CHAPTER CCXXIV.
THE WESTERN OFFENSIVES OF MESSINES.
THE GERMAN RIGHT IN JUNE, 1917-THE BRITISH OnJECTIVE-f'REPARATIONS FROM YPRES TO THE LYS-THE FRONT OF ATTACK-'i\~YTSCHAETE-MESSINER RIDGE- SIXT VON ARMIX-GENERAL PLUMER-MINING OPERATIONS AT THE RIDGE-EXPLOSION OF THE MINES ON JUNE 7- THE ADVANCE-MAJOR W. REDMOND-CAPTTJRE OF THE RIDGE-THE BRITISH VICTORY.
N earlier chapters we have seen the bulk of his available. forces north of the Lys sncce~ses gained by the French from and fight a third Battle of Ypres. I eraonne-Reims to MoronviIliers, described Now undoubtedly, from a stra.tegical point of the capture of the Vimy "Ridge, and view, the most favourable direction for the Allie::; observed the reasons why the Messines ridge - to deliver their main stroke was against the was 'to be the next objective of the British extreme German right in Belgium. For this Forces. The more advanced positions which it was a necessary preliminary to improve the had been gained by the French were better British position at Ypres, pushing back the suited for defence than those they had held German trenches from the location they held before, but still wel'e not favourable, fol' a tin1.e which completely dominated our own. at any rate, for a further forward movement The aim of J offre and French in 1914 at the in that region. first Battle of Ypres and at the Battle of the In front of the Vimy Ridge, ' which had Yser had been to move on Ghent, so as to turn resisted the attempts of Foch to take it in the right flank of the German Army. Met by September 1915, but had now been stormed an en01'n1.0U8 superiority of luen and gnns, by the British, Sir Douglas Haig had decided they hacl. been forced to adopt ~he defensive. for the present not to push forward into the Thanks largely to inundations, the Duke of plain of Douai or to fight a second Battle of Wurtemberg's ,army had been baffled on the Loos. N or did he propose to attack the La Y ser and the Germans had been, unable to Bassee salient, which, owing to the gain::; of force their way ~long the coast to Dl.Ulkil'k the British at the Battle of Loos, was, like the and Calai~. salient of St. Mihiel, too narrow for Hindenburg In June 1917 the enemy's outposts were in to use as his base in an offensive westwards. the DUlles, well east of Nieup0l't. Thence~ , From the western environs of La, Bas38e southwards, hy Dixrnude, extended a lagoo'n through N euve Chapelle to Frelinghien on the to the edge of the forest of Houthulst north Lys a b elt of fortifications protected the Brit.ish of Ypres and east of the eanal which connects against an advance westwards of Prince the Y ser with the Lys. As the tongue of dry Rupprecht's Army from the Aubers ridge, the land b etween Nieuport and Ostend was of no northern face of t.he La Bas88e promontory. great w'idth and the enemy's coast batteries RII' Douglas, could, therefore, safely mass the forbade a landing from the sea, the area in Vol. XV.-Part 185. 73 74 THE TIMES HIS TORY OF THE WAR.
Scale of One Mile . 9 !4 12 3,4 { Heights in Metres (iOMetres~32 ' 8rt)
MAP ILLUSTRATING THE BATTLE OF MESSINES. THE TIMES HIS TORY OF TIlE WAR. 75
bich it was possible in the summer of 1917 even on the western hank. The effect of Ulese to R,ttack the Germans lay between the flooded untoward events was most unfortwlate. The region and Frelinghien on the Lys. This area Ypres salient and Ypres itself had b ecome shell was traversed by the canal known north of traps ,lmch had, it is true, been gallantly chmg Ypres as the Yperlee and south of that city to, but which were intrinsically bad. as tbe Ypres-Comines canal. The Allies, at It ha.s ·been seen that the enemy possessed a the end of the first Battle of Ypres, had r etained footing on the Yser-Lys canal bank north of a considerable salient east of these canals Ypres. South of Ypres. durin.g the first battle from near Steenstraate on the Yperlee, well of that name, he had fought his way up tbe south of the Forest of Honthulst, to a point wide valley between t,he canal and the eastern north-west of Hollebeke, some three miles end of the Mont-des-Cats range, almost up to from Ypres on the canal which frorn Ypres St. Eloi, two and a half miles from Ypres;
[Official photograph. A FRENCH SOLDIER CARRYING A WOUNDED BRITISH COMRADE.
enters the Lys at Comines. This salient had he had captl.U'ed the woods north and west of been greatly reduced in size during tho second Wytseh aete and the end of the range from Battle of Ypres in April- May 1915, when, vVytschaete to Mesr:;ines. From Messin.es hiR with the aid of poisonous gas, the Germans line went south over the Douve, a tributary had t.emporarily broken Olll' line. Near Holle which joins the Lys at '\iVarneton. bekc we had been driven from Hill 60, an Since, apart from the hill of Cassel, south of earth heap formed from the cutting of the D1.mkirk, the eight mile long Mont-des-Cats, a Ypres-Lille railroad; we had had to abandon range of abrupt, isolated elevations, contains the woods, so celehrated in the first battle, the only considerahle eminences in the vast on both sides of the road from Ypres to Menin plain b etween the Lys and the ~ orth Sea, the and, further, to evacuate Broodseinde and also pre:"cnce of the Germans at vVyt:,3chaete and Zonnebeke on the Ypres-Roulers railroad. l\1 essiDes was a .m enace to t,he Allied forces in Pushed back to about three miles from Ypre3 Flanclers. Their communicat,ions with YpreR on the latt.er line, our front and that of the and the salient ea,st of the canal were under French, which had ori.ginally embraced Lange observation and, at any moment, the Germans marck and Pilkem on the Ypres-Staden rnight take the offensive and ·endeavoLU' to Thoul'out railway, had b een withdrawn west deprive us of K ernn'1el, the highest point warcls .t o the immediatA vicinity of Ypres and of the Mont-des-Cats range. Thi::;, an.d the to the Yperlee canal at Boesinghe. . At some remainder of tbe range, secured, they would points north of Steenstraate the enemy were render Uil tenable Olu' lines north and south of 185-2 76 THE T I MES HISTORY OF THE TIV AR.
[Ofjlciai photograph. THIRSTY SOLDIERS AROUND A W A TER·CART.
it and be in :.:t posit.ion again to strike at Army at. the German sali ent s out.h of Ypres, Dlmkirk and Calais. and to expel the enemy frmn the eastern end ( Before, then, it would be safe to break o\1t of the Mont-des-Cats range and the high gronnd. from the Ypres salient, it was necessaI:Y t.o north-east of it between Wyt.sch aete and the expel the enemy from his stronghold3 on the neighbourhQod of " Hill 60," e~s t of the Ypres Mont-des-Cats range and also to compel him Comines canal. That b eing accomplished, the to ahandon a large part of the low, hroken British Fifth Army, moved up from the south of grOl.md between it and the Ypres-Comines canal. Ana::;, supported on its left by a French Arrny From Wyti?-chctete undulating but lower gr01.md under General Anthoine, the victor of Moron stretches north-eastwards to the Ypres-Menin. villiers, and on its right! by the British Second roact and t.hen northwf'.rcts past Passchendaele Army, was in the autumn to debouc~ from t he t o Staden on the Ypres-Thonrout-Bruges salient east of Ypres and endeav01.u' to gain the railway. If this rising ground could also be high grolUld between " Hill 60" and Staden. captured, it would form, an advantageous step Since November 1916, when the plan of for the advance on Roulers and Ghellt., and campaign for the next year had been sett.lell the position of the Gern~ans towards Lille and at tho conference of military representat.ivos south of it would also he rnenaced. of the Allied Powers, the preparation~ of the Further, the Briti;:;h attack might ultimately British in F landers had been steadily pro tuen the German df'fences on the B elgian coast ceerling. The change of p lans describ ed ill so that t.hey ","ould be compelled to abandon it the last chapter had delayed the offensive and give up Ostend and Zeebrugge, those bases north of the Lys, and it was not till the prior for torpedo boats, light cruisers and Sl..1 bmarines demands of t.he opera.tions rOlmd Arras had from which s.o much harm had b een done to been satisfi ed that labour an,d ma.terial in Allied shipping caerying food and raw materials sufficient quantities could b e released. The to Great Britain, ·work of preparation was then swiftly carried The· plan of Sir D ouglas H aig ftnd Genp.raT to complet.ion. At the opening of the wal' Petain was first to throw tne bntir:; h Se [Officixl photcgraph. CARTING STONES FOR ROAD·MAKING. t.o the LY8 l1ad b een sen 'ed by only one railway , t.he water of t.he Lys was pcm:rped into bo..rges the trunk line from Calais to Lille by Armen and then sterilized. From lalms, pits anel heres. At Hazebrouck, a line branched oft' barges, pipe lines were taken forward and pro Jrom it which, skirting t he western end of the vision made for their rapid extension in the Mont-des-Cats range, connected Ypres with event of victory . 'Vhat was achieved by 01.l!' .the railroFtc1s leading to Ostend, Bruge.s and engineers m ay b e sunnised from t.he fact. t.l1i'l,t ·.Ghent. B etween the first Battle of Ypres and six days after the battle-on .Jl1.ne 15---fron1 the Battle of Vimy-Arras these inad8quate 450,000 to 000,000 gallons of water daily were railway comrrn_Ulications had been greai.Jy being supplied to oue men. supplemented, and in the subsequent week s Arrangements ,~- ere also rllade for t.h ~ trans .they developed to such an extent that hehinrl port of water, rations and stores by mules, our linef:> there existed, in the language of a h orses, and 111. en. So successful ,vere they thn t Wil.r correspondent, "a series of Clapharn. dlll'ing the attaek wat.er ,;vas delivered to t he .Junctions, with broad gauge and narrow gauge troops within 20 to 40 minutes of t.he taking of trains, all as busy as a Lonclon t.ennirrus beforo new positions, while in one case carrying parties .a football Final." arrived with water and rations four minutes At the same time the roads and paths in the after the capt.ure of an objective. ·district were enlarged, m etallecl or extended. It ·will be recollected that, b efore the Battle Forward dUlnps of material were made for the of Vimy-Arras, a plasticine model of the pUJ'pose of constructing n ew or r econstructing unemy's posit.ion had been constructed. A old thoroughfares in the crater-pitted region model, hut on a larger scale covering more than ·defended by the enemy. As the battle was to an acre of ground, had also b een m ade of the b e fought in the smn.mer, special precautions German linos. Ther e, officers anrl Inea (!ou]cl had to be taken to supply the aSRaulting study h our by hour miniatLlre reproduct.ions infantry with water. Existing lakes were of the ruined villages, farms, inlls and shattered tapped, pitR to catch l'R.in-water