BATTLE OF MESSINES

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3153, 3 August 1917, Page 7

BATTLE OF MESSINES

NEW ZEALANDERS GREAT DAY IN THE \VEST , ' OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENT'S STORY .(From Malcolm Eoss, Correspondent with 'Jj® New Zealand' I'orces in the .Field.) Belgium. June 8. As phe days advanced the! constant tpounding of the guns (lied away in the ; ,60 uth, but only to increase to a giant - crescendo in the north. The enemy realising that another attack was imminont i began to strengthen his defences behind ilessines and on other.parts of the line occupied by our and the adjoining corps. •The railway lino from Lille to Coinines, which is on the Lye, cast of Jiessines, was, towards the end of April, reported ■doubled,-the road from Lille to Tour-

nai had been widened, and inter much •defensive work'had been close to the, ■line: As our own vast .preparations drew to a close, new guns began to arrive, and 'planeg.multiplied'in the air.. Thousands and thousands'and'thousands .of tons of ammunition were stacked at many dumps. On the Eve of Battle. At last wo knew that the day had ar- ; irived. Shortly, after midnight I left Divisional ■ Headquarters in company with ,"another correspondent and'"our'-official [photographer. Our car had to run tho gauntlet, of a road-that, was constantly: barraged by the enemy. : On this occa- ' • tsion-ne. was putting over gas and tear shells,- as well as some heavier- stuff.' Hurriedly we 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 thei way through goggles-dimned by breath-l 'ing, and to avoid probable shell-holes, the strain, is not. altogether a light one, , ißufc we reached the farthest 1 point -to : yhich a car could go in safety. Gathering together, hastily our. steel helmets,, 'gas-masks, binoculars,- and some food and

1 drink we sent the , car back at once, and .started through the open, for a point of 1 .vantage in the subsidiary,lino right, in '■front of . This place' was being peppered by German gas-sbells,i and all '{.lie men wero wearing their masks. Along • fthe tree-fringed pathway, by which we , hvent, we saw dimly-through our goggles ■ two stretcher-bearers carrying a -sorely.wounded man,-his clothes-torn from his sbedy by shell'fire. -Hampered by: our Masks, wo felt our way along a path on and beside which many..shells had made (holes in the earth. .The gas-shells were ■still falling. They do not burst,' but fall toith a .whining ping as of a riflo ballot •litting against hard rock. Just .before one o'clock we gained the ■ comparative safety of ' tho trench, and, . proceeding along, it-.for some distance,- . settled down to the 'vigil that separated i lis from- the appointed hour; We aTriv T ' ed panting, and were glad to bB able' to take off our masks.' But'soon the gas- . shells began'..to fall;about us once and we sat with the rubber mouthpieces 'in our mouths, holding our noses, breathing in through the composition in the tin canister, in the .brown bag, and breatli-

ing out through the rubber valve. Mean•Hnie some of us had got <more" gas than. Jwas good for us.'.and felt a ; sickness 'coming over us.. Several of our men, came,at inifervals' pjlong' tlie: trench' breathirß beavily, ; some staggering,,;and .some sick ■with. the deadly noison gas/that the Hun had added to rll the other horrors of war. | All the more it made one determined that he should bq beaten in the field. Our. only~i consolation was - that lie was ■probably, getting.'back some.of bis, own medicine, one hoped, with interest added.

' -: An Enthralling Spectacle. At 3 • a.m. the first faint ' streaks of 'dawn appeared in" the sky, 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 many flares were shooting skyward.^'. Then a don.ble green light -went up-in ; -front of *ifessines; and-.fell slowly, ver.v beautiful in 'the'.darkness that still veiled 1 the earthl Following that came the stuttering of machincguns. We looked at our .watches anxiously. The crunch of a big German-shell . not-far away momentarily distracted attention, and then more gas shells began to arrive. The German was endeavour-, , ing to. hamper our .night communications.' In the trench one had to step •warily over the 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 the non-coms, wero 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, 'ull of good food and profanity, they.set about buckling on their heavy .loads cf nm- ; munition, shovels, and " rations. The spurt of machine-gun fire had died down. I looked at my watch again. It vas ten minutes prist three. The first,, gun 'of our thunderous barrage spoke,' and immediately there was the roar of hundreds and 'hundreds/of cannon of all calibres, and the shells came screaming overhead. It was as if thousands of great bees "were coming suddenly down on a, homing wind. Arid these were bees that 6tung "to"some purpose, too. We •watched the German S.O.S. go up all along the German 1 line. Almost at the same instant we wero

faced with tho moat enthralling sight that I had yet seen in the war. On the left a- gre.it mine went up in vn6t masses of earth and smo?rt> and lurid red flame, like a night eruption from the throat of somo great volcano. It wis the great momentary flash of the red ilanie, like tho red of a blood orange, brilliant against the black bjnoke, that' impressed the vision. lu quick succession other mines, five pr six in number, heaved themselves 'skywards wth • aw pa oiiio effect, making tho ■_ ground rock, and quiver as if stricnen with a great caithquake. One felt tlie trench against winch one leaned heave and tremble, and mjles away, people sleeping in their beds felt their houses shaking. The Germans now knew that tho moment of attack which for bo long they had been dreading had come in very truth, but their frantic 5..0.5. signals went up in vain. They had been taken completely by_ surprise. - Indeed, so uncertain were they oF tlio day and the hour of attack that they had only just completed tho relief cif their lines, for opposite us weie tho 18th Bavarians instead of the Saxons, who we knew were there the night before.

