BATTLE OF MESSINES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 160, 7 June 1929, Page 2

BATTLE OF MESSINES.

ANNIVERSARY OF COMMENCEMENT.

NEW ZEALAND’S PART

To-day is the eleventh anniversary of the commencement of the battle of Messines. From a strategical point, the village of Messines, situated on the southern spur of the low Wytschaete ridge, commanded a wide view of the valley of the Lys and enfiladed the British lines to the south. The village of Wytschaete, on the Highest part of the ridge, commantled the .town of Ypres, and the whole of the British positions in the Ypres salient. It was imperative that the ridge should be occupied by the British, both for tactical and strategical reasons, as it formed a salient in the British lines and had dominated the British positions since the end of 1914. In the late autumn of 1916, Field-Marshal Sir Douglas Haig decided to make the ridge Iris own during the following summer, having long foreseen that the capture of the ridge from St. Yves to Mt. Sorrel, a front of nine to ten miles, must be a necessary preliminary to a new offensive at Ypres. Preparations to that end saw the attack commence on June 7, 1917. TUNNELS FOR THE MINES. In preparation for a great attack, tunnels were driven' into the face of the almost impregnable ridge, and for over a year (from January, 1916) miners were at work pushing forward shafts and tunnels, to construct nineteen huge mines under the enemy s stronghold. Many of the mines were completed months before the offensive, but only one was blown by the enemy through counter-mining. The mines were charged with over a million pounds of ammonal. Other preparations were pushed forward in the most thorough manner. A network of cables was laid, seven feet under the ground, to ensure communication between all parts of the attacking force. Batteries of guns arrived and took up positions; light and heavy railways were run towards the front line at Ploegstreet Wood; forward dumps of ammunition and material were formed ; and a water supply was amassed which., subsequently delivered up to 600,000 gallons of water daily to the offensive sector. As the fine weather approached the _ Germans scented, trouble, and shelling of communications billets and back areas became the order of the day on each side. NEW ZEALAND’S PART.

The attack on Messines and its envirdhiuents was entrusted to tlxe 2nd Anzac Division, under General Godley’s command, which included the New Zealand Division, to which was allotted the task of capturing Messines and consolidating a new line well to the east of the village. The zero hour was fixed at 3.10 a.m. on June 7, at which hour the nineteen mines were exploded simultaneously, the guns opened up, and the infantry assault was launched. The German line could easily be traced by the S.O.S. signals, buc it took, the German gunners ten minutes to lay their guns on their B O.S. line, and by that time most of the lines of attack had passed over no man’s land. The attack proceeded in accordance with time-table, and at 7 a.m. the 4th Battalion N.Z.R.B. reported that the southern part of the village was theirs. Dealing with the battle in his memoirs, LudendorfE says: “The moral effect of the explosions was simply staggering. At several points our troops fell back before the onslaught of the enemy infantry. Powerful artillery fire raining down on the Wyt-s----chaete salient hindered effective intervention by our reserves and the recovery of the position. The 7th June cost us dear, and owing to the success of the enemy attack, tne drain on our reserves was heavy. The British Army did not press its advantage. Apparit only intended to improve its position for the launching of the great Flanders offensive. We should have succeeded in retaining the positions but for the exceptionally powerful mines used by the British, which paved the way. for their attack, consisting, as usual, of fierce artillery fire supporting a closely-massed infantry advanc*-”