were dug on woods Thanks to m u' airrnen, n1.ost of t.be . -.the Mout -des-Cati:'l rango round Kemmel, and Gernlan trenches, redoubts and "pill-boxes', '18 THE TIMES HISTORY OF THE WAR. were indicated DIl it The battle haG b een region, the Germans had used their b est en rahear::;ed bit by bit. Particular features on deavours to strengthen its defences. T o give the model had been, in anot·her place, enlarged one instance, they had constructed a timbered to theu' natm'al size and infantrymen carefully gallery leading to a chamb er 8 ft. high. The tralned to act against them. roof of this receptacle consisted of concrete 6 ft,. The front selected for attack measured nearly thick in which were emb edded masses of iron 10 miles, from Mt. Sorrel to St. Yves. Our rails, rivetted solidly together. A flight of final objective was the Oost.taverne Line, which steps led up to a horizontal loophole in the outer lay between these two points. B eginning wall, through which could be seen the whole at Mt. Sorrel, it extended south-westwards of Ypres, the, back of Mt. Sorrel and all om' through "Hill 60" to the Ypres-Comines intricate mesh of trenche.s on the flank of the canal. West of the canal, it ran just south city. of St. Eloi and ascended to the Grand Bois Between " Hill 60 " and the canal there were north of Wytschaete. Skirting the western two spoil ban1{s, one behind the other, very side of thiB wood, it went southwards well strongly prepared for defence. to the west of the village of Wytschaete (260 ft. Beyond and on the cdge of the canal and W8St high), which commanded the ruins of Ypres of Hollebeke, was a park surrounded wit h a and the whole of the British positions in the wood, "Battle vVood" or "Ravine Wood." salient east of the Yser-Lys canal. North-east In this, oppo ~it e the second of the spoil banks, of Wulverghem the German line zig-zagged were the ruins of t.he Chateau Matthieu or eastward down the valley of the Steenebeek ",rrute Chat.eau, once a fine mansion. In the -a tributary of the Douve--:-traversed this pad~ s1.ll'rounding it a stream, in places 20 ft. rivulet and, on the southern slopes of the spur broad, connected the canal with an artificial of Messines, again turned southwards, crossed lake, south of which were the r ernains of sorne the Douve and ended east of St. Yves. . Mes large stables. The timber in park and woods sines, behind the German front, besides giving had b een cut down ann torn by shell fire, but observers there a wide view of the valley of the the trunks and branches wit.h the brick work Lys, enfiladed the British lines .from the Douve still a.fforded some cover to the garrison, when to the Lys. it emerged from its 1.mdergromld shelters there. The main road from Ypres to Armentieres A straight road or drive, the Damm Strasse, on the Lys passed through St. Eloi and crossed ran up from the White Chateau to Wytschaete. the Wytschaete-Messines ridg~. From St. This road was partly sunken and partly, in Eloi another chausee went east of the ridge, front of St. ElOl, raised on an embankment through the low ground between it and the half a mile long and some 15 ft. high. The sun Ypres-Comines canal to Warneton, also on the ken portion of the road was protected by deep Lys. On this high road, level with Wytschaete, concreted dug-outs, which sheltered t,he neces was the village of Oosttaverne, and level with sary garrisons, while on the emban1 [A ustralia l~ official photo:raph. PREPARATIONS FOR THE ADVANCE. Australians examining a large scale model of the battlefield. slightly to the east of Oosttaverne. The second the Mound and the Grand Bois was a series of -3, lit.tle more than a 11.1ile to the east of the formidable defences with barbed-wire entangle first--was known as the vVarneton line, b ecause ment.s covering the vVytschaete end of the it ended at that town. Both barriers wm:lid W ytschaetc-Messines ridge. The Grand Bois hav e to b e dealt wit.h by the B rit ish descending was powerfully fortifi ed, and just b elow· the from St. Eloi to the Lys. eastdrn crest of the ridge were obstacles called From Wytschaete to the White Chateau and the Obvious Trench and Obvious Al!ey. t he Ypres-Comines canal stretched the D amm B eyond them a farm hn il cling, known as the I trasse, with its belt of "pill-boxes." B etween N orth RouRe, had been made into a nest of dug- 80 THE TIMES HI. 'TORY OF THE WAR. outs and n--..achine-gun sh elters. North H ouse " Middle, Farm," on t h e crest looking down commanded the approachAs from Obvions Alley into the Steencbeek valley and across to the to Oosttavernl~ "\iVood. British lines, were Hell 'Wood (Bois de l'Enfer) "\iV yt~chaete, a m ere ::;ha,p eless ml",8S of - organized, like the oth er woods- nort.h of m asonry, had b cen organized as a cic('.nlar fort ; it. a strong point with works of h eavy blocks \vest of the villa.ge a large wood-Bois de of con erete called" L 'Enfer," and south of it "\",ytschaete- and, beyond. it, the P etit ROls, a nest of redonbts, knowll as H ell Farm. formed d ef<;nces of the type: so familiar in t,his Numerou s machine-guns in L 'Enfer enfiladed war the area south of Wytschaet e, those in H ell Reen frOll1. onr side, the ' iVytschaete-Messines F arm th e I'egionnorth of :Messines. ridge south of the foemer village was only a In front of H ell F arm was a cLUTed projec' long, low slope rurUling north and south- -a few tion, concreted and 'wired, " Occur Trench," fields ancl imtches of woodlanrl showing above and, h ard by Hell Farm, another redoubt, marshy grotmd. But t his slope, 80 easy of " Styx FFlrm." To r each t h e vVytschaete a"cent in times of peace, was seamed' with lVIessin.os road on e rnen would have to a<'1vanc0 trenches, and dotted with concrete redoubts down a long, exposed slop'e, crOS8 the Steenebeek sticking· up from an enormous barbed-wire rivulet, mount the ridge and carry, beside H eU ent.anglement. Along the top of the milt) and Wood and the redoubts, t lu-ee lines of trench es .. a half long plateau ran t.he road which ascends The road crossed, they would have $till t.o storm from St. El? i, and, traversing lVIessines, descends two other tren ch es- October TJi'endl ancl to the Douve, and, by the west of Pl.oegst eert O.,ctober Support Tren ch -which ran south 'Wood, joins Ypres to Armentieres. eastward from a little east of "\iVytschaete to. At a point midway between Wytschaet.e t.he e.ast of Messines, and also D esp8gne Fann and Messines were the ruins of some building:-; a t the h ead of the sha.llow valley running, christened by n,<; · " Middle Farm."" B eY9nd down to Gapaard. North of D econ.i.n e-k F8rrn. [French ofjiciai t ll.nlograPlk TnE :SURE·FOOTED DONKEY DOES USEFUL WORK ON SLIPPERY ROADS ~ Carrying reels of telephone wire. THE TIMES HISTORY OF THE WAR. 81 thcre was a · flat plateau, affording no cover the second-line trenches on the Wytschaete till Oosttaverne and Gapaard were carried. Messines ridge. T wo were close to Wytschaete, Messines itself was st.rongly defended and the two near Messines. Each battery consisted of approach to its western face protected by the six short 7'7 cm. guns mounted on low carriages work cOnFltructed rOlmd the hospice. which could b e rapidly moved along the To penetrate the mile and a half of fortified trenches. They fired shells capable of pene- ridge and plateau between Wytschaete and IVlessines was, therefore, as difficult a task as any set by the German engineers to the Allies on the Western Front. It need hardly b e mentioned that. the garrison of the ruins of Messines and the southern and west.ern slopes of its hill had been provided with every device for resisting the British. B eneath the fOlmdations of the ruined church and in the main square a munber of deep concreted caves had been established. A redoubt-" Fanny's Farm "-guarded on the north· east the approaches to the v illage. At the southern foot of Messines Hill ran, like a ditch, the Douve, three or 'four yards wide. Both banks of the river eastwards £rorn the spot where the Ypres-St. Eloi-V\Tytschaete Messines-Arm8ntieres chaussee crossed it were in the posser:;sion of the enemy, whose external line ran over a low ridge southwards east of St. Y ves and the Ploegsteert Wood to the Lys at Frelinghien. The ·road from the Douve upwards to Messines was wired and protected by defences such as Grey Farm and Hun's Walk. The neck of land between the Germ an outermost line and the Lys from Frelinghien to Warneton where it is joined by the Douve, was a tangle of trencher:; and" p ill-boxes." The Germans had had OV8r two years to prepare the position above described. As it may be looked on as the gateway to Dunkirk, Calais and Boulogne, t.hey had ,[ Official photograph. naturally not wasted the time at their dis SAPPERS DIGGING · A COMMUNICATION posal, and a large nunlber of prisoners of war TRENCH NEAR MESSINES. had been ceaselessly at work on this sector. trating the walls of a tank, which if hit by one Anticipatjng danger in this quarter, Hinden of these was -almost certain to be rendered burg had entrusted the defence to General hors-de-combat. But on this occasion these Sixt von Armin, a veteran of the war of 1870-1, weapons did little h arm. One battery was who had fought at Gravelotte and had recently litorally knocked to pieces by o~r artillery commanded a corps at the Battle of the Sonmle. as its position had b een accurately ascertained " The Fourth Army l.mder him was posted between by one of our aeroplanes, although only brought t.he Douve and t he Ypres-Menin road. Sout.h of into act ion at the last rnombnt. In this par the DOU\lC the right wing of the German Sixth ticular instance three of the six guns were Army held the line to the Lys at Frelinghien, a,ctually struck by direct hits. while several divisions were held in reserve Quite early in JlU18, when tho British at Bruges and elsewhere ready to support intensive bombardment WetS already in progress, Sixt von Armin, should he be attacked. Sixt von Armin warned his troops that they To deal with the British Tanks fom' of the would b e attacked. The. front of the expected, new anti-tank batterie3 were stationed behind ba,ttle was defined with considerable accuracy. 82 THE 2'1 1VlES HISTORY OF THE WAR. General von. Lafiert, the commander of the then any specially weak or t.hreatened point. 