Before two minutes liatl passed all this had occurred. And now Hell itself seemed to have been let loose. Tlie ceaseless 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 ourselveß heard. The whole hillside, whipped with a hail- of shot 1 and shell, became more blurred as tho dawn advanced, and tho horizon that we had begun dimly to discern, was Boon hidden behind an impenetrable pall of dust and smoke, in the midst of which we couiu see the bright lights of the enemy's distress signals and tlie flashes of our,,owb bursting shells. It seemed as. if no human, being could live through tliafc tornado. • -■' . The Defences of Messines.

In 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 tho New Zealand lines ran the Steenbeek, a small stream about four feet wide, wired on the left by the enemy, and somewhat marshy on the right. .-' Fortunately tho long spell of hot, dry weather had dried the ground a good deal, and had left so little water in the stream itself that it did not seem likely to be a very serious obstacle to our troops.From the Steenbeek the ground sloped gently oip to Messines, perched on the low riffgo crest; From various points in our own trenches 'we'got excellent views of -the. western edge of Messines itself, and the frontal defences that the enelny 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 could pass. With microscopio care we hud studied these position, for the last two months or more. The 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 mere rubble heap by the furious fire of our massed artillery, but we knew .of deep dug-outs and cellars, in which troops and-machine-guns might have been able'to withstand the bombardment. ,

■The defences of the town itself, con--eisted.of.a fronjt line.system of trenches on the brow .of the ridge, and of a somewhat complicated exterior 6y6tem, of ■which the chief feature was the, line running along a straight road on the western edge of the. town, this being the side -facing our attack. This, system wus further strengthened by two bastions, knows as the Moulin de Hospice, in front of 1 the centre of the town and Au Bon Fermier Cabaret (the Tavern of the Good Husbandman), some little distance to the rigKt. - Iu addition there were, of. course,-the interior defences—the dugouts, cellars, and strong points in the village itself. Then, as if they bad feared an enveloping movement;. the enemy had completed an all-round defence, .Whioh he had wired, even in rear of tile town. Thus Messines was a veritable fortress, entirely surrounded by t'. enches and barbed wire entanglements. Behind the'town the ground sloped Kt-ntly down in-!, the direction of Waineton and. the River Lys, and there was a well-prepared communication trench, known as Unbearable Trench, leading from the southeast corner of the village to the reierve line for a distance of between 800 and

1000 yards. This line continued along the eastern slopes of the Messines-Wytschaete ridge to the north and southward towards the Lys. Altogether the position was a very strong ono. It liad been held by the Germans since the first year of the war, and prisoners told us that the 'troops were to. defend it to the last. 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 line some

distance .in advance. Kouglily,speaking, they attacked on a front of 1500 yards. The infantry along the on tire corps front advanced to the assault eimultausously. On ouii- left there were Australian troops. As will bo gathered there was in this battle no, preliminary intensive bombardment, so that the element of surprieo was all the greater. At lie appointed, hour, the moment the bombardment began,' tho men left the rssembly trenches and advanced across No Han's Land, without any protecting barrage, sido by 6ide. On the loft were Siuth-

landers, nost, thejii men from Canterbury, and on tho right were the Rifles.

On our extremo right was a strong point, known as La I'etitc Douve I'arm, situate in tlie German front line. A separate body of (roups from tho Rifles' assaulted, captured and "mopped up" tlie farm and ita defences.

The other troops went right on over the German front line, mopping-up parties being left to deal with tho Germans who might still be found alive there. As a matter of fact, there was little resistance oll'oml. Tho-leading troops went right on to a line in front of the first system, of Gernuln trenches and stayed there. This was' accomplished in a very few minutes. Fresh troops of the tame unite wont on to the lino right in front of Messines, the left flank Blowing down to onable the troops of- tho divisions on tho left—which had a greater distance to 00-to get level ' with them. Star tlie mop-ping up of Messines itself, uud tlie capture of the Imo 1 111 front of it on tho east, I'rosh troops of tlie Ciinterburys and the Hiilos advanced, and were soon successful. All this we failed to see owing to tho gloom of early morning,' and the dense screen of smoke and dust raised by the creqging and stationary barrages. The enemy defences on the cast side of the town were captured bit by Bit as the barrage lifted.

