BEATING THE GERMANS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16570, 20 June 1917, Page 8

BEATING THE GERMANS

BATTLE BY TIME-TABLE.

LEAST COStfLY OF THE WAE.

LONDON. June 0. Describing the capture of the Messines "Ridge, Mr. W. Beach Thomas, correspondent of the Daily Mail, says the enemy had massed troops, specially equipped with light machine-guns and bombs loaded with deadly gas. He had penetrated the hills, and his forte, tunnels, and caves cloaked a thousand guns behind the ridges, where he had held the master position for two and a-half years, practically daring lis to'attack him, and knowing that never in history had an army of equal strength presumed to attack an enemy ensconced in an indestructible fortress. Yet this we dared, and with a new civilian army. The. German had the advantage of all the ridges, his trenches making a delta, miles deep, of innumerable channels. A 2\jo yards' advance meant crossing half* a dozen trenches and behind the ridges lay hidden more guns than the enemy had ! ever before collected. .The enemy dropped gas shells and high-velocity shells into the valley till the Bombardment began, when, instead, up went his 8.0.5. signals, rocket lights, •and sky-high shrapnel, pursuing our airI men, who raced across the enemy lines, I each showing a tiny light winking across the black sky. Our balloons went up in twos and three*, adding their quota to the nightmare' by emitting curious redfire signals, giving ' the impression that ihe balloons were afirp. Once I heard machine-guns aloft, and then the tinkle of gas alarms. Below us' inflammatory shells burnt red, twisting into 1 fantastic ehapes,' like red dragons. Some of the attacking troops used ; smoke barrages, some preferred '* cleat field. The Germans protected their guns by smoke screens. Soon the valley was filled to the brim with smoke and mist until the explosive' ahellfire was the only thing visible.' ••K-/.-'-' 1 ■ i: •• The whole of the second army is gay with the certainty that it> has won the most thorough, most scientific, and least costly battle of the whole war. Every single unit reached its ' objective pat to I the moment fixed to time-table. Water and food were forwarded to the fighters las calmly as in billet*. Captured trenches were wired, and strong posts made at proper points within an hour. At the same hour guns, even the heaviest, were rattling forward amid cheers over ,-the lines which had. been held by the j Germans a few hows earlier. Most of the infantry speak with more zeal and zest of the artillery's performance than of their own. •' 1 ';'V .

We have had losses thpt will' be personally felt by the nation as well as by families, but the cost wac miraculously light, and the gain heavy. Even a stiff-necked Prussian officer said: "We are done."