4th Corps, entrusted with the defence of the Behind an these were the special battle re ViTytschaete-Messines ridge, issued on June 1 serves at the disposal of the commanders of an Order to his Inen pointing out that the the various sectors for the support of threatened retention of the natural strong points of points or for cOlmter-attack. vVytschaete and Messines was of the greatest The Germans had, as we know, introduced importance for the dornination of the vVytschaete poisoll ga::; into warfare, although this was salient. " These two strong points," he added, distinctly forbidden by the Hague Convention "must, therofore, not fall, even temporarily, of July 29, 1899, which had been signed by into the enemy's hands. Both must be Germany and Austria-Hungary on September 4, defended to the utmost and be held to the last 1900. Naturally we had replied to this by man, even if the enmny cuts the connexions like measures. W e seem, indeed, to have gone on both sides and ~:Ll so threatens them from the one petter. At any rate, it is quite certain rear." The reserves of the divisions attacked that German leaders and German troops had, would, von Laffert assured his officers, be avail as they would themselves express it, "a able for the purpose of repelling assaluts. These, heathen anxiety " with regard to the British kept in forward positions, would strengthen gas, as the Commander of the German 40th the parts of the line attacked and aid them Division in an Order addressed to the troops in holding it, and thus give time to bring up lmder his command shows. He said the the division reserves for an immediate and greatest precautions were to be taken against powerful counter-attack. The troops were also hostile gas attacks, as the next division on the to be told that very strong battle reserves both left had recently lost one hundred men from of infantry and artillery were posted close this cause. Disguise it as they might, there behind the front. These were to bo used to could be no doubt that the forthcoming attack thrust back by a concentrated and powerfnI was looked upon with apprehension, not merely [Officia l photograph. BRITISH SOLDIERS ON THE W AY TO THE TRENCHES. attack any of the hostile forces which might by the troop leaders, but also by the troops mallage to break Hll'Ough, if the divisional battle . under them. For the same General von reserves failed to stop them. Laffert instructed his troops that it was very The method employed seerns to have been important to determine the instant the somewhat as follows : The actual front trenches actual attacks were b egun by the British so were held by the minimuyn forces necessary for that their infantry forces, while . advancing, immediate security, b ehind these were sheltered might at once be subjected to the most supports, the two b elonging probably to the powerful fire to make their losses as heavy as same regiments, and forming together the first p ossible. An excellent. maxinl suited to most fighting line. F arther back, but still fairly close occasions, but one not always easy to put and under shelter, each division had in second into practice. For our plan was first of all to line reserve troops which C01Url be used to streng- bornbard a length of German trenches far hc- THE TIlYIE8 HISTORY OF THE WAR. 83 The whole of' the 3rd Bavarian Division, which, as it transpired, relieved the 40th Saxon' :Division on the ridge t,he night before th8 battle, had been placed at von' Laffert's dis posal * to support if neces~ary the counter offensive. Sixt von Al'min, it may h e added, had, b efore . oUr bombardment began, va:stly illcreased his reserves of ammunition and the number of his howitzer. batt-,eries. At the same time, in , anticipation of a reverse, he' had removed ' fartht;r back many of his heavy batt.eries. The troops in the front line, ~ll cas~ t.hey were isolated, had been supplied wit.h extra quan tities of anrrnunition, food and water. The reverse side of the German position from GENERAL SIXT VON ARM IN, Commanded the German Fourth Army. yonel the point selected fOr' assa.ult, and further by bursts of high intensive artillery fire and other means to make our opponents think an .attack was inrrninent at various points. These fc;ints deceived them and made them nervous. "Is it coming here ?-no, there!" Were reserves brought up, they were subject to heavy fire on the road. Far back the line~ of approach were swept . Numerous trench GENERAL VON LAFFERT, ~'a ids added to their anxiety. Did these mean In command of the 4th Army Corps. the first atten;pts of a neavy attack or were they merely little local affairs? t he Ypres-Comines canal to St. Yves was by The Sl.uYl total of these acts completely nature of about the same strength as the side pnz;zled the Germans, nt, any rate so far as about to be assaulted. At the crisis ' of the t.he front trenches were concerned,' and kept First Battle of Ypres this position had been their garrisons in a constant btate of n er su.ccessfl.llly defended for 48 hol..U's against two vousness. « n early fresh Germ.an Corps" by our weary Added to this was the necessity of rseeing that dismounted troopers (probably some 4,000 reinforcements sent up t? the front line actually Tll.en) of the then depleted British cavalry r each ed it , iVhen a column was moving up to Corps, supported by two I nc1iall battalions, and t he trenches it was laid down that "an ener by 4,000 men of British infantry together with getic officer must always marC'h in the rear of a battalion of the London Scottish T erritorials, the cohunn to prevent the men falling out." placed in roughly constructed trenches affording III oth81' WOl'Cl::;, the men were shirking the duties but. lit t.le cover. Since the First Battle of of the fire treneh. "Every man who left. the Ypre.~ the enumy had had more than two . front or reserve lines lTIUSt have a pass." This y ears to render their n aturally strong position was plainly for the same reason. "In casualty vastly stronger. From his posts on Hill r ep ort~ n othing is to be concealed about the condition of the troops, on the other haud the * This d ivision had an unfortlmate and brief expe rience. It came up, was severely handled, and retired conditions are not to b e painted unnecessarily within 24 hours. It had also suffered heavily in the b Jack" fighting south of L ens. 185-3 84 THE TIl\lIES HISTORY OF THE WAR. [Official photograph. LAYING A RAILWAY LINE ON GROUND JUST CAPTURED. 60, the Mound, W"ytschaete Wood and near force for the protection of the southern frontier Messine::; every mOv'ement of the British, unless of Rhodesia in the event of oUT being engaged, they were l.IDderground or otherwise hidden as was then highly probable, in hostilities with from view, was visible. The confidence dis the Boers. When the South African War played by von Laffert waS, therefore, apparently broke out, Colonel Baden-Powell, as will be justified, and a frontal assault on the position well rememberec1, threw himself into Mafeking. was no light task. Fortunately the General For seven months PlumeI' with a few hlmdred opposed to Sixt von Armin was cautious and men, though completely isolated, maintained a ingenious yet, withal, daring. vigorous offensive, diverting large Boer forces Sir Herbert Charles Onslow PlumeI', who from the lines round Mafeking. In May 1900, commanded the Second Arrny, on which the task PlumeI' joined Mahon's force for the relief of devoh'ed, was a Devonshire man. Born on this place, which was accomplished on May 17, March 13, 1857, the year of the Indian Mutiny, 1900. Joining subsequently in the advance on he was in June 1917 just turned 60 years of age. Pretoria, Plumer received the command of a He entered the York and Lancaster Regiment column. His tireless " pursuit of· De Wet in 1876. PronlOted captain in 1882, he first through Cape Colony won him golden opinions, saw active service in the Soudan in 1884, when, and in the rapid and successful advance on as adjutant of the 1st Battalion of his regiment, Pietersbmg in April 1901 he exhibited great he was present at the Battles of El Teb and energy. Slightly wounded in the course of t.he Tamai. During the campaign conducted by South African War, h0 was mentioned three Sir Gerald Graham, he distinguished himself times in dispatches, received the brevet of and was mentioned in dispatches, receiving the Colonel, made A.D.C. to King Edward VII., medal with clasp, the 4th Cla:3s of the Medjidieh created a C.B., and finally promoted Major and the Khedive's Star. A major in 189;~ he, General for distinguished service in the field three years later, served with SiT Frederick in August 1902. " Throughout the campaign," Carrington in Rhodesia. There he raised and wrote LOl'd Kitchener in his dispatch of J1.IDe commanded a corps of moun~ed rifles, which 23, 1902, " he has invariably displayed military materially h elped to put down the Matabele qualifications of a very high order. Few rebellion. Again h e was mentioned in dis oft-lcers have rendered better service." patches and received the medal. PI1.ID1.er left South Africa with a high repu In the summer of 1899, he was sent to South tation. In the interval between the Peace of Africa as a Special Service officer. Under Vereeniging and the opening of the Great 'iV ar Colonel Baden-Powell's direction, he raised a he commanded the 4th Brigade, 1st Army Corps. THE TIMES HISTORY OF THE WAR. and the 10th Division and the 19th Brigade, "The trenches (so-called) scarcely existed," 4th Army Corps. He deserves, therefore, some :-;ays an eye-witnel'3s, quoted by Sir A. Conan .of the credit for the training of the troops who Doyle, "and the ruts which were honoured rendered snch invaluable services in the fir3t with the name were liquid." On March IJ, year of the gigantic struggle on t.he W estern two days after the Battle of N euve Chapel1e, Front. Pltm1.ee was violently attacked in the region In 1004- 5 he was Quartermaster-General to of St. Eloi, bnt, though he had to give ground, the Forces and Third Military Member of the he preveuted the enemy breaking through. newly created Army Council. When Lord At t.he Second Battle of Ypres in April-May Haldane became Mimster of War, PlumeI' was 191:'5, during the surprise caused hy the treach given the command of the 5th Division, Irish erous use of poisonous gas by the Germans, tha Conunand, and ill 1908 was made' a Lieutenant Vth Corps was on the right of the Canadians, General. From 1911 to 1914 the Northern and it was largely due to Plumer's action in Command was under his direction. reinforcing the latter, that the slU'pl'ise failed. Phuner was not among the officers who So well had Plumer behaved in the Second accompanied the original Expeditionary Force Battle of Ypres that, when Smith-Dorrien to France. His organizing abilities had, returned to England at the end of April, however, ample scope at home in. those momen Plumer took his place. tous months when Lord Kitchener was busy Sinco the successful tel'rnination of that creating the New Army. But in. January, desperate contest for Ypres, Flumer had. had 1915, he was given the command of the Vth to remain on the defensive. The Second Army Corps, forming part of the Second Army had. formed the northern pivot of the British lmc1 er Sie Horace Smith-Dorrien. Hifl powers line, when it attacked to pierce the German of leadership were at, once subjected to a severe position at Loos, north of the Somme and t est. The Vth Corpfl (27th and :!8th Divisions) north and sout.h of Arras. The minor engage had to be hurried into the Ypres salient to ment:;; (Hooge and the Bluff) fought by Plumer l'elieve troop" of General d'Urhal's Army. between May 1915 and June 1917 have been Official photograph. A CONCRETE STRONGHOLD LEFT INTACT BY THE GERMANS. 