THE BATTLE OF MESSINES
June 7, 1917
Plumer's long vigil--The great mines--Advance of Australians--Of New
Zealanders--Of the Twenty-fifth Division--Of the Irish
Divisions--Death of Major Redmond--Advance of Nineteenth Division--Of
the Forty-first Division--Of the Forty-seventh Division--Of the
Twenty-fourth Division--General results.
The operations upon the Somme in the autumn of 1916 had given the
British command of the high ground in the Somme district. The next
move was to obtain a similar command in the continuation of the same
high ground to the north. This was accomplished from Arras to Lens
in the great battle which began upon April 9, 1917. After the
complete conquest of this Vimy position, the next step was obviously
to attack the prolongation of the same ridge in the Ypres direction.
This was carried out with great success upon June 7 in the Battle of
Messines, when nine miles of commanding country were carried and
permanently held, from the neighbourhood of Ploegstrate in the south
to Hill 60 and Mount Sorel in the north. Thus many spots which will
for ever be associated with the glorious dead--Hill 60 itself, with
its memories of the old 13th and 15th Brigades, Wytschaete, where the
dismounted troopers fought {95} so desperately in the fall of 1914;
Messines, sacred also to the memory of the cavalry and of the British
and Indian infantry who tried hard to hold it; finally the long,
gently sloping ridge which was reddened by the blood of the gallant
London Scots when they bore up all night amid fire and flame against
the ever-increasing pressure of the Bavarians--all these historic
places came back once more into British keeping. It is this action,
so splendid both in its execution and in its results, which we have
now to examine, an action which was a quick sequel to the order of
the German command that "the enemy must not get Messines Ridge at any
price."
For two thankless years Sir Herbert Plumer, the officer who in his
younger days had held on in such bulldog fashion to the country north
of Mafeking, had been the warden of the Ypres salient. His task had
been a peculiarly difficult and responsible one--indeed, many a
military critic might have said _a priori_ that it was an impossible
one. The general outline of the British trenches formed a loop
rather than a salient, and there was no point in it which could not
be shot into from behind. Add to this that all the rising ground,
and therefore all the observation, lay with the enemy, and that the
defending troops were very often skeleton divisions which had come up
exhausted from the south. Taking all these circumstances together,
one can understand the facts which turned General Plumer's hair white
during these two years, but never for an instant weakened the
determination of his defence. There was no one in the Army who did
not rejoice, therefore, when it was learned that the Second Army had
been chosen for the next attack, and that the long-suffering Plumer
{96} was at last to have a chance of showing that he could storm a
line as well as hold one.
Preparatory to the attack, some twenty great mines had been driven
into the long, low hill, which is really little more than a slope,
attaining a height of 250 feet at the summit. These mines contained
600 tons of explosives, and had been the work of constant relays of
miners during many months. These tunnelling companies of miners,
drawn from all sorts of material and officered by mining engineers
and foremen, did some splendid work in the war, and the British
finally outfought the Germans under the earth as completely as they
did both on it and above it. The accumulation of guns was even
greater than at Arras, and they were packed into about half the
length of front, so that the effect of the massed fire when it broke
out in the morning of June 7 was crushing to an extent never before
known in warfare. What with the explosions of the mines and the
downpour of shells, the German front line, with its garrison, may be
said to have utterly disappeared, so that when at 3.20 in the first
faint flush of a summer morning the infantry dashed forward to the
attack, the path of victory had already been laid out before them.
Let us examine the general composition of the British line before we
follow the fortunes of the various units.
General Plumer's Army had been moved down the line so as to cover all
its objectives, and Gough's Fifth Army from the south had been put in
to the north of it, occupying the actual salient. This Army was not
in the first instance engaged. The Second Army consisted of three
Corps. The northern of these was Morland's Tenth Corps, which was in
the {97} region of St. Eloi. This Corps consisted, counting from the
north, of the Twenty-third, Forty-seventh and Forty-first Divisions
with the Twenty-fourth in reserve. Upon its right, facing
Wytschaete, was Hamilton Gordon's Ninth Corps, containing from the
north the Nineteenth, Sixteenth, and Thirty-sixth Divisions, with the
Eleventh in reserve. Still farther to the right was the Second Anzac
Corps (Godley) facing Messines with the Twenty-fifth British
Division, the New Zealanders, and the Third Australians in line from
the north, and the Fourth Australians in reserve. This was the
British battle-line upon the eventful dawn of June 7, 1917.
