Originally Posted by
gumboot
Most of them. A lot of our pioneers were put in British units because no one else had experience mining that sort of terrain. In the Ypres Salient, virtually any time any sort of mining is mentioned, regardless of which troops are "on paper" doing it, they were almost all New Zealand gum diggers. In the late 19th Century/Early 20th Century kauri gum was New Zealand's single biggest export, and 20,000 people were employed in the activity.
New Zealanders in the infantry or other units, who were found to have gum digger experience, were immediately moved into the pioneers.
I did not know that.
On a related note, have you seen Beneath Hill 60? It's a recent Australian film about the 1st Tunneling company and their role at Messines. I've got the DVD but am yet to watch it, I'd be interested to hear your opinion of it.