86 THE TIMES HISTORY OF THE W AB.. described in previous chapters. He had fully tiOIlS, billet.s and haek areafi were all brought j Llstified his selection and was now about to under heavy fire. associate his name 'with one of the most stl'iking The supremacy in the air which was thus successes won in the war. obt-allied not. only assisted om' map-makers After tho improvement of the roads, ra.il but most materially aided the gllnners engaged roads, and water supply behind Plumer's in t.he work of sweeping away the· wire en lines, other meaSUl'es had been taken. In t.h8 tanglemeuts, destroying t.he defences and days prcceding the battle a great number of gllTlS si l eU(~ ing the German batteries. The devasta of all calibres, howit.zers, and , trench mort.ars tion wrought by the bombardment which were brought up for the final bombardment, opened 011 the la:;t day of April and continued alld poured a contin11Ou8 and overwhelming stel'tdily up to the eve of tbe battle exceeded anything hitherto att.empted in war, TreeE were reduced to match-w'ood, t.he slopes of the lUlls stripped bare, and the villages-notably vVytschaete and lVlessines-'were turned to shapeless heaps of broken brickwork. In a woek the guns had reduced t.he · scene £l'om cult.ivated civilization to prin1.eval chaos. The Germans in the Great. vVar bad sprung several surprises on their enemies. The huge Allstrian c1ismOlmtable' howihf:'[,s had reduced J,i6ge and N amur. Throwing their , treaty obiigations to t.he winds they had introducerl flan-le t,hrowers and asphyxiating gas, though neither of these produced the effect their treacherous inventors 'hOP8d for. The British Army had also brougl'lt many novelties into the [Official photograph. field. The St.okes mortars with their very rapid A SMASHED FORT AT MESSINES. fire of shell s; the Tanks, 'which had proved so rain of shells on the Germa,n positions. Most useful on the Somme vvere completely new to important of all, the gigantic series of mines war; while our liquid-fITe sheDs were a great designed to blow up the whole main German improvement on the clurnsy flame-throwers of front· position was brought to completion. th8 Gmulanp. To obtall~ the 00mmand of the air was in this Tht} result of our continuous a.rtillery fire case a condition precedent to victory, hecause was t.hat tl~e ~arefully ' prepared def8nsive othttrwis.e observation of ,the German position organizations of the enemy were swept away w 'a~ ·'· '.'· iiq-P~ssible, . Ubles'S' the ~ntrenchinen t,s ' .by . OUI~ : batt, ~rie s. Gun-pits were wrecked; . . , i \). ; . , . .[ . .1, .. al~ [EUiott & Fry. GENERAL SIR HERBERT C. O. PLUMER, G.C.B. been in pr'ogress on so vast a scale that nothing The project had been under discussion since like it had ever before b een seen in war. The July 1915, when indeed some steps W8re taken. Messines-Wytschaete ridge offered favom'able But it was not till January 1916 that it wa:; ground for subterranean war. Mining gal 'finally determined to begin the mining opera leries could b e driven underneath it which for tions on the gigantic scale on which they were some time would be unlikely to be detected by thenceforward conducted. The British Army t ho enemy, and undeterred by the magnitude was fortunate in having many mining com of the task the British leaders had tmdertaken panies of R.oyal Engineers recruited among it. For if successfully carried out, its effect miners from the Mother Country and from on the enemy's front position would b e decisive the Dominions beyond the Seas. To these -it would be blown bodily away. trained men the ' excavation of the galleries, AS THE TIMES HISTORY OF THE WAR. "'--",.·...... , ..-=""'... ,· · '"·T'-~ "" . "'. " [Offi cial photograpll. A MINE EXPLODING ON THE WYTSCHAE'l E RIDGE. compared with what they had been accust.omed . ~ tone onward towards its objective. The t o in civil life, was mt: rt~ child';:\ play. But camouflet aims only at destroying the gallery thert; v\-ere ibat.ures in its actual carrying out and killing the miners without disturbing the which were novel; they were exposed to t.he surface of the ground. ri:::;k of destruction by tho enomy's counter This short de, cription sh ows the trying mines, a danger gr'eater naturally than any nat.ure of subterranean warfare. The nlen they had previollsly run in the most dangerous engaged on it once they have approaehed coal rnines. fairly near to the enemy's line never know when It is c.tifficult for those who have never been they may suddenly be destroyed by an ex engaged in a struggle of this kind to compre plosion or confined behind a destroyed gallery hend its trying nat.ure.. The gallery is dri\-en which alone can give them a safe e.xit, and thus onward, here and there listening galleries will find themselves irn_prisoned in a living tomb. he pushed out right and left to listen for the Besides the inherent dangers of their task sound of tho enemy's counter-operat.ions. A the British miners on th~ Me"sines Ridge found faint sound of picks or the deadened sound of many physical difficulties in their way. \VateI' mining machinery shows that the opponent is b earing strata were met which had to be coffer also thrusting out 11i3 galleries, to intercept dammed off and the water which had nUl into or blow in our own. He will go on till he is the n'line, before this had been done, pumped near enough to strike, then the sound ceases out. In ~uch conditions had many of our men he is loading up to blow in our gallery. We worked over a year. Well might an Aus endeavour to anticipat.e him and, if succel::isful, tralian officer exclaull, "No more underground blow in his cOlmter-mine and gallery. The work for me after this war." On one occasion charges used in these cases, technica11y known he had been burjed for 48 hours, and had to as camoufiets, are smaller than for mines in dig his own way out! tended to produce a crater. This is not their Twenty-four mines were constructed, four object, but rather is it to be avoided, as if a of which were outside the front eventually crater were made it could be seized by the assaulted, while one was destroyed by a German aggressive side and would act as a stepping counter-mine. Of the 19 left many had THE TLZVIES HISTORY OF THE WAR. 89 been completed a year before they were made amOlmted to little short of five miles. The use of, and these required ceaseless care to mines they served were loaded with over a prevent injury from the enemy's COlUlter million pou;lds of the high explosive ammonal, meaSUTes. For the Gormans had become aware an amount which had never been u..qed in any in a general and, fortunately, inaccurate way land operation before, but of which the aggre of the work we had in hand, and ",,·ere them" gate eHect had been precisely calculated by selves UBing a deep-lying mine system to COUIl the engineers ,vho had prepared it. The t.eract it. whole operation did them much credit. * Thus beneath Hill 60 a continuous struggle While listening to the opera,tions of the was k ept up during the 10 months before the enemy the mines had to be loaded, and this final explosion. Here we had two mine::; of done so quietly as not to attract attention by great importance which were only saved from the rUlnbling of trucks bringing up the charges destruction by persistent watchfulness in the or other materials, so that the enemy should face of always threatening danger. Just before hear· nothing which would lead him to believe the date settled for the advance, it was dis that we were getting ready It was a near covered that the Germans were driving a thing, but was successfully accomplished, gallery which would have cut into the one which and on "Our Day " we were ready and the gave access to our two mine chambers lmder enemy was not. the German lines on the Hill in question. At the point known as the Bluff also the Careful listening and careful deduction from it * On October 10, 1885, some 140 tons, or 313.600 lb .• enabled our engineers to say that if the date of Rack-a-Rock had been employed to blow up the Flood for the assault were adhered to the enemy Rock at the dangerous point for navigation known as H ell Gate in the Channel approaching New York. would J'ust ja'iZ to reach our galle1'Y. The reader Ni.ne acres of rock had been shattel'ed; and the 8111" can judge for himself the delicacy of this rounding water had risen by the explosion to a h eight of 200 ft. On the Messines-Wytschaete ridge, it will be situatlOn. observed, more than three times tills amolUlt was Altogetber the length of galleries driven employed. Australian offi·cial phc,tv/:raph. GERMAN SHELLS . BURSTING IN YPRES .. ·90 THE TIMES HISTORY OF ·THE WAR. underground combat went · on· without cessa On W ednesday, Jrlne 6, 1917, all was , no~v tion between January 16, 1916, and. June 7 ready, and the final touch had been , given in the followil1.g year; 27 carnoufl.ets were to the preparations, with a thoroughness explodecl in . this locality. Seventeen of these and attention to detail beyond all praise were our vv-ork, 10 that of the Germans. v..-hich r eflected the greatest credit on Sir From the beginning of February 1917, it Herbert PlumeI', the Commandm' of the Second became evident that the enemy was begin- Arm.y, and his st.aff, as well as on the leaders of . ning Ito be uneasy at the extensive f!1ining the variom3 fOrIYlations concerll ecl and on t.he operations which he had in some m easlU'e artillery and engineer::;. begun to realize. Camoufiet::; were fired to The final objective of our troops was the crush in our galleries, and several heavy Oosttaverne Line, which lay between MOLUl.t mines explodecl in the hope of severely damaging Sorrel and St. Yves. This represented a our work. One of these blew in a gall ery depth to be capt.ured of two a.l1d a half miles. which led to the Spanbroekmolen mine, and During the previous night the 3rd Bavarian cut through it, thus rendoring it useless. Two Division was coming into the German trenches Australians stationed in a listening gallery to relieve the Saxons on the Wytscha,ete hard by were isolated there. Neither, fortu -;'v10::;sines ridge, at thA same time as the m en of nately, was injured, and they contrived to keep the British Second _ill'my made their way to a record of what they ' heard until both were tl18 post s assigned to them, when our protecting rescued. Communication wit.h them was only barrage started. Both German divisions were reopened after the most strenuous efforts caught by it, and both alike suffered h eavi1y. and only terminated on the day preceding the The conternplaterl tran:-:;fel' of duties n ever took attack. Then the mine was loaded and when place, the few Oermalls who tried to stop were it was exploded at the right moment, produced thrust ba~k a mile by om' infantry advance. the largest crater of all the ninet.een, which com The 11th Division after its experience in the pletelyannihilated everytr...ing over a radius of Bullecourt fighting had been ~ent to support von 70 yard::; . A.rmin's men by forced marches It iR not t o lA ust, alian 0 Jficzal photograph. GUNNE({S Al;C WORK DURING A GAS ATTACK. ,THE T ~¥.ES ., fl1E!'tQ1-fY. , PP. \TI;IE W AE. 9l I Official photograph. BRIDGING A MINE eRA TER ON A ROAD. be wondered that it had but small stomach Along this front three of the six army .corps for fm·ther fighting. composing our Second Army were disposed. The followmg extracts fronl. the diary of a The' northernmost o,f these was the X. Corps German stretcher-bea:rer at M~ssines from under General ::Vlorland, comprisin~ the 23rd, May 27 to J1Ul.e 6 show what the preliminary 47th, and 51st Divisions in front line? wit.h treat.ment. of t.he German lines had been: the 24th Division in support. Next this came the IX. Corps, General Ran-tilt-on MAY 27.