To take the work of individual units, we shall begin with the Third
Australian Division (Monash) upon the extreme right. The men, like
their comrades all along the line, had endured very heavy shelling in
their assembly trenches, and sprang eagerly forward when the word to
advance was given. The First and Second Australian Divisions had
given so splendid an account of themselves already in the Hindenburg
Line, that it was no surprise to find that their mates were as
battleworthy as any troops in the Army. The whole country in front
of them was drenched with gas, which hung heavy with the mists of
morning, but the weird lines of masked men went swiftly onwards in
open order through the poison region, dashed over the remains of the
German trenches, crossing the small river Douve upon the way, and
then pushing on from one shot-shattered building to another, keeping
well up to the roaring cloud of the barrage, occupied without a hitch
the whole of their allotted position. With a single pause, while
Messines was being occupied upon their left, the leading line of {98}
Victorians and Tasmanians drove straight on for their ultimate goal,
sending back a stream of captured prisoners behind them. Only at one
trench was there a sharp hand-to-hand fight, but in general so
splendid was the artillery and so prompt the infantry that the enemy
had never a chance to rally. It was a perfect advance and absolutely
successful. Some indications of counter-attacks came up from the
Warneton direction during the afternoon and evening, but they were
beaten out so quickly by the shrapnel that they never came to a head.
Half-a-dozen field-guns, as well as several hundred prisoners, fell
to the lot of the Australians.
Upon the immediate left of the Australians was the New Zealand
Division (Russell), which had done so splendidly at the Somme. Their
Rifle Brigade had been given the place of honour exactly opposite to
Messines, and by eight o'clock they had occupied the village and were
digging in upon the farther side. Thirty-eight machine-guns and a
number of prisoners were the trophies of their advance. There was no
severe fighting, so well had the mines and the guns together done
their work; but the men who stormed the village found numerous
cellars and dug-outs still occupied, into which they swiftly
penetrated with bayonet or bomb. In one of these regimental
headquarters was found a message from General von Laffert ordering
the 17th Bavarian Regiment to hold the village at all costs. It is
certainly extraordinary how these unfortunate and gallant Bavarians
were thrust into every hot corner, and if the reason lies in the fact
that their Prince Rupprecht had the honour of commanding the German
Army of Flanders, then it is an honour which will leave its grievous
trace upon {99} his country for a century to come. It is an
extraordinary historical fact that the Bavarians, who were themselves
overrun and crushed by the conquering Prussians in 1866, should have
paid without demur the enormous blood tribute to their conquerors in
a cause in which they had no direct interest, since no annexation of
Briey metals or Belgian lands would bring prosperity to Bavaria.
The losses of the New Zealanders in their fine advance were not
heavy, but they had a number of casualties that evening and next
morning in their newly, consolidated position, which included
unfortunately Brigadier-General Brown, one of the finest officers in
the force, who was killed by a burst of shrapnel.
Upon the immediate left of the New Zealanders was the Twenty-fifth
(Bainbridge), a sound, hard-working British Division, which had a
fine and a very long record of service upon the Somme. The task
allotted to this division was a formidable one, consisting of an
attack upon a 1200-yard front, which should penetrate 3000 yards and
cross nine lines of German trenches, the concealed Steenebeek Valley,
and crush the resistance of a number of fortified farms. In spite of
these numerous obstacles, the advance, which was well-covered by
General Kincaid-Smith's guns, was splendidly successful. The 74th
Brigade was on the right, the 7th upon the left, with the 75th in
reserve. Observers have recorded how at the very instant that the
men surged forward under their canopy of shells, six miles of S.O.S.
rockets rose in one long cry for help from the German line. From the
right the British wave of stormers consisted of the 2nd Irish Rifles,
the 13th {100} Cheshire, the 3rd Worcesters, and the 8th North
Lancashires, veterans of Ovillers and the Leipzig Redoubt. Keeping
close behind a barrage of sixty guns, they flooded over the enemy
trenches, just missing the answering barrage which came pattering
down behind them. These troops advanced without a check to the line
of the Steenebeek, where the work was taken up by the second wave,
consisting of the 9th Lancs, 11th Lancashire Fusiliers, 10th
Cheshires, and 1st Wilts, the order being taken from the right. For
a time there was a dangerous gap between the Wiltshires and the flank
of the Ulstermen to the left, but this was bridged over, and the
advance rolled on, with a constant capture of prisoners and
machine-guns. Only at one point, named Middle Farm, was there a
notable resistance, but the Lancashire Fusiliers and Irish Rifles
combined to crush it. All this attack had been carried out in a dim
light, half mist and half dust-laden from explosions, where obstacles
were hardly seen until they were reached, and where it took fine
leading and discipline to preserve direction, so that numbers of men
lost touch with their own battalions and went forward as best they
might. These are the times when shirkers have their chance and when
the true individual quality of troops is most highly tested. Out of
touch with officers on either side, the British advanced and the
Germans surrendered.
