MESSINES' RIDGE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16567, 16 June 1917, Page 1 (Supplement)

MESSINES' RIDGE.

GREATEST BRITISH VICTORY.

bt LnUT.-COL. a. a. ORACH, N.Z.J.A. RES.. Tot extraordinary success of Sir Herbert Plumer'e troops in Belgium stands out as a inosfc dramatic and spectacular military operation. Imagine a low ridge rising gome 200 ft above the plain and stretching N.N.E. and S.S.W. for some ten or twelve miles. On this ridge at least 80,000 Germans are entrenched; their position strengthened with an innumerable number of guns pf all calibres, machine-guns, trench mortars, mines, barbed wire, and every contrivance which the mind of man can conceive. They have been there so long that their systems of trenches, dugouts, and communications are as perfect as the methodical German mind can contrive. Behind "this defensive line the country falls away to the valley of the River Lys, from which by road and rail supplies can be brought with perfect facility and reinforcement* hurried to the front trenches. It was sjjch a position which faced General Plumer's . troops, and with an ingenuity and a courage which are beyond all praise they stormed it and took it with minimum loss to themselves and maximum loss to the enemy.

Messines, which the Now Zealanders so gallantly took, is at. the extreme south of the ridge, and Wytschaete one and a-half miles to the north of that place. ' Oostaverne is a little village half a mile east of Wytschaete. ' Hill 60 is three miles N.E. of Ooostaveme, and Zillebeke is one mile N.W. of Hill 60. It would seem conclusive that the method of breaking this formidable line was as simple as it wa 8 tremendous—it was, bombarded * for some nine or ten days in a manner which baffles comprehension, then the front was blown up by means of mines, which had | taken twelve months and more to , construct, and finally the infantry went forward behind a protecting curtain of British shells, and the ridge was won!

. A Convincing Victory. t , In lh 40m the New flealanders were in Messines. In about the same time the Irish were in Wytschaete, and the English had taken Battle Wood, which is south of Zillebeke. Not only was the ridge captured, but the German defensive line was broken; the captured position on Messines Ridge do- v minating and enfilading the German defensive works on the plain southwards. Daylight found scows of British aeroplanes dominating the* captured positions and preventing the German airmen from discovering . the disposition of the British troops and guns. From Floogsteert, which is one mile and a-half north of the. French border, v to the'vicinity of Zonnebeke, that is, for a distance of some 12 miles, the German line of defence was shattered and in the hands of the British, who by midday had in several places advanced across the ridge; driving the broken Germans before them. v ""■>'- '. This most signal victory may not be decisive, in ; that 'it may not lead to the direct and immediate expulsion of the Germans from Belgium and Northern France, but it is a victory, of great military value.'. It gives the British command of the higher ground, in the neighbourhood of Ypres. It proves the superiority of British military methods over' those of the t Germans. ,*lt proves in the most emphatic manner that the. Germans, can be turned out of the strongest' positions",'; fortified with every mean of defence, It is the sort of victory which > will convince the j German nation, -that Britain, once 'despised," then; hated, how feared, is not merely fletermined but able to * drive them out of Belgium and Northern' France. . It, will convince , v the world of Britain's determination to exact proper reparation for the ruthless sinking of 'i British , merchant ; ships, the*' drowning of their crewS, "arid the ; bombing of open towns in England. , "'. '">'■

Bow the Ridge Was Taken. • , When we, come to consider the battle tactically, one or two point* are prominently observable. /;' North '' and south of the- ridge the country is flat, but Sir Herbert Plumer did not attempt to turn the position, but smashed it with a frontal attack, and this in spite of the fact that since th* ridge trends N.N.E.andS.S.W., turning it from the direction ofPloegsteert would have exposed the lines of communication trending to it. 'Instead he tacked the entire front 'of the position, and seems to have directed his strongest blow at Messines, at the extreme south of the ridge, and from there threatens the rear of the German line, both north and south. ' It remains to be seen what me General Plumer will be able to make of his success, but whether or no the German concentration 1- of reserves at Warneton, which is * two-' and »-half miles S.W. of Messines, be successful in staying his progress, such advantage has been gained as well may/lead to the jeopardising of the German armies in Western Belgium and Northern ; France. What part this remarkable, achievement is intended or destined to play in the general plan of campaign devised by-Sir Douglas Haig, is, difficult to see, but it is a victory which will please the French people no less than it will gratify the British. Politically it should do a good deal to revive the military spirit in the Russians. Considered in a purely military aspect it must tend to hold on the Western.front German divisions which Hindenburg might otherwise employ against the Russians. Simple, though tremendous, in conception ; intricate and requiring infinite foresight and patience in its preparation; supremely neat and precise m execution, this wonderful military performance hag raised the British army's reputation to the highest plane. The battlu was won principally through the agency of the enormous number of guns employed, the unlimited gupI ply of ammunition, and < the huge amount of high explosive used in the mines; bnfc that would have accomplished little without the heroism of the astonishing infantry. The scientific branches of the service were taxed to the utmost to prepare for the assault, but the success of that preparation subtracts nothing from the glory earned by the infantry in its splendid advance. The Superior British Army.

British military history abounds in incidents of sublime courage and extraordinary achievement— storming of Badajoz, " the thin red line" at Albuera, Abercrombie's landing in Egypt, are instances—and it may safely bo predicted that Sir Herbert Plumer's assault and capture of the Ypreß salient will occupy a highly honourable- place in the annalii of the Empire, and we of New Zealand may justly be proud that troops from this far country played no inconspicuous part in the brilliant action. With the Somme and battle of Arras it forms a trio of victories wiUi which the Germans can show nothing comparable in the Western theatre of the war. Indeed, when one eliminates the first furious advance of the Germans into France, when surprise carried them 6outh of the Marne, the success of our enemies in the West ceased from their occupation of the line of the Aisne, where they rallied after their sanguinary defeat on the line of the Maine.' All their attempts to pierce the British battle front-have failed dismally,' whether it was at Ypres, where their cry was " Calais at all coats," or elsewhere; while on a dozen major occasions the British have assaulted the Germans' strongest positions, and have captured them. The British army has proved itself superior in every particular to the German army opposed to.it in- Belgium and Northern France—that ,is' the great lesson to.be learnt from this latest conspicuous triumph, and it is a lesson which will impress itself on the minds not only of our brave allies, and encourage them, to emulate this most successful feat of arms, but it will impress itself on the minds of the Germans themselves, i and imbue them with a knowledge of the sort of handling they may expect in future from the terribly determined armies- of Great Britain* : -T<- *^IffM/* [Written Jut 11] ■<