THE TAKING OF MESSINES

Otago Witness, Issue 3309, 15 August 1917, Page 39

THE TAKING OF MESSINES

HOW THE NEW ZEALANDERS STORMED THE RIDGE. (From Malcolm Ross, War Correspondent with tho N.Z. Forces in the Field. ) BELGIUM, Juno 8. As the days advanced the constant pounding of the guns died away in the south, but only to increaso to a giant crescendo in the north. The enemy, realising that another attack was imminent, began to strengthen his defences behind Messines and on other parts of tho line occupied by our and the adjoining- corps. The railway line from Lille to Commas, which is on the Lys, cast of Messines., was, towards tho end of April, reported doubled, the road from Lille to Tournai had been widened, and later much defensive work had been done close to the line. As our own vast preparations drew to a close, new guns began to arrive, and planes multiplied in the air. Thousands and thousands and thousands of tons of ammunition were stacked at many dumps. Finally our gunners got to work with the great bombardments. Tho enemy replied furiously. Then dumps began to go up and burn. This on both sides of the line. The explosions shook our huts, miles away, and vast volumes of smoke rose in the air. I watched, from a vantage point a few hundred yards away, ono spectacular outburst that continued for hours, and that made as much noise as a battle on a small scale. This was discouraging, but it was only, after all, a drop in tho gigantic bucket. Next day the vanished stores were replaced, and our sweating- gunners had not to slacken their efforts for an instant. By day there were columns of smoke and dust ail along the German line. By night the sky was radiant with tho flash of guns and the flame of bursting shells. As one great bombardment succeeded another, at uncertain intervals, that tense feeling of subdued excitement and expectancy, even of elation, that precedes a great battle, seemed to creep into the minds of men about to take part in it. One watched companies march singing, or with bands playing, along the road towards tho front. Some carried banners. An Irish battalion passed one day carrying a great green banner, on which was the Crown and the Harp of Erin. They said they were going to plant it on the Messines Ridge. They sang, as they went, snatches of music hall lilts, and "Tipperary," which ono seldom hears nowadays. Our own men went cheerfully to the front. Their confidence and their morale were such that they considered themselves already in Messines, for by this time they all knew that the honour of attacking this strong and dominating position had been allotted to them. ON THE EVE OF THE BATTLE. At last we knew that the day had arrived. Shortly after midnight I left Divisional Headquarters, in company with another correspondent and our ofhcial photographer. Our car had to run tho gauntlet of a road that was constantly barraged by the enemy. On this occasion he was putting over gas and tear shells, as well as «ome heavier stuff. Hurriedly we then had to don our gas masks. In'such a situation the driver has all the worst of it. It is bad enough to drive at night with no lights burning, but when, in addition, he has to see the way through goggles dimmed by breathing, and to avoid probable shell-holes, the strain is not altogether a light one. But we reached the farthest point to which a car could go in safety. Gathering together hastily our steel helmets, gas-masks, binoculars, and some food and drink wo sent the car back at once, and started through the open for a point of vantage in tho subsidiary line right in front of Messines. The place was being peppered by German gas-shells, and all the men were wearing their masks. Along the treefringed pathway, by which wo went, we saw dimly through our goggles two stretcherbearers carrying a sorely-wounded man, his clothes torn from his body by shell-lire. Hampered by our masks, we felt our way along a path on and beside which many shells had made holes in tho earth. The gas shells were still falling. They do not burst, but fall with a whining ping as of a rifle bullet hitting against hard rock.' Just before 1 o'clock we gained the comparative safety of tho trench, and, proceeding along it for some distance, settled down to the vigil that separated us from the appointed hour. We arrived panting, and were glad to be able to take off our masks. Away on our left a fire broke out, and lit the northern sky with a red light, which gradually died down. At intervals, from overhead, came the droning of planes, and, looking up, we saw these daring night fliers, only a few hundred feet above, returning from tho German lines, like great black birds against the sky. The usual flares went up all along the lino, momentarily lighting the gloom with their brilliance. Our shelling had died down to what was just ordinary. The howitzer shells from farther back whistled wearily overhead from both lines. The lighter field guns immediately behind us were almost silent. AN ENTHRALLING SPECTACLE.

At 3 a.m. the fiiist faint streaks of dawn appeared in the sky to the south-east of Messines. Away on the left, where the lines bent over the ridge in the direction of Wytschaete, there was some activity and many* flares were shooting skyward. Then a double green light went up in front of Messines, and fell slowly, very beautiful in the darkness that still veiled the earth. Following that came £he stuttering of machine guns. We looked at our watches anxiously. The crunch of a big" Gprman shell not far away momentarily distracted attention, and then more gas shells began to arrive. The German was endeavouring to hamper our night communications. I looked at my watch again. It was ten minutes post three. The first gun of our thunderous barrage spoke, and immediately there was the roar of hundreds of hundreds of cannon of all calibres, and the shells came screaming overhead. It was as if thousands of great bees were coining suddenly down on a homing wind. And these were bees that stung to some purpose, too. Wo watched the German S.O.S. go up all along the German line. Almost at the same instant wo were faced with the most enthralling sight that I had yet seen in the war On the left a great mine went up in vast masses of earth and smoke and lurid red flame, like the night eruption from the throat of some great volcano. It was the great momentary Hash of the red Same, like the red of a

blood orange, brilliant against the black smoke, that impressed the vision. In quick succession other mines, five or six in number, heaved themselves skywards with awesome effect, making the ground rock and quiver as if stricken with a great earthquake.

