I was going to post that in 1552 Tsar Ivan the Terrible breached the city walls of Kazan using tunnels and mines. That’s how it was depicted in the Soviet film.
But the accounts I just read only mentioned the use of mines, not how they were emplaced. Oh, well.
The battle of Messines is a forgotten horror. We no longer have the sense of history (and gratitude) we once did as a people, remembering those who sacrificed all. Maybe the IT revolution will reopen the past to us.
Mining and tunneling go back to the 13th century and before. In the days before gunpowder the sappers would undermine a tower while building an inflamable wooden framework to support it. The mine being finished, they’d stuff the chamber with combustible materials, set everything on fire, and wait for the targeted tower to fall into the hole.