Has there ever been a battle fought beneath the Earth's surface?

Question

If so, when was it, and which sides were fighting?

Answer 1

Cu Chi: The underground war (Vietnam War) USA vs Vietcong and North Vietnamese Army.

The tunnels began in 1948 so that the Viet Minh could hide from French air and ground sweeps. Each hamlet built their own underground communications route through the hard clay, and over the years, the separate tunnels were slowly and meticulously connected and fortified. By 1965, there were over 200 kilometers of connected tunnel. As the tunnel system grew, so did its complexity. Sleeping chambers, kitchens and wells were built to house and feed the growing number of residents and rudimentary hospitals created to treat the wounded. Most of the supplies used to build and maintain the tunnels were stolen or scavenged from U.S. bases or troops.

The Americans never managed to clear the tunnels, so technically the battle lasted until 1972, when the US left Vietnam.

Answer 2

It was reasonably common during sieges for attackers to attempt to undermine the walls of a settlement. The defenders could try digging tunnels to intercept these tunnels and prevent the attempt to undermine the walls. During the First World War the British dug tunnels under the German lines and place a huge amount of explosives under the German lines in an attempt to blow a hole through which the British could advance, I'm not sure but I believe there were skirmishes while the tunnels were being dug.
There is an example of this type of mining and countermining at St Andrews Castle these 'clashes' were of a small scale and cannot really be considered a battle.

Answer 3

Counter-sapping operations involved driving tunnel down to meet enemy works underway (i.e, placing explosives, or other means to ruin surface defense). A common tactic in
Medieval Period to undermine fortified positions. Mining
an enemy occured during the War Between The States
(See: The Battle of the Crater). Adits were also driven in
WW1 in Europe between entrenched battlelines in offense
and defense. These were more intense than WW2 or the
following conflicts.

Answer 4

Dover -england

dover castle stands on thw white cliffs of dover, under neath it are lots of tunnels amde for escape purposes, there could have been fights underneath there if the castle was invaded, furthermore, some of these tunnels led to vast rooms and in WW2 they were used as a tactical hq and winston churchill even gave some commands down there, so you could say that the english fought the nazi's underground

Answer 5

I think we could include trench warfare - actual hand-to-hand combat in the man-made ditches and fortifications - as subterranean fighting.

For an interesting read, check out the Battle of the Crater that took place during the Siege of Petersburg in the American Civil War. There's a link below.

Answer 6

Peter Cushing was probably in it & it may have been called Battle beneath the Earth's surface.

Answer 7

Undermining of Castles in medieval times (England, France),

Cave battles between US and Japanese in WW2 on the islands leading to Japan,

North Korean cold war tunnelling operations (US, NK),

WW1 tunnelling and mining operations beneath trenches (UK, US, France, Germany),

Submarine warfare, perhaps (everyone).

Then there's all the seismographs looking for shock waves from illicit atomic weapons tests (everyone except Belgium).

Check wikipedia for more info...

Answer 8

Probably the closest was the caves of Iwo Jima and the tunnel rats in Vietnam....

Answer 9

Yes in the tunnels in the Vietnam war

Answer 10

In the Vietnam War, there were fights in th CuChi Tunnels. Vietcong and US Forces.