THE MESSINES BATTLE

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 48, 20 August 1917, Page 2

THE MESSINES BATTLE

FIGHTER'S VIVID STORY.

An Australian non-commissioned officer in France, writes to his mother of the Battle of Messines Ridge:—

"I have come through the greatest battle of the war with only a slight shrapnel wound, which did not put me out of action. I am not going to describe the immensity of the whole thing. That is. a task I will leave for afterwards. Read papers of about the date and you will know. The mines, the roar of which, awakened people in England, were exploded not 300 yards to the right of where we were crouching ready to spring up and over at the critical 1 moment. The ground beneath 0m 1 feet and all around us just jumped and heaved like a- rowing boat in a jumpy sea. and —we were ofL The sight beggars description. Dawn was just breaking, and wo rushed into an inferno .of blazing red. The.-world, our particular part.of it, was a great big choking furnace, and the crash of guns and shells drowned all noise, even the shrieks of the maimed and dying. Thousands and thousands of men struggled on in that shell-shriven area, and it was the hardest thing imaginable to keep my mea together. I held my bayonet and rifle as high above my head as possible, trusting they would sec and follow, and most of them did. We had to cross 11 river—treacherous with wire sunk in the mud, and then struggle through the enemy's shattered wire de.fences. I had only breasted.his parapet when a shell blew me clear back into wliat was then No Man's Land.

"It only occupied ten minutes to bayonet any Fritz who preferred death to surrender in the front-line systems, and on wo streamed to the support trenches and beyond. It was only, isolated Opposition we had until we 1 were beyond Imgodly Trench, Here some hundreds of. Fritz's Itad established themselves m shell holies, and were going for dear life with rifles and three machine-guns. The boys in my battalion were niagnifioent. They weirt straight at them, firing as they ran. The machine-gunners directly to my front were shot, and three more hopped up into their place. It was sheer recklessness that won the day here. The fellows would charge straight at anything in their line, and I. saw on* man run full tilt at a hole containing seven of the enemy who were so flustered that they could not aim accurately at even/a few yards. He killed two and took the other five prisoners. But there were so many things. I will have to save, them up. We did 'everything we were asked to do, and- could have done heaps more if wo had not been compelled to stop on account of orders previously received. Then we dug in and held on for 48 hours without a wink of sleep. Seventytwo hours altogether without closing our eyes; moi'e really, because we had no sleep after 6 a-.in. on the morning previous to taking off. ' " The digging-in was worst of all. We were sniped at and shelled throughout, and we would only get down a bit to have our. trench filled up by bursting shells.

"The second night was absolute Hades. It was just in. front of us that he massed his big counter-attack, and we got the full strength of his artillery perforation. I had to be dug out of the shelled-in trench three ."times within on hour, and_ there was scarcely a man left at midnight who was not shaking, and shivering with shell shock. It was just awful. One shell killed eight men outright, including one -of the best officers I have ever come in contact with.

• "Anyway, we took the right slope of the Messines Ridge, captured 100 prisoners, .7 machine guns, 2 field guns (shooting the Fritzs as we ran up to the guns), and thousands- of minor thinga. The New Zealanders took Messines in grand style. I was among them for a bit. Our battalion did the best job in .the division, so the 'heads' reckon. We took a mile in depth of a recognised stronghold under terribly adverse condition. While we were getting to the take-off trenches we-ha/d to march two miles through gas which Fritz sent over. Seventeen of our company were .killed by it, and most of us suffered more or less. The r-espirators are effective if you remain quiet, but on a hot night marching quickly there were few of us who did not get a bad doing. .So that when we got to the starting point we were more or less sick and exhausted. One hundred and twenty men went over from A Company, a.nd 73 are now out oE ,-iction—happily, the great majority only temporarily.

" But it is something to be able to say you fought iv the greatest advance in the war in the hottest corner and against thn greatest concentration of German guns yet known."