On the capture of all the first objectives the 8th South Lancashires
and 11th Cheshires of the 75th Brigade passed through the victorious
ranks of their fellow brigades and pushed on against the strong
October system of trenches beyond. The 8th Borders followed closely
behind, consolidating the ground won {101} by the forward line. It
was still only four in the morning. As the 75th Brigade swept
forward, it found the 1st New Zealand Brigade upon its right, and the
107th Ulster Brigade upon its left, all moving swiftly in one great
line. By eight o'clock all immediate opposition had been beaten
down, and the full objectives were being consolidated by the 106th
Field Company Royal Engineers, five field-guns having been added to
the other trophies. These might have been got away by the enemy had
not the machine-guns knocked out the gun teams. The 110th and 112th
Brigades of British artillery had been pushed up after the infantry,
and though some delay was caused by the unfortunate destruction of
Major Campbell and his whole battery staff by a single shell, the
batteries were in action within the German lines by 11 A.M.
About midday a counter-attack began to develop, along the front of
the Second Anzac Corps, involving both British, New Zealanders, and
Australians, but the blow already received had been too severe, and
there was no resilience left in the enemy. The attempt died away
under a withering fire from rifles and machine-guns. By 2 P.M. all
was quiet once more.
The British effort was not yet at an end, however. The long summer
day was still before them, and there was a good reserve division in
hand. This was the Fourth Australian Division (Holmes), two brigades
of which passed through the ranks of the Twenty-fifth and New Zealand
Divisions, about 3.15 P.M. Their objective was a further system of
trenches 500 yards to the east and well down the other slope of the
Messines Hill. The advance of each brigade was admirable, {102} but
unfortunately they diverged, leaving a dangerous gap between, in
which for two days a party of the enemy, with machine-guns, remained
entrenched. At the end of that time two battalions of the 13th
Australian Brigade, the 50th and 52nd, carried the place most
gallantly by storm and solidified the line.
Passing from the area of the Anzac Corps to that of the Ninth Corps,
we come first upon Nugent's Thirty-sixth Ulster Division, which had
not reappeared in any battle since its day of glory, and of tragic
loss in front of Thiepval. It was now, by a happy chance or by a
beneficent arrangement, fighting upon the right flank of the
Sixteenth Southern Irish Division (Hickie) and the two may be treated
as one, since they advanced, step by step, in the same alignment up
the bullet-swept slope, and neither halted until they had reached
their full objectives. The Ulstermen went forward with the 107th
Brigade of Irish Rifles upon the right in close touch with the
Twenty-fifth Division, while the 108th was on the left, keeping line
with their fellow-countrymen, both Irish divisions dashing forward
with great fire and resolution.
The Sixteenth Irish Division for the purpose of the attack consisted
of four brigades, having been strengthened by the addition of the
33rd Brigade from the Eleventh Division. In the attack, the 47th
Brigade was upon the right and the 49th upon the left. If some
further detail may be permitted in the case of men who were playing
so loyal a part at a time when part of Ireland had appeared to be so
disaffected, it may be recorded that the Irish line counting from the
right consisted of the 6th Royal Irish, the 7th Leinsters, the 7/8th
Royal Irish Fusiliers, and the 7th Inniskilling Fusiliers. These
battalions sprang up {103} the Wytschaete slope, closely followed by
their second line, which was formed by the 1st Munster Fusiliers, 6th
Connaught Rangers, 2nd Royal Irish and 8th Inniskillings. In this
order, in close touch with the Ulstermen upon their right and the
English Nineteenth Division upon their left, they swept up the hill,
their Celtic yell sounding high above the deep thunder of the guns.
The explosion of the huge mines had a disconcerting effect at the
first instant, for great masses of debris came showering down upon
the men in the advanced positions, so that the dense smoke and the
rain of falling earth and stones caused confusion and loss of
direction. The effect was only momentary, however, and the eager
soldiers dashed on. They swarmed over Wytschaete village and wood,
beating down all resistance, which had already been badly shaken by
the accurate fire of General Charlton's guns. It was in the assault
of the village that that great Irishman, Major Willie Redmond, fell
at the head of his men. "He went in advance when there was a check.