-The English are firing on u s heavily. MAY 28.-We have two dead and two wounded. Cordon, with the 19th, 16th, and 30th Divisions That is a charming Christian festival (Whit Sunday). leading the attack, an ~l the 11th Division One despairs of all mankind. This everlasting murder. JUNE I.-The English are bombarding all the trenches supporting it. On the sout.h was the n. a.nd as ' far as possible destroying the dugouts. They .Anzac Corps, GeneraL Godley, having the 25th keep sending over shot after shot. To-day we have a (Ulster) Divi:,;ion on it.s left, then the, New whole crowd of casualties. Tpe casualties increase terriblv 'Zeahnd Division, the 3rd Australi['"n Division JUNE 2.-The English never cease their bombard· on the right anrl the 4th Aust,mlian Divi,sion in ment. All the t,renches are clodded up. Nothing more to be made of them. Casualties follow on casualties. . r eserve. * JUNE 3.-The English are trying to demolish our The 3rd Austra.lian Division was astride the dugout, too. Douve, the ~ ew Zealanders above them faced, JUNE 4.-The casualties become more numerous all the time. No shelter to 'brmg the men under. They Messines. The ridge from Messines to L'Enfel' must. now sleep in the open; only a few dugouts left. had been assigned t.o the 25th Division, which JUNE 5.-Casua.lty follows casualty. We have slipped out of,the dugout and moved elsewhere. There induded tJ18 Cheshire Rbgi:rnent. In reserve are many buried by earth. To look on such things is behind was the 4th Australian Division. utter misery. ,The right flank attack mustered in the JUNE 6.-The English are all over u s. They blow up t.he earth all around us a~1d there is shell hole after tre~lChes north of the village of vVulverghem. shell hole, some of them being large enough for a house L'Enfer and the ridge as far as the southern to be built in. We bave already su stained many ca ,~ualtie s . defences of vVytschaete were the ohjectives of the UIRter Division. A South Ireland It is not surprising that. nerve-shattered as the Germans were they did not put up any * The order of these Corp::; and Divisions is given grtat resistance to the first attack. from left to right. 92 THE TIMES HISTORY OF THE WAR. [A u,s/.ralian official photograph. BATTLE OF MESSINES: GERMAN SHELLS BURSTING. Division on its left was to storm t.he Petit barrage fire and possibly for the divisional Bois and the Bois de Wytschaete and supports to come up into t.he front ]ine. In ass (:I:ul t vVytschaete from the west. \Ve1sh answer to these signals the enemy's gtillS ponred and 'Vest CO'untry troops had the task of shra pneI and high -explosive on the roads clearing the Grand Bois at the angle of the leadiug back from our lines and on all place,;:; ene"rny's line nort,h of VVyt.schaete. Thence where ou.1' troops were expect-ed to be congre to the Ypres-Comines Canal were deployed other gating. The British bombardment OLl the English County regiments with the Londoners other hand was b ecoming ::>omewhat less intense on their left. The Londoners were to advance on as if for the time the intention to attack had both banks of the canal; the others were to been abandoned. It caused, however, soon assist. them in capturing Ravine Wood and the after midnight, a hugt'o conflagl'ation north of vVhite Chateau, and were also to carry t.he \Vytschaete, probably due to the ignition of M01md, south o~ St. E [oi, the Damm Strasse, an ammunition dump. and, in conjlIDction with the V,Testerners, the By 2.30 a.m. on Thm'sclay, Jlme 7, the clouds outskirts of Oo~ ttaverne. To the east of the Lon had almosi; disappeared and a fuU moon looked done!'s, English North-Country troops formed down on the battlefield. A party of bombing the extreme left of the army. It may be aeroplanes, each ShOWir,g a tiny light, came· pointed out that Sir Herbert PlumeI' placed the back, and other machines by fours and sixes Australians side by side wit.h the New Zea flew eastward to continue the work cif bombing landers, and the South Irish Division (composed varioUB objectives behind the enemy's lines. mostly of Catholics) between, the Ulst.er and In the half light balloons wont up, flashing back Welsh troops. Thus, the various races were huninous signals to report what they saw; The placed in a friendly rivalry. flames from a thousand or more German guns The few days preceding the battle had been showed up their positions b ehind their front,. almost continuously fine and extremely hot. while the sheUs they fired hurtled through the On ,T lille 6, b etween 6 and 7 p.m .• a very violent a,ir and burst about our lines. tlnmderstorm, accompanied by torrents of min, A little before the hour fixed for the explmnoD: burst north of the Lys. The heat. caused the of the mines, groups of offi cers stood in various mist to rise up from the rain-soddened low dug-outs round the switches which were to ground and covered fOl· a time the ground over make the electrical contuct to fire the charges. which the attack was to be delivered. The sky and set in action the huge masses of explosives. was overcast , render.ing the air warm. The " The last two minutes," related one officer,. enemy susped-ed something was about to " seemed interminable. I thought the final happen and sent up Very lights and red, groen 30 seconds 'would never finish. Slovvly the and yellow rockets from their lines, asking for tired hand of my watch cra.wled ur t,he finishing THE TIMES HISTORY OF THE WAR. quarter of thE') dial- 60 seconds were complete onlookers from the Mont, des-Cats observing· -it was ten minutes past three-Fire! ,, * positions, the scehe was indescribahly grand Precisely at 3.10 a.m. the order was given and terrible. Volcanoes belching fOLmtains of' The surface of Hill 60 was seen to be thrown orange flame suddenly appeared on the long int.o mighty waves with a dull sound, and arc from Hill 60 to the ruin...., of Messines. mounting upwards to t.he sky they were rent in Pillars of dust and smoke shot up t.o the sky;, segments, accompanied by a mighty roar which the earth rocked and the deafening noise and. was heard in London and other parts of England earth vibrations carried the news far over the· '1'he first phase of the battle had begun. Flemish plain to the North Sea. Below, south The r:;moke towered aloft and among its west of Wytschaete the side of the Hill seemed. clouds were soen fragments of trench and con to be rent asunder as if the door of some huge· crete, of wire entanglement, and portions of blast furnace had been flung outw'al'ds with its what, a few seconds hefore, had been living molten contents. The Spanbroeklllolen mine., human beings , opposi.te L'Enfer Hill when fired created a . LGanad~!!n oJft~la. photograph. SMASHED GERrvtAN TRENCHES. In S0111.8 il1stanc88 hardly waiting for the crater 140 yards in diamuter and 70 feet. deep,. smoke to clear away our n1811 went over the a huge cavi~y which would have held a . pa.rapet. As it cleared away the Australians cathedral. saw in front of them a vast. crater, 80me 60 feet Scarcely had the echoes of t.he explpsions died' deep and 90 yards broad-littered with a away, while the 19 columns of srnoke and debris· tangle of barbed win:3 and smashed concrete, were beginning to disperse, than the hack broken weaponr:; and human remains. Round' grOlmd of the British lines was lit up with, the edges of the crater, south of St. Eloi, there thousands of ,lightning fl ashes of our gLlllS tumbled thick slabs of concrete scattered about accompanied by a volunle of deafening sOl.Ulds from riven fortified defenees. At one point which became amalgamat.ed into one continuous· there stood a solitary pill-box among the ruins, roar as they hegan t.o pour a concentrated whether missed by the explosion or Hung there fire of the Inost intense and rapid character on, by it none ccyuld say. The de£td, distorted the posit.ion ,~' here t.he German lines had st.ood occupants wit,hin could tell no tale. before the explosion, find on the support Such was the scene at but. two spot.s. To the trenche& farther back. To the nerve-shattered, * M01'/7,1'119 P ost. . .Illllp J.L 1~1l7 . Gerrn.UJns,: thB ai[' appeared to be alive wit.h. 9'4 . THE , Tl'M.ES . HIS TORY OF '1 JHE WAR. m yriads of shells, ' their bl:U'sts, standillg out carry out the orders they had received to cling against the pale morniq.g sky, while abo've, at any cost to the Mes8ines-vVytschaote position . behind, before thenl, tn left, to right, spraying . Onwarn. through the still clinging gas fumes them with liquid fire or molten meta,l, choking went our men, some held up for a brief time by • them with poison gas, ::;mashing concrete into t.h eir poisonous effects, but always trying t o atoms oe raining ::;hl'apn el upon steel ' helmets, follow close on our artillery harrage. crushing all cOlU'ag8 ont of the few who had T.he fcats p erformed by the men in the sllfvived thfl terrible explosion, fell the awflll reeking, smoke-and-gas-Ia.den atmosphere can rain of projectiles. A bank: of '::;mok e and be but briefly outlined. East of the Ypres fumes rapidly settled down over the battle eomines canal the tremendo llS explosions in field from Mt. Sorrel to the D ouve; and the Hill 60 r egion caused a veritable panic behind rose the sun, flushing the sky with A.n among the Germans B elow :Mt. Sorrel and angry red, On hoth sides nf the fog corn- Armagh 'Vood groups of Wurt~mbergers and ,pounded of mist and the sm~ke of battle rose J aegers rose from dug-outs and with out capt.ive balloons, while thousands of feet stretched hands implored Illercy