Under the paving of Arras, lie impressive chalk quarries which were dug during the Middle Ages. During the Great War, Arras was destroyed as soon as 1914. From 1916, the Allies began preparing a diversion attack before the Chemin des Dames assault. Their brilliant idea : the New-Zealand Tunnellers were in charge of linking up the quarries to create a true underground network where 24,000 soldiers could be quartered, waiting for the offensive to start.

© Cituation et Ensemble

© Cituation et Ensemble

After going down 20 metres deep in a glass lift, the audioguided tour, accompanied by a courier, takes the visitors into the intimacy of the place. Strategic site as well as a living place, the quarry named Wellington by the New Zealand sappers preserves the memory of these thousands of soldiers billeted underground, a few metres from the frontline, before their surprise attack on the German positions in the morning of 9 April 1917 at 5.30 a.m. The raising to the surface, in the footsteps of these soldiers, will lead you to the shock of the battle, which you will experience through the projection of a film.
Also an emblematic memory place, the site of the Wellington quarry, on the surface, offers a memorial garden as well as a memorial wall, to render homage to the regiments of the First, Third and Fifth British Armies involved in the Battle of Arras.

During the second part of the year 1916, the company of the newzealander tunnellers, constituted by less than 500 people, had to arrange the careers for the preparation off the Battle of Arras. Thanks to the work of these men, chosen for to their know-how, an underground network of 20 km which emerges in front of the first German lines, was created. This city under the town of Arras allowed preserving many human lives at the time of the assault of 9 April 1917. The New Zealanders mission was finished in Arras on April 1918.

This monument is an homage to the amazing work realized by the tunnellers. It was inaugurated on 8 April 2007 on the site of the passive defense in Arras for the commemoration of the 90th birthday of the Battle of Arras.