Before two minutes had passed all this had occurred. And now Hell itself seemed to have been let loose. The ceaseless roar of the guns of the two opposing armies, crackle of machine-gun and rifle fire, and the bursting of bombs made such a noiso that wo had to shout to make ourselves heard. The whole hillside, whipped with a hail of shot and shell, became more blurred as the dawn advanced, and the horizon that we had begun dimly to discern was soon hidden behind an impenetrable pall of dust and smoke, in the midst of which we could see the bright lights of the enemy's distress signals and the flashes of our own bursting shells. It seemed as if no human being could livo through that tornado. THE ATTACK LAUNCHED.

So far as the New Zealanders were concerned, their plan was the attack and capture of Messines, and to provide the first protecting defences on a lino some distance in advance. Roughly speaking, they attacked on a front of 15G0 yards. The infantry along the entire corps front advanced to the assault simultaneously. Ou cur left then; were Australian troops. At the appointed, hour, the moment tha bombardment began, the men left the assembly trenches and advanced across No Man's Land, without any protecting barrage, side by side. On. the left were Southlanders, next them men from Canterbury, and on the right were the Rifles. On our extreme right was a strong point, known as La Petite Douve Farm, situato in the German front line. A separate body of troops from the Rifles assaulted, captured, and "mopped up" the farm and its defences.

The other troops went right, on over the German front line, mopping-up parties being left to deal with the Germans who might still be found alive there. As a matter of fact, there was little resistance offered. The leading- troops went right on to a lino in front of the first system of German trenches, and stayed there. This was accomplished in a very few minutes. Fresh troops of the same units went on to the line right in front of Messines, the left flank slowing down to enable the troops ot the divisions on the left —which had a greater distance to go —to get level with them. For the mopping up of Mossines itself, and the capture of the line in front of it on the east, fresh troops of the Canterbury's and the Rifles advanced, and were soon successful. All this we failed to see owing to the gloom of early morning, and the dense screen of smoke and dust raised by the creeping and stationary barrages. The enemy defences on the ea3t side of the town were captured bit by biS as the barrage lifted. THE THUNDER OF THE GUNS. The thunder of the guns increased, making the windows of houses in- the villages far behind the lines rattle continuously. The noise of enemy guns and of fchfiir ing shells was now added to the din. There was no use worrying about shells falling near you, because you could not distinguish their explosions in the great volume of tound pulsating over a whole countryside, unless they fell within a few yards of you. "It's some stunt," said a man at my side. "My oath!" replied a soldier on the firestep peering over the parapet. It was more spectacular even than the Sommo battles that we had witnessed. At 3.40 am. the German red flares were still going up, but farther back now. On our right flank, amidst the general din, we could still hear the machine guns stuttering. At a quarter to 4 the thunder of the gur.3 was as loud as ever, and the whole ridge was still blotted out in the ashen grey pall of smoke and dust. A plane flew low up to our trench, banked gracefully, and turned back toward the German line for another look. As he turned we saw in the halflight the curious effect of the flash of the guns on his under wing. Presently there was a stir of men in our trench, and a lance-corporal, with " N.Z.R." on his shoulder straps, said cheerily, "Up and over, boys!" He was a Canterbury man — but from Cumberland. Many of the men had already climbed out of the trench and were calmly watching the great bombardment. They went forward right across the open, toward the breaking day, and the goal that some, alas! would never reach. '" Pass the word along for any man who gets wounded to stick his rifle upside down in the ground beside him," was the last words we heard the corporal say to his men. Some stretcher-bearers went over with them. THE ADVANCING INFANTRY.

As tho battle; moved forward and tho sun rose we could see quite clearly tho ruins of Messines silhouetted against the sky. And on the slope just in front of it, for the first time, men. They were close together in a line of considerable numbers, and were going forward as calmly as if on parade, though by this time the enemy was sending in some heavy shells. Their forerunners had mopped up Messines and had established themselves in the enemy trenches on the north-cast and south-east of the village. On through the village they went. Three or four hundred yards from tho outer east edge of the town the ground dropped very gently towards the Lys. and these men were allotted the task of establishing themselves on tho crest of this slope beyond the village and of taking up a strong" line of defence which they wero to hold. All this they did in excellent style. From this line advanced posts wero pushed out for three or four hundred yards. The Brigadier himself, a brave fellow, loved by all his men and respected by everybody, walked alone the line and reported all correct. Next day while walking with his general at the front he was killed in action.