of the English above them squad.rons of our aeroplanes darted t.roops. Some were founel cowering half-dazed and wheeled, here descending to ob::;el've the at the bottom of the smashed concrete obser effect of the bombardment, t.here passing vation post.s. Hill 60 itself was sec·\.lI'ed with swiftly nn to p(\pper with bombs and with their lit tle difficulty, and our losses on the extrcme Lewis guns·the enemy's reinforcements hurrying left were trifling, one English battalion reaching up the roads leading to the ridges, Others its goal with only three dead and seven went on to homb aerodromes, bridges, railroads, wounded. Another battalion had a death-roll and batterie::;. F e"", if any, aVIator::; of the of less than thirty. Germans yentured to ascend, but the sky was On the eastern and western banks of the dott,od with the puffs of bursting shrapnel di::; canal there was a different t ale to tell. The charged by their anti·aircraft g uns. Still S0me Londoners were held up by machine-gun fire of . the enemy clung to parts of the shattered from the two spoil b anks. One of these ridge, and the ceaseless rat-tat-tat of their they stormed, but the other put up a spirited m achin6-glIDs showed they were trying to rpsistanee. The troopi~ , therefore, paused and lA Its![alian official photcgraph. BRITISH SIEGE ARTILLERY MANNED BY AUSTRALIANS. THE TIMES HISTORY OF THE WAR. 95 [Official photograph, BRITISH TROOPS' MOVING FORWARD OVER SliELL-PITTED GROUND waited until their comrades ~est of the canal English troops struggling with the Prnssians had stormed Battle Wood, the White Chateau for Ravine Wood, west of it. and the eastern end of the Damm Strasse. On the night of June 6 the Southerners h~d The rest of the Londoners, rushing in the half occupied the trenches south of St. Eloi opposite light along the western bank of the canal, at the Mound, which, like Hill 60, had been first carried everything before them. They blown up when at 3.10 a.m. the charges were entered Battle Wood, crossed the end of the fired. The hmmnock disappeared and a cl,tasm Damm Strasse-smashed out of :recognition by took its place. With ringing cheers, wave our artillerY----fand assaulted the chateau, after wave of riflemen and bombers swept for which was defended by a company and a half ward, capturing the dazed defenders and of German infantry. They were met by volleys passing to the right and left of or hetween the of bombs, yet man~ged to pen.etrate the rl1ins, craters. Beyond loomed the formidable Damm only, however, to b e driven back. In nowise 'Strasse which, under the heavy fire of high deterred by this rebuff our gallant men RWLmg explosive sh~lls directed against it, was seen r01,.md itR flanks, tossing incendiary' bombs to be crun'lbling to pieces. Struggling up the for nearly an hour into the cellars. At last broken embankment and casting bombs into the garrison 'emerged into the open with their the few "pill-boxes" left intact, the men hands up. The stables, o~thouses and orangery cleared this obstacle and joined hands with were next attacked and reduced; 45Q prisoners the Londoners in Battle Wood. Hundreds 9f were captured 'as a result of the fighting. prisoners were taken. The lake, wbch was ',n early dry, was seamed Descending from the Damm Strasse, the at its edges with tunnelR and dug-outs. Some Southerners moved against the Ravine time elapsed before these were cleared of their Wood on the top of the slope and down the defenders, and th~ stream connecting the lake, Rodzebeek va.lley, the low6r and eastern end with canal traversed. All through the morning of which was being occupied by detach and the early afternoon the Londoners were ments of the Londoners. At this moment engaged in putting out of 'action the numerous from the In de Sterkie inn our men strong points in this neighbourhood which were struck by a torrent of machine-gun remained to be taken. In Battle Wood they bullets. Taking cover, they opened fire with also rendered :v~lL.1abl.\3 . D-elp to. the Southern t,heir; rifles, silenced the machine-gl..IDs, .and 1.;~1/I.: "':J t , t,..ee",,~ (,;(,..,0'-<) ."''' o'ltl-cofr...;p~() _.A , , \b()J#ott.9& Cp,~ I BY AT -MESSINES: BOMBERS HOLDJNG A POINT OF VANTAGE WHILE LEWIS GUNS WERE HURRIED UP. THE TIMES HISTORY OF THE WAR. 97 ,then advancing bayoneted the few sUL'viving over the northern shoulder of the ridge, the .gunners. South Irish Division moved on Wytschaete . Fresh waves of English troops arrived 011 the To r6ach the crumbled village they had to scene and Ravine Wood was assaulted. Among traverse Petit BoiR and the Bois de Wytschaete, the broken down and entangled branches a The former wood, garrisoned by a company, -long and severe combat ensued. Companies . had been mined, and at 3.10 a.m. it was wiped ·of the German 35th Division counter-attacked off the map by an explosion so violent. that it .at the point of the bayonet. They were m et broke timbers even in our own dug-out,s. by K entish troops, and the morning S1-ill Singing It gleamed on the crossing bayonets. was but And if perchance we do advance for an instant. "Fighting like lions," as an To Wytschaete and Messines officer present described it, " the British thrust They'll know the guns that strafed the Huns Were wearing 0' the green, .and 8tabbed to deat.h their adversaries." Tanks joined the victors, and helped to expel the Irish swept round the Petit Bois and raced ·or kill the few Prussians left in the wood. for the larger wood. "I have heard," ~aid While the fortified zone from the canal to an astonished German officer who was taken the eastern outskirts of Oosttaverne was b eing prisoner, "that the Irish were great fighters, :stormed, the great assault on the Wytschaete but I never expected to see anyone advance Messines ridge at, right angles to it had been like that." At their head was John Redmond's .delivered. On the northern slopes of the brother, Major Willie Redmond, M.P., who, ridge was tht} Grand Bois. It was attacked wen over military age, had joined the Army ,from the west by \Vel:,>h and from the north by on the outbreak of war. After gallant service West Country troops. The entrenchments in the trenches he had been appointed to the 'running eastward from it across the Ypres Staff, but on thif) day, which was destined to Armentieres high road were carried by other be his last, he had insi~ted on accompanying ·Westerners. his 01<;1. battalion. Scarcely had he got out The W elsh, a large 'proportion of whom were of the trenche~ than he was struck by a ,miners, mustered at the opening of tHe battle fragment of a shell and mortally wounded. iround Hollandscheschuur Farm. Between An Ulster ambulance carried him to the rear, them and the wood were strong points,1-mder where, after lingering for a few hours, he died, !neat.h which were British mines. Like the lamented by Irishmen of every party and ,others these were exploded at 3.10 a.m., al~d admired throughout the British Empire. Ithe 'Velshmen ~' ant over the top of their The fall of R edmond, which signified so ,assembly trenches against them. Skirting the much to them, rou..sed his comrades to -edges of the huge craters, they made for the their fullest fury. Machine-guns played on works just in front of the wood, bayoneting them through webs of uncut wire, but nothing and bombing their occupants. Entering the could stop their ardour: in a moment Wyt -wood, after much heavy fighting they reached schaete Wood was rushed by the enr~ged the farther edge. The wood bristled' with soldiery. The cr.ies of bayoneted Germans, ,numerous machine-gL1n emplacements. East the explosions of grenades, the rattle of mus of the wood the \Velshmen paused arid waited ketry, all told that the b eloved eommander was 'for reinforcements. '¥hen these appeare(l being grimly avenged. Soon only one machine -the advance ,'Vas resulned, and "Obvious gun, isolated in a defence of wired trunks in Trench" and "Obvious Alley," j llI:; t over the the centre of the wood, continued firing. Sal edge of the crest., were secured. Twelve guns voes of rifle grenades* speedily killed the little :and two trench mortars were carJtured there. gal'rison, and Wytschaete. \Vood was won. 'The ruin.s of the farm building, North Hou~e, Still a German nOll-commi'3sioIl8d officer hero 'were next stormed, Oosttaverne 'iV ood ",,-as ically remained at. his post up a tree ::>ignaning slowly threaded, and the assau.lt on Oosttaverne to the gum;. H e was not at first ob:,;erved, :itself beg1-ill. By. 3.45 p.m. the village was * A section of each platoon carries. these weapons. finally carried. The Welsh troops halted in They consist of a grenade on a long stem (a species of ramrod) which is fired from the rifle by a o;pecial cart 'OosUaverne, the miners rapicUy entrenching ridge with a RmaU charge. Fired at a high angle they the village and its environs. come down into the point aimed at. Thus, when troops are h eld up for want of artillery and are not near enough Simultaneously w:it4 the advance on Oostt.a to throw hand-grenades they can by the rifle grenades verne of the W 81sh and '~T est-Country troops bomb out the defenders . • . 98 THE· TIMES HISTORY OF THE WAR. and it ~as not till later that he wa.s dit:lcovered The English troops on the right of the Ulster a nd brought down rnen had h ere a broader fortified zone to cross. The sun was ,,,-ell above the horizon when The valley of the Steenebeeklay before thenl, the Irish, issuing from the wood, poured across and they had to ad~ance down its long exposed the open ground and assaulted the northern western slope under fire of numerous machine and Wf'Rtern faces of \i\Tytsc haeto. In the guns* hidden in the eastern facf, of t.he hollow. meantime the U lstermen to their right, assisted vVhen the English got across the little brook by t.he panic caused among the Germans by running along the bottom of the valley, they the explosion of the gigantic Spanbroekmolen had in front of them the succession of obstacles mine, had r eached L 'Enfer Hill and the southern described at 'p. 80. ~ id e of the village at 5.30 a .m. They had on Fronl. the. Kruistreat trenches to the summit the way taken over 1,000 pr~son ers_ of the vVytschaeteJMef:>sines ridge was some B efore noon Wytschaete, turned on the east 2,000 yards in a straight line. The actual by the \iVelshmen descending on Oosttaverne, distance the troops had to traverse ,vas con was ours. The leading cornpanies of South siderably longer. The E nglish were about Irish and Ulstermen h ad at first been checked, to meet, not, troops dispirited' by bombard. but, when the supports arrived, machine-gun ment, but the 3rd Bavarian Division, Which posts and redoubts were soon reducerl. A an-ived after a forced march to relieve ·thE: 40th strong point in t.he cent.re of the v illage alone Saxon D~ v i Rion during the night of June 6-7 . offe[,ed. any serious