THE TAKING OF MESSINES.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 7917, 11 August 1917, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE TAKING OF MESSINES.

HOW THE NEW ZEALANDERS STORMED THE RIDGE. A THRILLING BATTLE PICTURE. (From Malcolm Ross, Correspondent with the New Zealand Forces in tne Field.) BELGIUM, Bth June. As the days advauced the constant pounding of the gur.3 died away in the south, hut only to increase to a giant crescendo in the North. The enemy realising that another attack was imminent began to strengthen his defences behind Messines and on otliei parts of the line occupied by our and the adjoining corps. The railway line from Lille to Comines, which is on int; Ly s, east of Messines, was, towards the 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 <1 unips. These were cheering sights. Finally our gunners got to work with the great bombardments. The enemy replied furiously. Then dumps began to go up and burn. This on both sides of tin* line. The explosions shook our huts miles away, and vast columns of smoko rose in the air. I watched, from a vantage point a few hundred yards away, one spcctaeulir outburst that continued for hours, and that made a* much noiso a a battle on a small scale. This was di oouraging, but it was only, after all, a drop in the gigantic bucket. Next day the vanished stores were replaced, and our sweating gunners bad not to slacken their efforts for an instant. By day there were columns of smoke and dust all along the German line. By night the sky was radiant with the flash of guns and the flame of bursting shells. One began to bear mysterious talk about “A” and “ V” and “Z” days, and speculation as to the time at which an attack is to commence, which very lew men know until the last.

As one great bombardment succeeded another, at uncertain intervals, that teiLso feeling of .subdued excitement and expectancy, even of elation, that precedes a great battile seemed to creep into the minds of men about to take part in it. One watched companies march singing, or with hands playing, along the roads toward the front. Somo 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 hull lilts, and " ripperary,” which one seldom hears now-a-days. Our own men went cheerfully to the front. Their confidence and their morale was such that they considered themselves already in Messines, for by this time they all knew that the honour of attacking this t. tron gand dominating position had been allotted to them. ON THE EVE OF BATTLE. At lost we knew that the day had arrived. Sho: ly after midnight I left I.ivisional Headquarters in company with another correspondent and our Official Photographer. Our car had to run the 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 some heavier stufT. Hurriedly we had to don our gas-mask. In such a situation the driver has the worst of it. It is had enough to drive at night with no lights burning, hut when, in addition, he has to see tin* way through goggles dimmed by breathing, and to avoid shell-holes, the strain is not altogether a light one. But we reached the farthest point to which a car could go with safety. Gathering together hastily our steel helmets, gasmasks, binoculars, and some food and drink we sent the ear hack at once, and started through the open for a point of vantage in the subsidiary line right ; n front of Messines. This place was being peppered by German gas-shells, and ail the men were wearing their masks. Along the tree-fringed pathway by which we went, we saw dimly through our goggles two stretcher-bearers carrying a sorely-wounded man, his clothos torn from his body by shell lire. Hampered by our masks, we felt our way along a path on and hesido which many shells had mr.’c holes in the earth. The gas-shells were still falling. They on not hurst, hut fall with a whining ping as of a rifle bullet hitting against hard rock.

Just before one o’clock wo gained the comparative safety of the trench, anu, proceeding along it for somo distance, settled down to the vigil that separated us from the appointed hour. We arrival panting, and were glad to he able to take off our masks. But soon the gas shells began to fall about us once again, and we sat with tin* rubber mouthpieces in our mouths, holding our noses, hn>athing in through the composition in the tin canister in the brown ling, and breathing out through the rubber valve. Meantime some of us got more gas than was good for us and felt a sickness coining over us. Several of our men came at intervals along the trench breathing heavily, some staggering, and some sick with the deadly poison gas that the Hun had added to .11 tin* other horrors of war. All the more it made one determined that lie should he beaten in tlu* field. Our only consolation was that he was probably getting hack some of his own medicine, one hoped, with interest added. Away on our left a lire broke out, and lit the northern sky with a red light, which gradually died down. At intervals. from overhead, came the droning of plain s, and looking up, we saw these daring night fliers, only a few hundred ‘• ••t above, r turning from the German lines like great black birds against the Tl e ii ual flares went i p ..II along the line, momentari!/ lighting the ■ th their hrillinnee. Our shelling had died down to what was just ordinary. We wished to deceive the enemy— to make him think that we were going to take it quietly for a dnv or two longer. The howitzer shells from farther hack whistled wearily overhead from both lines. The lighter field guns immediately behind us were Jmust silent. AX ENTHRALLING SPECTACLE. At 3 a.in. the first faint str*:ik.s of dawn appeared in the skv to the southeast of Messines. Away on the left, where the lines bent over the ridge in the direction of Wytschaete, there was some activity and m;.nv flares wen skyward. Then a double pc n light went up in front of Messines. and fell slowly, very beautiful in tin darkness that still veiled the earth Following that came the stuttering of machine-guns. We looked at our watches anxiously. Tin* crunch of a big German shell not far away momentarily distracted attention, and then shells began to arrive. The German was endeavouring to hamper