Thunder of the Guns. The thunder of tho guns' increased, making the windows of houses in the villages far behind tho lines rattle continuously. Tho noiso of enoirty guns . and of their bureting shells was now added to the din. ■ There wag no use m worrying about sholls falling near y°V> because you could not xlistiiignisli their explosions in the great volume of sound pulsating over a whole countryside, unless they fell within a few yards of yon. "It's some stunt," said a man at my side. "My oath!" replied a soldier on tho fire-step peering over the parapet. . t was more speotacular even than tho Somme battles that we had witnessed. At 3.10 a.m. the German red flares were still going up, but further back now. On our right flank, amidst tho general din, we could still bear the machineguns stuttering. At it quarter to four the thunder of the giftis was as loud aa ever, and the whoje ridgp was blotted out 'in tlio ashen grey pall of smoke and dust.- A 'plane flew low up to our trench, banked gracefully, and turned back towards the' German lino for another look. As he turned we saw m the half-light the curious effect of tho flash of the guns on 1 his under wing. ' Presently there was a stir of num. in our trench, and a lance-corporal, with "N.Z.R." ' on his shoulder straps, saw cheerily, "Up and over, boys!"- He was .a Canterbury man-but. from ■ Cumberland." Many of tho men had already climbed out of the trench- and were calmly waiting watching the great bombardment/ - They went forward right across the open, towards the breaking day, and the goal that some, alas! would never Teach. "Pas? the word along for any man who gets wounded to stick his Tifle upside down in the ground beside him," was the last words we heard the corporal say to bis. men Some fitretcher-hearers 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, tho daylight came, aid above the great smoke curtain, through the thinner haze, we saw two Boche balloons , whose observers watched tho debacle of Prince fyipprechfs Army.

The British 'Planes. Backwards and forwards flew the British 'planes,- ciroling and swooping, shot at by the Ijerman gunners and machinegunners, firing their own machinc-guns in return, and all the time risking the hail of our own Bhells tha twent whistling all about, them. Une 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 ojf and fluttered down in the morning 'TJreeze. He steered a course above Bed Lodge, just missing the trees, and landed jn a shell-torn field a mile away. I saw! tho .'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 baftle smoke, and then the red sun slowly pushed'his rim aboveThe'bank of cloud. On the left a Boche balloon made a blaik dot against the clearer sky. A tree loomed'darkly against tho 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 as 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 our own small battle area, and, flying low, they simply, ecor.ned the hundreds of shells that came at them from tho German anti-aircraft guns and left the sky dotted with the puffs of their black smoke.

On my homeward .way across the fields later in the day I saw' tho derelict'plane of. one of these bravo fellows. That morning he had brought down a German balloon, then ho had descended to Toft, above an - enemy trench and had used his machine-gun to some purnose. Later, seeing some of the German transport hurrying away from the battlefield, he went after two lorries, t.nd, while snooting at them, was himself shot through the thigh. He then steored his machine back across the enemy and cur own lines, but in landing had the misfortune to hit some telegraph wires, which toppled him ovoi as he oarne to earth. He was only a boy o£ nineteen, but he lit a-cigarette and daughed and chatted as they took him to a nearby dressing station to have his wound attended to. '

The New Zealand Division was to have the co-operation of a number of tanks, but the infantry did not depend upon them and went on in advance. Walking down our trench some littlij distance I came upon two of their observers peering into the greyness, looking for "Willies," as they called them. At last, through the greyness one of them spotted what lie thought to be a "Willie"—"one finger right of the smoko rising from tho slope in front of Messines." But the only "Willies" we saw that morning had como to grief before going very far. Advancing Infantry." As tho battle moved forward, and the sun rose we could see quite clearly the ruins of Messines silhouetted against the sky: And on the slope just in "front of it, for tho first time, men. They were close together in a line of considerable numbers, and were goiiig forward as calmly as jf on parade, though by this time the enemy was sending in somo heavy shells. Their forerunners had mopped up Messines, and-had established themselves in tho enemy trenches on tho north-east and south-east of the village. On through tho village they went. Three or four hundred yards from tho outer east edge of tho town the ground dropped very gently toivards the Lys, and these mon 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 thev did in excellent style. From this line advanced posts were pushed out for three or four hundred yards. The Brigadier himself, a bravo follow, loved by his men and respected by everybody, walked along the line and reported all correct. -Next day while walking with his General at the front ho was killed in action. We have just come back from iiis funeral feeling that his place will he hard to fill.

Tho more.l sea of our men tho move I admire the splendid spirit with which they go into battlo. One thought that thero could he nothing finer than their dash and bravery, on the Sommc, but in this Battle of Messinea I think they oxcelled even their former record. On every hand one hears the oft-repented sentence: "Our men were simply splendid!" And the statement is made with a sincerity and an emphasis that givo a meaning tlio mere words themselves cannot convey. That evening, stand ins outside our messroom door, we listened to a hand playing some platoons along tho road toward the firim* line. The men inarched gailv, singing a= they went. "That's tho thins that will tho Germans." said the General's A.B.C. "There's not the, slightest dnubt about it," replied the man «:ho was standing beside him. As we. went in to dinner the band struck .up another lively, lilt,- ;