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sape de guerre

English translation: military (war) tunnel

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
French term or phrase:sape de guerre
English translation:military (war) tunnel
Entered by: Jessica Crockett

19:54 Aug 10, 2016
French to English translations [PRO]
Tech/Engineering - Geology
French term or phrase: sape de guerre
This appears in a document about underground thermal energy storage:

Le sous-sol du territoire métropolitain français est creusé d’environ 500 000 cavités souterraines qui se répartissent en cavités naturelles (karsts) et artificielles (mines et carrières, caves, sapes de guerre, etc.). Parmi ces dernières, on trouve environ 6 000 mines (extraction de matériaux stratégiques : métaux, sel…) et probablement 300 000 à 500 000 carrières souterraines (extraction de calcaire, craie, ardoise, gypse…), d’après le BRGM.

Thanks in advance for any and all help!
Jessica Crockett
United States
Local time: 15:57
military (war) tunnel
Explanation:
Here is the definition:
Sape de guerre : ouvrage militaire de la guerre 14-18 creusé
de part et d’autre de la ligne de front permettant aux troupes de
s’abriter ou de tenter la pénétration des lignes ennemies. Constitué
généralement par une tranchée de surface, une galerie d’accès et
une chambre ou salle souterraine, sa localisation n’est souvent pas
connue : il n’existe aucun plan et les entrées ont été remblayées
rapidement sans être repérées.

You can find it here: http://www.ineris.fr/centredoc/guideeffondrement-web-1360659... if you search for "sape"

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 30 mins (2016-08-10 20:24:18 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

You may want to specify that they are from World War I. The definition in the paper refers specifically to that war.
Selected response from:

Marco Solinas
Local time: 13:57
Grading comment
Thanks for your help! :-)
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4military underground gallery
Korachi
2 +1military (war) tunnel
Marco Solinas
3sap
Frogologue


Discussion entries: 2





  

Answers


14 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 2/5Answerer confidence 2/5 peer agreement (net): +1
military (war) tunnel


Explanation:
Here is the definition:
Sape de guerre : ouvrage militaire de la guerre 14-18 creusé
de part et d’autre de la ligne de front permettant aux troupes de
s’abriter ou de tenter la pénétration des lignes ennemies. Constitué
généralement par une tranchée de surface, une galerie d’accès et
une chambre ou salle souterraine, sa localisation n’est souvent pas
connue : il n’existe aucun plan et les entrées ont été remblayées
rapidement sans être repérées.

You can find it here: http://www.ineris.fr/centredoc/guideeffondrement-web-1360659... if you search for "sape"

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 30 mins (2016-08-10 20:24:18 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

You may want to specify that they are from World War I. The definition in the paper refers specifically to that war.

Marco Solinas
Local time: 13:57
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish, Native in ItalianItalian
PRO pts in category: 20
Grading comment
Thanks for your help! :-)

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  Frogologue: Yes and no. Saps date back to ancient times too, and France's underground has a very long history. Perhaps "military siege tunnels" or just "siege tunnels" ("military" being relatively obvious)
4 hrs
agree  chris collister: Hardly "siege" if these structures relate to '14 - '18. "Wartime tunnels/excavations" should work.
10 hrs
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14 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
sap


Explanation:
These sapes de guerre do not date solely to 14-18, they've been around for hundreds of years. Since the French sape is an uncommon technical term and has its obvious equivalent in English, sap (as in sapper), why not use that?

Example sentence(s):
  • ... sappers to dig tunnels underneath castle walls and towers. Once the miners reached their destination, they filled the tunnel, sometimes called a sap

    Reference: http://www.historynet.com/medieval-warfare-how-to-capture-a-...
Frogologue
Local time: 22:57
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
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1 day 3 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
military underground gallery


Explanation:
http://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/sape//1 :
''2. P. anal., GÉNIE MILIT. Galerie souterraine exécutée dans une guerre de siège ou une guerre de tranchées pour s'approcher à couvert d'une position ennemie. Sur les vingt-cinq kilomètres de largeur qui forment le front de l'armée, il faut compter mille kilomètres de lignes creuses: tranchées, boyaux, sapes (Barbusse, Feu, 1916, p. 32)."

Korachi
Morocco
Local time: 21:57
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in ArabicArabic, Native in FrenchFrench
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