our night communications. In the trench one had to step warily over tlu recumbent forms of sleeping soldiers who were to participate in the great doings of the day. For some minutes now they had been awake* and tha non.-corns, were seeing to it that they had a good meal of savoury stew and biscuit and tea. Out of the goodness of their hearts they even offered to share their meal with us. Then, full of good food and profanity, they set about buckling on their heavy loads of ammunition, shovels, and rations. The spurt of the machine-gun fire had died down.

1 looked at my watch again. It was ten minutes past three. The first gun of our thunderous barrage spoke, and immediately there wo* a roar of hundreds and hundreds of cannon of all calibres, and the shells came screaming overhead. It u’as as' if thousands of great bees were coming suddenly down on a homing wind. And these were hees that stung to some purpose, too. We watched the German S.O.S. go up all along the German line. Almost at the same instant we we e faced with the most enthralling sight that I had yet seen in tjie war. On the left a great mine went up in vast masses of earth and smoke and lurid red flame, like a night eruption from the throat of some great volcano. Tt was the great momentary flash of the red flame, 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 skyward with awesome effect, making tne ground rock and quiver as if stricken with a great earthquake. One felt the trench against which «ne leaned heave and tremble, and miles away people sleeping in their beds felt their houses “baking. The Germans now knew that the moment of attack which for so long they had been dreading had come in very truth, but their frantic S.O.S. signals went up in vain. They had been taken completely by surprise. Indeed, so uncertain were they of the day and the hour of attack that they had only just completed the relief in their lines, tor opposite us were the 18th Bavarians instead of the Saxons, who we knew were there the night before.

Before two minutes luid passed all this had occurred. And now Hell it••‘lf seemed to have been V*t loose. The useless roar of the guns of the two opposing armies, the crackle of machinegun and rifle fire, and the bursting of bombs made such a noise that we had to shout to make ourselves heard. The whole hillside, whipped with a hail of shot and shell, became more blurred as tin* dawn advanced, and the horizon that we had begun dimly to discern was soon hidden behind ail impenetrable pall of dust and smoke, in the midst of which we could see the bright lights of tin* enemy’s distress signals and the flashes of our own bursting shells. it seemed as if no human being could livo through tiiab tornado.

THE DEFENCES 01*’ MESSINES.

Tn order that the reader may the more easily follow the description of the battle, it is necessary to give a brief general outline of the defences of Messines. In the dip of the shallow valley in front of the New Zealand lines ran the Stecnbeek, a small stream about four feet wide, wired on the left by tho enemy, and somewhat marsu.v on tho right. Fortunately the long spell of hot, dry weather had dried thy ground a good deal, and had left little water in the stream that it did not seem likely to be a very serious obstacle to our troops. From the Steenbeek the ground slop- <• 1 gently up to Messines, perched on the low ridge crest. From various points in our own trencher, we got excellent views of the western edge ct Messines itself, and the frontal defences that the enemy had established on the slopes below. The furious bombardments of the week before had shattered these defences to a very considerable extent, obliterating the trenches' and blowing the wire into tangled masses that left great gaps through which our men (ould pass. With microscopic onto wo had studied these positions for the last two months or more.

Tho main objective of the New Zealanders was the capture and the holding of Messines itself. Within the past few days it had been reduced to a more rubble heap by the furious fire of om massed artillery, bn- we knew of deep dug-outs and cellars, in which troops and machine-guns might have, been able to withstand the bombardment. The defence of the town itself consisted of a front line system of trenches on the brow of the ridge, and of a somewhat complicated exterior system, of which the chief feature was tho line running along a straight road oil tho western edge of the town, this being the side facing our attack. This system was further strengthened by two Bastions, known as the Moulin do Hospice, in front of the centre of the town, and An Bon Fermier Cabaret (the Tavern of the Good Husbandman), some little distance to the right. 'n addition there were, of course, the interior defences—the dug-outs, cellars, and strong points in the village itself. Then, a* if they had feared an enveloping movement, the enemy had completed an all-round defence, which he had wired, even in rear of the town. Thus Messines was a veritable fortress, entirely surrounded bv trenches and barbed wire entanglements.