resistance. It waf:> s'tormed, . The charge of the English was preceded' by' and the Irishmen, crossing the Ypres-Armen a daring feat. During the evening, the tieres roa.d, cOl11rnenceu to move down t he Cheshir8s near vVnlvergherll. entered No Man's eastern slopes of the ridge ill order to protect the Land and dug a trench 4 ft. 6 in. deep arid flank of the Welshmen preparing to assault 1,050 yards long for tJ:1eir jump-off line the Oosttaverne. next day. ' As this trench would not b e likely B etween L'Enfer Hill' and Messines the * The day before 26 more of these weapons had, it . fighting on this day was exceptionally hard. was known, been brought, up 'and postod on the slope. [Official Photogl'a.ph THE GRAVE OF MAJOR W. REDMOND, M.P . • THE TIMES HISTORY OF THE WAR. 99 to be marked on the enemy's Inaps, it was on the ridge, already turned by the Ulstermen hoped that, if the Cheshires started from it, ill Wytschaete, ·was speedily carried after sha.rp they would escape the German barrage which fighting and the Cheshires captm'ed Despagne would be natm'aJly directed more to the west. Farm, repulsing a violent eounter-attack from \iVhen the hour approached for the opening of the direction of Gapa8.rd up the shallow ithe battle, the Cheshires, who had returned to valley. The Bavarians retiring over the ridge . ·our lines, slipped int.o this trench and there awaited. the explosion of the mines. At 3.10 [t.m. the Spanbroekmolen mine and the other mines north-east, north, and south-east of it went up and immediately afterwards the Cheshires and the other English troops picked their way through the smoke and fumes down the slopes to the Steenebeek, crossed this stream, .and in waves began t.he ascent of the ridge. The trench which curved round Hell Farm and the trenches in front of it had been obliterated by our guns. On the crest of the ridge, in Hell vVood, the south-west corner of which vvas entered by the Cheshires, hand to hand fighting began. A company of Bavarians attacked our men in flank, but an officer whipped round two machine glllS and sprayed them '\vith bullets. Almost all who escaped were bayo neted. The Cheshires captm'ed 14 machine gtills and 50 prisoners. The Saxons and t,heir relieving Bavarians were driven back with severe loss, Hell Farm 8.nd Styx Farm we re stoTIned by the same troops, who then dug [Swaine. themselves in. MAJOR W. REDMOND, M.P. From Hell Farm it was no great distance to melted away under the fire of machine-gwls and the Ypres·Armentieres road before which lay rifles and never even reached the CheBhires' October Trench with Middle Farm attached to improvised trenches. it and, beyond it, October Support Trench. Long before the October Support Trench and The Cheshires resuming their advance and Despagne Farm ..."rere carried, the New Zea moving on October Trench, got ahead of the landers, with Australians in support, had time table. An officer suddenly r ealized that expelled the enemy from Mossines and Fanny's they would be caught by the British barrage. Farm, north·east of it. Under heavy shell fire He ordered the men to take refuge in shell the New Zealanders went for\vard through the craters. The barrage crept over them, inflict· dense clouds of smoke caused by the n1.ines and ing some few casualties. shells into the valley of t.he Steenebeek, and "Me8.nwhile the other troops of the DiviBion, ascended the southern enrl of the ridge. At linking up with the Ulstern1.en on L'Enfer Hill, 4.20 a.m. the red dome of the S1.Ul began to rise prepared, like the Cheshires, to assault Oc,t-ober and SOII1e 23 British aeroplanes, fired at by Trench. A broad belt of l..llCut wire barred shrapnel, droned overhead. At 5.S a.m. the approach to it. A couple of companies of skyline of the crest of the ridge appeared out of troops farther south turned the position, while t he haze and smoke.· N ear the northern end of our men smashed their way through the vvire as the hlli11pS and hUlTIl1.1.ocks , which showed the best they could. Bleeding and tOl n the position of l\1essines, the figures of the English survivors stormed Middle F a rm, round which a and a Tank could be perceived. South of the few minutes later lay 300 German corpses. village the New Zealander:::; were slowJy Pl'O There was 110,\T a pause while fresh troops ,ceeding towards the site of the church and the arrived to dtorm October Support Trench. In square. By 7 a,m. the Germans in Messines long unbroken waves t.hey lined up beyond the were all killed, wounded or captured. The New groups of wounded men. The German last line Ze::d8.nders at oece proceeded to dig a tJ:ench 100 THE TIMES HISTORY OF THE WAR. [Official pho£vgraph. A DUCK-BOARD BRIDGE. along the whole of the position they had taken, The operation was skilfully carried out. Our while the Australians came up and carried on men got through the Gennan barrage, placed the work of t.hrusting the enemy off the ridge. the bridges and pa1sed over them to the· The redoubt at Fanny's Farm, north-east of northern bank under fire from the ruin called Messines, for a time held up their advance, but Grey Farm. A young Australian officer, with the Tank referred to came forward and with two his company, crawled through a hedge and set or three shots forced the garrison to surrender. fire to the combustible materials in this redoubt. Hard by, in a hedge, was found one of the The garrison, driven into the open, were shot batteries of anti-Tank -g"lllS, which had been down. Farther to the north, H"llls' 'VITalk, on the smashed before our machine came on the scene. road to Messines, h eld out. The wire rO"llld it Messines and its hill ",",'ere not the most had been UIlCUt. A Tank crawled along the southerly points ~ttacked by Sir Herbert entanglement, flattened it, and shelled the PlumeI'. If Messines Hill were captured it Germans into submission. Other Inachine-gwl would have to be protected from counter emplacements were reduced in similar fashion attacks delivered up its south-eastern slopes. and the enemy expelled from the area between Beyond the Douve towards St. Yves other the slopes of the vVytschaete-Messines ridge and Australian troops had, therefore, been detailed the Douve. Taken on the whole the progress to advance our line, and then cross to the north of the attack all along the line had been mar bank of the stream and assist their comrades vellously rapid and our final objectives on both and the New Zealanders.. Against the Aus flanks were reached, except at a few places, early tralians were the forces forming the extrem.e in the afternoon. These were at the eastern right of the German 6th Army, the northern end of Battle Wood and in strong points in the wing of which rested on the rivulet. The spoil banks of the Ypre~-Comines canal. In the Douve at this point, it will be remembered, is centre our line advanced to within 400 to 800· only some three or four yard~ wide. "Duck yards of the German Oosttaverne line and board" bridges, resembling wooden tables, had parallel to it. been prepared and were carried by the The guns needed for the further attack on Australians. this portion had now been brought. up, while the· THE TIMES HISTORY OF THE WAR. 101 troops and Tanks detailed to take part in the objectives in that part of the field had been new movement were steadily arriving. Mean gained. During the night the capt.ured posi-. while our long-range al"tillery shelled the tions were consolidated, and Tanks patrolled br'idges and roads lee,ding out of the triangle to the east and south between the Oosttaverne formed by the Lys and the Canal. The final and Warneton lines and assisted to repulse attB.ck of the day was about to be delivered. a connter-attack of the Germans made up the By 345 p.m. the 'iVelshmen finally got WaInbeek Valley . . This act of the battle· possession of Oosttayerne. has been graphicaUy described by Mr. C. E. W. At 4 p.m. troops from the noethern and Bean, the official correspondent with the western English Counties entered the Oostta Am,t.ralian Forces. Mr. Bean watchecl t·he verne line east of the village and captured tvvo struggle from a sPOtl at its sonthern end. He b atteries of German field glillS. This line was a wrote: m]e to the east of the Warneton hne and was It was about three in the afternoon that the shelling· suddenly became heavier to the right of Messines_. the last of t.he three fortifie ~L zones between It was both British and Gerinan. It suggested that the British and t he Lys eastward of Freling the Germans were preparing the way for a counter hien. Half an hour later other English batta attack, and we knew that within a few minutes the · Australians, who were moving beyond and through the lions broke through this line fart.her north. New Zealanders and the Briti. h, were to attack farther The enemy was becoming demorali>'.ed at this a long the whole of the sou t h of t,he line, while the British advanced along all the line to the north of them. point, he had suffered very h~avy casualties At a little past three, parties began to move up the and his n1en were surrendering freely. open, past the farthest Australian line. They seemed, at the first, too small for the great distance· they had to · The capture of th!'l main ridge had enabl ed go. But it was only a prelimina.ry move. A few minutes our gum; on it to fire down at the Gem1ans in. later there moved up near to them two "Tanks," a third the Oosttaverne line and to enfilade that portion following at a short distance. As the" Tanks" passed where the front of the infantry had been, the whole of it hetwetln the southern outskirt.s of Oostta hill slope suddenly swarmed with men. "Tank.," and verne and the Ypres-Comines canal. Tllls had men moved together over the crest, the "Tank" guns fia'lbing continually. The German shells were falJing m.aterially aided the final assault. By sunset. thick, again and again blotting out all sign of the the Oosttaverne line had been taken, and our :=tdva:lce in dust and Rmoke. But whene ,ler the dust . 