The New Zealanders followed the British troops in the final offensive from August 1918. Underground works finished for the men and they were converted to bridge works. They erected bridges for the future advance of the British soldiers towards Belgium.
From September to November 1918, all sections of the company, especially the No.4 Section and one of his Lieutenant, James Campbell Neill, moved towards Belgium. The long journey began to the South of Arras, at Marieux near the Somme, and passed throught the North of France villages until the old town of Maubeuge at nearly 50 miles East from Arras.
The site was the crossing of the Canal du Nord by the Hermies-Havrincourt road, the canal at this point passing through a cutting 100 feet deep and with a distance of 180 feet between the tops of the smooth brick walled sides.
From an engineering point of view the task set Captain Holmes, who was acting Officer Commanding Company in the Absence of Major Vickerman on leave, verged on the impossible.
The bridge had been designed for 120 feet, but the task set the Tunnellers was infinitely complicated by the fact that the gap to be covered was no less than 180 feet, joining two bridges.
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From October to November 1918, the Tunnellers were employed on bridges construction following the British Advance to Belgium: Noyelles-sur-Escaut, Masnières, Cambrai, Solesmes, Romeries, Saint Waast and Pont-sur-Sambre.
The wooden or stell bridges had carried a stream of heavy traffic urgently wanted forward.
Nothing could be imagined flatter than the reception given to the news, so eagerly longed for through the long years of war, that at last the enemy had capitulated.
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Half the company moved to Maubeuge for the erection of two bridges in that famous old town.
Along the routes everywhere the Company was greeted with smiles and offers of refreshment and Maubeuge itself was gay with tricolor bunting and Union Jacks.
Part of the town is built on an island in the river Sambre and, as all the conecting bridges had been very thoroughly blown up by the Germans, the inhabitants thereof were marooned except for a very temporary bridge made of sible planks floated on barrels.
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