BENEATH HILL 60 29
Plot Summary
Oliver Woodward (Brendan Cowell), a 30- year- old Australian copper miner and
metallurgist, falls in love with Marjorie Moffat Waddell (Bella Heathcote), a woman
10 years his ju nior, but romance must wait. Under pressure to enlist, especially
from Waddell’s father, William (Gerald Lepkowski), Woodward takes a commis-
sion to lead the newly formed 1st Australian Tunneling Com pany, an auxiliary unit
supporting Britain’s Royal Engineers. On the Western Front, Woodward meets
Frank Tiffin (Harrison Gilbertson), a young, shell- shocked Australian soldier (the
underaged Tiffin initially served as a stretcher bearer, where he was given a front-
row seat to the devastation of trench warfare). Woodward reassigns Tom Dwyer
(Duncan Young) and Norman Morris (Gyton Grantley) to relieve Tiffin. When two
German tunnelers break through into the tunnel the Allies are digging beneath
the German lines, Morris and Dwyer kill the Germans but a German mine explodes,
collapsing the tunnel on top of them. Morris is rescued by the other sappers but
Dwyer is killed. Thereafter, Woodward is assigned the task of destroying the Red
House, a German fort raining enfilade fire on the British trenches, by planting
explosives beneath it. His commanding officer, Col. Wilson Rutledge (Chris Hay-
wood), asks the work to be completed immediately. Sgt. Bill Fraser (Steve Le Mar-
quand), Morris, and Woodward cross No Man’s Land, reach the Red House, and
bury the explosives beneath the building. On their way back to British lines, the
soldiers realize that their wire reel isn’t long enough, so Morris is forced to go ahead
to grab the detonator. As they await Morris’s return, the men find a fatally injured
Lt. Robert Clayton (Leon Ford). Morris successfully returns with the detonator,
and the Red House is blown up. The troops are called to the Belgian frontlines, and
when they arrive, Tiffin, Walter, and Bacon are sprayed with German gunfire. Bacon
sacrifices himself for his comrades, running ahead to distract the Germans so that
Tiffin and Walter make it to the British lines. The unit continues on to Hill 60. For
months, Canadian engineers have dug tunnels under neath the Messines Ridge,
embedding nearly a million pounds of high explosives in the form of 21 massive
mines within the soil. Woodward and his platoon are told to maintain and pro-
tect the tunnels, and Woodward engineers a drainage shaft to keep the explo-
sives dry while also constructing diversion tunnels. Sneddon meets his fate in one
of those tunnels after Rutledge orders him to enter it despite the report that Ger-
mans would soon be setting off their own explosives. The Germans discover their
scheme and begin to dig toward the primary tunnel. The Australians counter with
an attack tunnel and blow up the exploratory shaft minutes before they are dis-
covered. Unfortunately, a portion of their tunnel collapses, trapping Tiffin. His
comrade, Sgt. Fraser, races through the trenches to halt the explosions in the mines,
but Woodward refuses his impassioned pleas; the operation is more impor tant than
a single man. Knowing full well he is killing Tiffin, Woodward sets off the mines
in a massive explosion that begins the Battle of Messines. The scene shifts to Aus-
tralia, where Woodward marries Marjorie in 1920 and the surviving members of
the unit are there to celebrate his wedding.