Which is likely why the article says "an attempt to master the art of mining and reinvent it for the age of the machine gun." Italics mine. The need to master

Which is likely why the article says "an attempt to master the art of mining and reinvent it for the age of the machine gun." Italics mine. The need to master mining in the first place is because "in the belief that siege warfare tactics like this were a thing of the past, the Royal Engineers had wound down their military mining section."