Behind the town the ground sloped gently down ia the direction of Warnetou and the River Lvs, and there was a well-prepared communication trench, known as Unbearable Trench, leading from the south-east corner of the village (~ <lie reserve line for a distance of between 800 and 1000 yards. This line continued along the eastern slopes of flu* Messines-Wytschaete ridge to tin uertli and southward towards the Lys. Altogether tin* position wys a very strong one. it had been held by the Gunn .ns since tho first year of tlio war, and prisoners told us that the troops were to defend it to the last. 'TIE ATTACK LAUNCHED. Ho far as flu* New Zealanders were concerned, their plan was the attack and capture of Messines, and to provide the first protecting defence* on a line somo distance in advance. Roughly speaking, they attacked on a front of 1500 yards. Tllie infantry along tho entire corps front advanced to the assault simultaneously, (in our left there were Australian troops. As will be gathered, there was in this battle no preliminary intensive bombardment, so that the element of surprise was all the greater. At the appointed hour, the moment the boinbardmeiit 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 war? a strong point, known as La Fetite Douve Farm, situate in fhe German front line A separate bodv of troops from the Rifles assaulted, captured, and “ oonped-up” the farm and its defences. The other Loops went right, on over the Germs.? front line, moppinc’un parties being ie't 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 line 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 of the divisions on the left—which had a greater distance to go—to get level with them. For the mopping up of Messines itself, and the capture of the line in front of it on the east, fresh troops of the Canterburys and the Rifles advanced, and were soon successful. All this we fafled 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 east side of the town were captured bit by bit as the barrage lifted. THE THUNDER OF THE GUNS. The thunder of the guns increased, making the windows of houses in tho villages far behind the lines rattle continuously. The noise of enemy guns and of their bursting shells was now added to the din. There was no use in worrying about shells falling near you, because you could not distinguish their explosions in the great volume of sound 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 fire-steep peering over the parapet. It was more spectacular even than the Somme battles that we had witnessed. At 3.40 a.m. 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 four the thunder of the guns was as loud as ever, and the whole ridge was still blotted out in the aslien 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 half-light 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 Canter bury 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 lor 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. Flares were still going up on our right, where Australian troops were forming a protecting flank for the main attack. Slowly, very slowly, the daylight came, and above the great smoke curtain, through the thinner haze, we saw two Boche balloons whose observers watched the debacle of Prince Rupprecht’s Army. THE BRITISH PLANES.

Backwards and forwards flew the British planes, circling and swooping, shot at by the German gunners and machine-gunners, firing their own machine-guns in return, and all the time risking the hail of our own shell that went whistling all about them. One we saw hit by one of these shells. He turned and came back across our trench, unsteadily steering with a broken tail, As he approached, a piece of the tail broke off and fluttered down in the morning breeze. He steered a course above Red Lodge, just missing the trees, and landed in a shell-torn field a mile away. I saw the plane afterwards with the beautiful laminated wood propeller resting in a shell hole, and the machine little damaged. South-east of Messines the sky took on tints of red and gold above the battle smoke, and then the red sun slowly pushed his rim above the hankof cloud. On the left a Boche balloon made a black dot against the clearer sky. A tree loomed darkly against the screen of grey, and in the foreground the stakes and barbed wire of the entanglement in front of our trench completed the picture. It was such a picture a.; Turner might have painted. The sky was almost the sky of the Fighting Temeraire. The planes were now wonderful. They came back in great flights across the German lines from some destructive mission. Twenty-five, twenty-eight, thirty, we counted within cur own small battle area, and, flying low, they simply scorned the hundreds of shells that came at them from the German anti-aircraft guns and left the sky dotted with the puffs of their black smoke. THE TANKS. The New Zealand Division was to have the co-operation of a number of tanks, hut the infantry did not depend upon them and went on in advance. Walking down our trench some little distance l came upon two of their observers peering into the greyness, looking lor “Willies,” as they called them. At last, through the greyness one of them spotted what he thought to be a “Willie”— “one finger right of the smoke rising from the slope in front of Messines.” But the only “Willies” we saw that morning had come to grief before going very far. THE ADVANCING INFANTRY. As the battle moved forward and the sun rose we could see quite clearly the ruins of .Messines silhouetted against the sky. And on the slope iust 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-east and south-east of the village. On through the village they went. Three or four hundred yards from the 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 the crest of this slope beyond the village and of taking up a strong line of defence which they were to hold. All this they did in excellent style. From this line advanced posts were pushed out for three or four hundred yards. The Brigadier I

himself, a brave fellow, loved by his men and respected by everybody, walked along the lino and reported all correct. Next dav '/bile walking with his General at. the front he was killed in action. We have just come back from bis funeral feeling that his place will be hard to fill.