Petersburg, Virginia, fought from June 15, 1864, to March 25... Motto: Deo Vindice (Latin: With God As Our Vindicator) Anthem: God Save the South (unofficial) Dixie (popular) The Bonnie Blue Flag (popular) Capital Montgomery, Alabama February 4, 1861–May 29, 1861 Richmond, Virginia May 29, 1861–April 9, 1865 Danville, Virginia April 3–April 10, 1865 Largest city New Orleans... Combatants United States of America Confederate States of America Commanders Ambrose E. Burnside Robert E. Lee Strength IX Corps elements of the Army of Northern Virginia Casualties 5,300 total 1,032 total {{{notes}}} The Battle of the Crater was a battle of the American Civil War, part of the...

Use in the modern warfare

Sapping saw a brief resurgence as a military tactic during the First World War when army engineers would attempt to break the stalemate of trench warfare by tunneling under no man's land and laying large quantities of explosives beneath the enemy's trench. As in siege warfare, mining was possible due to the static nature of the fighting. Military tactics is the collective name for methods of engaging and defeating an enemy in battle. ... Combatants Allied Powers: British Empire France Italy Russia United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary Bulgaria Germany Ottoman Empire Casualties Military dead: 5 million Civilian dead: 3 million Total dead: 8 million Military dead: 4 million Civilian dead: 3 million Total dead: 7 million The First World War, also known as... Trench Warfare is a form of war in which both opposing armies have static lines of fortifications dug into the ground, facing each other. ... No mans land is a term for a land that is not occupied or more specifically land that is under dispute between parties that wont occupy it because of fear or uncertainty. ...

A notable example was Messines Ridge, under which 450 tonnes of high explosive were placed in 21 mines after about two years of sapping. Approximately 10,000 German troops were killed when 19 of the mines were simultaneously detonated. One of the explosive caches exploded years later. The 21st cache was never found and there are still several tonnes of high explosive buried somewhere in the Belgian countryside. Combatants United Kingdom France Canada Australia New Zealand German Empire Commanders Douglas Haig Hubert Gough Herbert Plumer Francois Anthoine Max von Gallwitz Erich Ludendorff Strength Unknown Unknown Casualties 448,000 killed and wounded 260,000 killed and wounded The 1917 Battle of Passchendaele, also known as the Third Battle of...

Another example is recorded in Louis Trenker's Berge in Flammen. Whole mountain peaks at the Alps were exploded during the mountain war. Col Di Lana, Lagazuoi, Marmolata, were a few of these peaks. The West face of the Petit Dru above the Chamonix valley near the Mer de Glace. ... Marmolada (the Italian name; also Ladin: Marmoleda, German: Marmolata) is a mountain in northeastern Italy (just east of Trento) and the highest mountain of the Dolomites (a section of the Alps). ...

By World War II troop movements were too fluid, and tunneling too slow, for sapping to be worth the investment of effort. Sappers did see some use during the Vietnam War, such as when United States forces were holding Khe Sanh. Combatants Allies: Poland, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, France/Free France, United States, China, Canada, India, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Greece,Norway and others Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, Japan, Bulgaria, Finland, Romania, Hungary, Burma, Slovakia Casualties Military dead: 17 million Civilian dead: 33 million Total dead: 50 million Military dead... Combatants Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) United States of America South Korea Thailand Australia New Zealand the Philippines Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) National Liberation Front (Viet Cong) Strength ~1,200,000 (1968) ~420,000 (1968) Casualties South Vietnamese dead: 230,000 South Vietnamese wounded: 300,000 US dead... The armed forces of the United States of America consist of the United States Army United States Navy United States Air Force United States Marine Corps United States Coast Guard Note: The United States Coast Guard has both military and law enforcement functions. ... Khe Sahn was a U.S. Marine outpost in South Vietnam used during the Vietnam War. ...

Sometimes sapping efforts were countered by a sapping effort of the besieged party, trying either to penetrate the tunnel to confront the enemy, undermine the enemy tunnel by digging below it, or to blow it up, such as in the First Siege of Vienna. The Siege of Vienna of 1529, as distinct from the Battle of Vienna in 1683, represented the farthest Westward advance into Central Europe of the Ottoman Empire, and of all the clashes between the armies of Christianity and Islam might be signaled as the battle that finally stemmed the previously...