CAPTURE OF MESSINESS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16600, 25 July 1917, Page 8

CAPTURE OF MESSINESS.

NEW ZEALANDERS' SUCCESS.

STIFF FIGHTING IN VILLAGE

[from orrn own correspondent.]

LONDON, June 12.

Messines. carried by the New Zealanders on June 7, is one of the historic battle places on the western front. The Wytschaete-Messines Ridge was the most important point on the Belgian front, and its possession gives the British domination over the plains of Flanders, and wipes out the salient from which the Germans ha\e always commanded Ypves. "The story of this great battle, and great victory, for it is really that, cannot be told in a few lines, but it is good enough to know that everywhere) our men have succeeded with astonishing rapidity, and that the plan of battle has been fidfilled almost to the letter and to the timetable," Mr. Philip Gibbs wrote. "The Anzac troops bad reached and captured Messines in an hour and forty minutes after the moment of attack, in spite of heavy fighting in the German trenches, where many | of the enemy were killed. Irish troops — I Nationalists "and Ulsfcerman —not divided in politics on the battlefield, but vieing j with each other in courage and self- ' sacrifice, stormed their way up to j Wytschaete, and, after desperate resist- | I ance from the enemy, captured ail that is j i left of the famous white chateau, which i ; for years our soldiers have watched | through hidden glasses as a far high place, j like the castle of a dream. By mid-day j 1 our men were well down the further slopes i i of the ridge. ; A Eight to be Proud. i " The lightly-wounded men are happy j land proud of their victory. 'We New; I Zenlandere can afford to be a little cocky ' . ! asid one of these, a bronzed fellow. 'My I word. I'm glad we had the luck.' He i j was wounded in the foot, but the man just hugged the news of victory. 'We I ; shall be no ends stuck up,' he said, and I then laughed in a simple way and said, I " I'm glad New Zealand did so well. It's • natural. But they tell me the Irish j were splendid, and the Australians could | I not be held back. It's good to have done ; '■ the job, and I hope it will help on the j i end of the war.' That New Zealander I I spoke the thought of thousands who have j , been fighting in this great battle. They j I have a right to be proud of themselves, | I for they have broken the curse of the j i ealient and relieved it of its horror." Mr. W. Perry Robinson writes :— | " Next to the ridge itself, the most im- ' portant points gained are the villages of , I Wytschaete and Messines. In the centre, due east from Messines, the advance attained its greatest depth. In any event, it is go far a success of the most sweepi nig kind. It is to the New Zealanders j that the honour of winning the village of ] Messines fell, and they did their work i | always cleanly and well, with very light j i casualties, where clumsier troops might i | have suffered heavily; and after the ! success they, consolidated and fortified | their ground with a thoroughness and ; precision which deserve the highest praise. | In the capture of the ridge, both north j and south, Irishmen have had their share. j Northerners and Southerners, Protestant i

! and Catholic troops, fought alongside one ! another. Between New Zealand, Aus- | tralian, and Irish troops were the staunch I English regiments, which have done, a; i always, magnificently. They have carriec I everything before them, and, so fax a: ! we know at present, there is no flaw it ! our success." I Easily Up the Slope. " Attacking at dawn on a front of more I than 10 miles, British divisions, including j some of the finest fighting men of th« I United Kingdom and the Dominions i Overseas, swept the slopes of this heavily • fortified barrier between Ypree and | Armentieres, and firmlv established them i selves beyond its crest/' says Mr. Perciva! ! Phillips. " They took many hundreds oi prisoners, and a far greater number of I Germans were killed by our guns. The victory is a triumph equally for the Irish i troops, for the historic line regiments of J England and Scotland, and for the [ staunch battalions of the Australian and : New Zealand men. It was a triumph for j the fleet of Tanks; for the innumerable I airmen who blackened the 6ky at dawn i and ruled it thereafter; for the plodding ; sappers and miners, who laboured for ' months on one of the most destructive ! networks of mines ever exploded on this I —and for the gunners, whose true I and deadly barrage paved the way to vici tory. Our 'men might well have had to I fight every foot of the way, but they went ; easily up the slope, and the stiffest'resietance they had to meet was not equal to I the dogged stand made by certain German • units in the Arras battle. In and around Messines there were isolated combats. It : was a wonderfully scientific barrage that dropped in front of the advancing English battalions, the Irishmen, who had sunk their differences in order to meet the common foe, and the New Zealanders and Australians, who kept their end of the advancing i line. It curtained the ground we were sweeping over, and it countered the waiting German batteries beyond the ridge." Reuter's correspondent says : "The Anzacs fought magnificently, the New Zealanders carrying the ruins of Messines in a very I dashing manner." j Through Heavy Shelling, I The New Zealanders seem to have had, 1 perhaps, as formidable a part of the line ; as any, with the village of Messines itself as the chief objective," writes the Times. I " The German guns against them were apparently quicker in getting to work, and , less helpless than on some parts of the front of attack, and the New Zealanders had to go through heavy shelling. The chief resistance of the German infantry was in Messines itself, in certain strongly fortified positions near where the church . had been and in the main square. Here , there was some stiff fighting, but the • New Zealanders, not only took the village . and even-thing they were pet to take ■ within the time appointed, but then dug • a trench, and would have liked to go on and do some more. It was from this . point, however, that the Australians came . up in support and, according to plan went ; through the New Zealanders and carried '. on tho victorious advance forward to the - line which we now hold. This is a total advance of about 5000 yards. The Austra- ; Hans had some heavy "shelling and sa't- . tered machine-gun fire opposition, but ■ nowhere did the Germans really stand up ; to them, having doubtless learned wisdom , ! when they met the Australians before, at . ' Pozieres and elsewhere. Officers of the I Australians speak with immense enthusi- ' ! asm of the behaviour of their men, who . were simply not to be restrained."' ; | The trench referred to above was finished . by the evening of June 7. It was a first- . class 6ft trench along the whole of their ■ new front, and the New Zealanders that night slept at the bottom of it.