'OjJlctal pllOtogHtph_ LOADING SHELLS ON A LIGHT RAILWAY • 102 THE TIMES HISTORY OF THE WAR. cleared 'you could see the "Tanks" and the infantry thG total loss was probably not far short of still going. Th ,~" Tanks " stood st.ill on the crest for a moment, firing heavil y . but a moment later moved 50,000 m en and Inany weapons were buried towards a nest of German trenches hidden by the trees. beneath the falling earth. * vVith them went the infantry. For a few mmutes O-qr losses were about 10,000 killed and men could still be seen going beyond the crest. Then the battle passed out of view. The farthest objectIve wounded, including Brigadier-General C. H. J. where we could see it had certainly been gained. Brown, D.S.O., of the New Zealand Forces. A quarter of an hour lat.er a grey shape appeared around those far trees, followed short ly by another. No , description of the battle would be It was the " Tanks " returning, their duty done. One complete without an account of iJhe great of t he two wa on fire; the roof of it could be seen blazing . assistance given to the British attack by the But it still continued to work its way out. For several minutes it stopped, and the onlookers thought it des - aeroplanes. We have seen in previous pages [B-elgian official photograph. THE BELL OF WYTSCHAETE CHURCH. Found by the Briti~h troops amid the ruins of the Church. this bell was presented by General Plumer to the King of the Belgians. troyed. But presently it veered and found anothe~ way what they had done b efore the assault in the down the hill. For 25 minutes, with that fire blazing from the roof of it., it made its track down the hill t o way of reconnaissance, how' they had located safety. The "Tanks " came . back , but the infantry the enemy's }mttery emplacement,:,; and bombed stayed. his communications, shelters, and ammunition At 4- a.m. on June 8 the British captured a dmnps. But on the day of battle they sur small portion of trench near Septieme Barn passed all their former deeds. Working hard where the Germa'ns had managed to hold out through t,he night., they h ad poured destruction against our -first attack. on the German aerodromes and other points Plumer had decisively defeated Sixt von Armin. Some 7,200 prisoner's, 67 guns, 94 * Among t he trophies in this part of the field was t he fossil remains of a mammoth. It was discovered in trench mortars, and 294 machine guris had certain digging operations, and with it were flint imple heen taken , by the British. The total loss of ments u sed either to kill the beast or to cut it up. The process of exhumation was not complete, indeed had m en and material suffered by the Germans hardly begun at the time of the attack though it h ad has never been Inade known. How many gone far enough to show that it was an unusually good Gormans' and Gennan guns had vanished in specimen, and was handled with due scientific cal'e . The countrv where it 'was found is rich in remains of the mine explosions, it is difficult to say, but p rehIstOriC n'lan. THE TIMES HISTORY OF THE WAR. 103 [Official photo~raph. A BRITISH HEAVY BATTERY. at which aeroplanes were congregated. As craters, and far back wrought. havoc among the day broke their audacity increased; they came ' lorries and .motor cars bringmg men or muni down to quit.e shor.t ranges, often not over tions to. the front. One pilot swept so close 500 ft. above their target, braving anti·aircra.ft to a motor car that the driver lost his head and shells, machine-g"Lill, and rifle fire. One airman overturned ca.r and passengers into a ditch discovered a four-gun battery moving up to beside the road it was moving on. the front. Coming down ah~lOst on top of it Another aviator, flying over the back roads of he poured on the teams a stream of bullets the German lineI:', 'spotted an aerodrome. No from his Lewis gun. . His next move was sooner seen than he went for it. A machine gun ' against an infantry battalion. Swooping over was fired at him and tIns he silenced with his it he shot a blast of bullets among the men own, then, turning lus attent.ion to the aeroplane and sent them helter-skelter to seek the shelter sheds, he proceeded to bomb them and sweep of the nearest woods and ditches they could find. them with his machine-gun fire. It is astonish German anti-aircraft guns were volleyed on ing to learn, and shows the demoralization that and machine-guns in more or less open positions a daring attack can create, that he made his shattered by their fire. Like hawks they went way back. in safety, though on his return journey for groups of Germans sheltering in shell- he lost his left elevator. [A ~,s!ralian official photograph. AUSTRALIANS MARCHING THROUGH A VILLAGE NEAR YPRES. 104 THE TI MES HI STORY OF THE WAR. ,,-ere so bombed and delugeel with machine-gun fire t.hat the Germans in them abandoned them to seek for b etter sheltflr. ThiB audacity, in fact, so greatly damaged the moral of t.he enerny's aviators that they made no seriolls attempt to rlisput.e the mftstery of the air with ours. Thu8 it was that our flying men coulrl locatc and send back to om' artillery such ace-urate infor mat.ion aB to German gUll positions that apprGximat.ely 300 hostiie gun::; were reduced to silence. The r etmlts wh'ch were obtained on this elay showeel what might be exp ec te c~ in the futm'e when really large numbers of powerful a.er·o plane::; were ern.ployeel in Wft]". At present thiB arm, if 110 longer in its infancy, had certainLy not yet emerged from childhood. So severely had the enemy beell handled at the Battle of Messines that, apart from the" feeblE: counter-attack f-\.bove naITated , he n1.ade pra.ctically no attempt on J lffie 7. N or ,vas it t ill seven in t.he evening of the 8th that a seriolls attempt to recover his lost positions wa~ A HRITISH "CAME'L" (SOPWITH BIPLANE) CHASING AN ENEMY. rnade. Covering the movement by an intense bombarchnent, Sixt von Armin, whose army had It W[1.S not. one but. ·m.any airmen ~ho per meanwhile b een h eaviJy reinforced, made a not i ormed such deeds, firing on troops in their very severely p u sheel effort t.o capture the liLlE' trenches and forcing them to rush tor safety we had gained, bnt ,'vas b loodily reI)L1lsed. -into t.heir elug-outs. T rains bringing Llp troops Consolicla.t.ion of om line and the establish - [Ojfic·if.ll pllOtogmplt. A BlG WATER DEPOT .. ., THE TIMES HISTORY OF THE WAR. 105 mf'nt of advanced posts continued during the ' Vhen these consolidation st eps had been four following days. ' The Au:;:;tralians Reized t aken and our defensive position thoroughly La Potteri8 Farm, south-east of Messines, and seelU'ed the Briti'3h Commander-in-Chief turned Gapaarrl, a mile and a half to the east or hl~ attention to his main offensive north and Messines b etween Oostt.avern8 and War-neton on east of Ypres. To carry this out effectively a the Ypres-Warneton road. re-arrangement of our b a ttle front was n ecessary. Our progress on the right 9f the b attle front In the first place the French troops holding the had made the enerny's positions in the neck line from St. Georges to the sea were replaced by of ground b etw'3en the Lys and St. Yves British units, and the change was completed by l..mtenable. The right w ing of the German 6th June 20. The. Fifth Army was brought from Army therefoee lSraclually evacuat,ed this area the British right centre and took up ground until it rested on t.he L ys a.t La Basse Vine. fronl Observatory Ridge to Boesinghe on New Zealand official ph?tcgraplt. TROPHIES FROM MESSINES INSPECTED BY THE DUKE OF CONNAUGHT · Our patrols kept. tonch \vith the 8n8111Y and hy Jm1.e 10. The French First Al'lny under the evening of Jllne 14 the ' Varneton line had General Ant-hoine extended the British left been abandoned. On that evening wc again flank beyond B08singhe and l'Alieved t he attacked 01'1 both sides of the Ypres-Comines Belgian troops who had hitherto kept the front canal in the direction of Hollebeke and south from that point to N ol'clschoote. and east of }\lesRines. 'l'h e attack was com , iVhile these movements were in hanrl. the pletely su ccessful, and O1ir line was. ad vanced on communicatior.ls hehind the front and t he left. practically the virhole front fro~ ' l t he l'ive:: fl ank of our main force were undergoing the Warnave to Klein Zillebeke. same in1.provements which had b een carrierl By this opel'ation the Second Arrny front had out before the Vimy-Ypres operations had pushed forward as fa!' as Sir Douglas Haig then b een undertaken. The further offensive m ore thought d esirah I e, and on this portion of OUT northerly \;vill b e dealt with later, line our efforts were limited to str imgthening In accordance with their uSLlal practice, as our n ew defences and e::;tablishing forward posts, so~n as they had been beaten the Germans set 105 THE TIJYIES HISTORY OF THE TVAR . to work to belittle or explain away the results different German newspapers. Some reported of t.he fighting. Their official report of J LIDe S the battle as a su.rpr i ~e, and seemed to think ran as fo:!..lo\vs :- we had taken an unfair advantage of them FRONT OF CROWN PRINCE RUPPRECHT.-On the Others stated boldly, following the official lead,. coast and on the Yser front the fighting activity still that t he conquered positions had only b een held remains slight. I The attacks of the English delivered between Ypres lightly and that the t.roops were intended from and Ploegsteert Wood, north of ArmentieroR, after t h e first to retire into a prepared. position days of strong destructive fire, were repulsed to the south-east of Ypres by Lower Schleswig and vViirtem between Hollebeke and Warneton. If this berg Regiments. W e also fought successfully on the were the ease, why were the troops in the front southern wing of the battlefield. line ordered to hold on to the last, as we have On the other hand, the enemy succeeded , a R the result of numerous explosion:=;, in p enetrating into our previously seen on p age 82? Why, moreover, position!> at St. Eloi, W ytschaet e, and MesRines, and in were such elaborate lueasures taken for rein advancing, after stubborn variable fighting, via Wyt schaete and Messines. forcing the fr.ont and for counter-attack to A strong counter-att,ack by Guard and Bavarian regain it if lost? Plainly it was thought., and troops drove the enemy back in the direction of Messines. quite rightly thought, that the front position, Farther north he was brought to a standstill by fresh re"erve:=; . with its command of view and fire over the Later our regiments, who were fighting bravely, ground to be crossed by o·u.r troops, was of the were withdrawn from the salient protruding towardR the west into a prepared position between the bend of highest valu e. When the superior fighting the canal to the north of Hollebeke and the Douve power of our m en t.urned them out of it the ' basin, two kilometres (about It miles ) to the west of Germans h ad- resort to the Ineanest subterfuges ·Warneton. On the Arras front the artillery duel was of great and silliest falsehoods to cover their defeat. intensity in several sectors. Their reserves were used t.o re-establish the EVENING.-To-day the English were unable to continue the battle in Flanders with the forces which battle, but. failed to do so. they employed for the attack yesterday. A locft] Take, again, the question of gun losses. · ad vance to the east of Messines was repulsed. The Germans claimed that the whole of the The official proclamat.ion was, of course, large number lost had been previoU81y rendered backed up by various semi-official ut.terances in useless. This is entirely without foundation. [O{ftcia.l photof.raph. GERMAN PRISONERS CAPTURED IN THE MESs i ~ES BATTLE.