He was shot down at once. As he fell, he turned towards his men and
tried to say something. No words came, but he made an eloquent
gesture with his right arm towards the German line, and the Irish
swept forward." The profound gratitude of every patriot is due to
him, to Professor Kettle, to Mr. Stephen Gwynn, M.P., and to all
those Nationalists who had sufficient insight to understand that
Ireland's true cause was the cause of the Empire, and that it was the
duty of every Irishman of all shades of opinion to uphold it in arms.
_O si sic omnes!_ An Irishman could then hold his head higher to-day!
By 3.45 A.M. the first objective had been taken, and by five the
second, save in front of the Leinsters, {104} where there was a stout
resistance at a German machine-gun post, which was at last overcome.
It was at this period that a dangerous gap developed between the
retarded wing of the right-hand brigade and the swiftly advancing
flank of the left, but this opening was closed once more by seven
o'clock. By 7.30 the third objective had been cleared by the 1st
Munsters on the right and the 2nd Irish Rifles on the left, for the
second line had now leap-frogged into the actual battle. By eight
o'clock everything had fallen, and the field-guns of the 59th and
113th Brigades R.F.A. had been rushed up to the front, well-screened
by the slope of the newly conquered hill. The new position was
swiftly wired by the 11th Hants and Royal Engineers.
There now only remained an extreme line which was, according to the
original plan, to be the objective of an entirely new advance. This
was the Oostaverne Line, so called from the hamlet of that name which
lay in the middle of it. Its capture meant a further advance of 2000
yards, and it was successfully assaulted in the afternoon by the 33rd
Brigade, consisting of the 7th South Staffords, 9th Sherwoods, 6th
Lincolns, and 6th Borders. It has been frequently remarked, and
Guillemont might be quoted as a recent example, that both Englishmen
and Irishmen never fight better than when they are acting together
and all national difference is transmuted suddenly into generous
emulation. So it was upon the field of Messines, for the advance of
the 33rd Brigade was a worthy continuation of a splendid achievement.
Keeping pace with the 57th Brigade of the Nineteenth Division to
their north, they dashed aside all obstacles, and by 5.45 were in
complete possession of the farthest {105} point which had ever been
contemplated in the fullest ambition of the Generals.
The enemy had been dazed by the terrific blow, but late in the
evening signs of a reaction set in, for the German is a dour fighter,
who does not sit down easily under defeat. It is only by
recollecting his constant high qualities that one can appreciate the
true achievement of the soldiers who, in all this series of
battles--Arras, Messines, and the Flanders Ridges--were pitch-forking
out of terribly fortified positions the men who had so long been
regarded as the military teachers and masters of Europe. Nerved by
their consciousness of a truly national cause, our soldiers fought
with a determined do-or-die spirit which has surely never been
matched in all our military annals, while the sagacity and
adaptability of the leaders was in the main worthy of the
magnificence of the men. As an example of the insolent confidence of
the Army, it may be noted that on this, as on other occasions, all
arrangements had been made in advance for using the German dumps.
"This should invariably be done," says an imperturbable official
document, "as the task of rapidly getting forward engineer stores is
most difficult."
A line of mined farms formed part of the new British line, and upon
this there came a series of German bombing attacks on June 8, none of
which met with success. The 68th Field Company of the Engineers had
inverted the position, turning the defences from west to east, and
the buildings were held by the Lincolns and Sherwoods, who shot down
the bombers before they could get within range even of the far-flying
egg-bomb which can outfly the Mills by thirty paces, though its
effect is puny in comparison {106} with the terrific detonation of
the larger missile. From this time onwards, the line became
permanent. In this long day of fighting, the captures amounted to 8
officers and 700 men with 4 field-guns and 4 howitzers. The losses
were moderate for such results, being 1100 men for the Irish and 500
for the 33rd Brigade. Those of the Ulster Division were also about
1000.
Upon the left of the Irishmen the advance had been carried out by
Shute's Nineteenth Division. Of this hard fighting division, the
same which had carried La Boiselle upon the Somme, the 56th
Lancashire Brigade and the 58th, mainly Welsh, were in the line. The
advance was a difficult one, conducted through a region of shattered
woods, but the infantry cleared all obstacles and kept pace with the
advance of the Irish upon the right, finally sending forward the
reserve Midland Brigade as already stated to secure and to hold the
Oostaverne Line. The ground to be traversed by this division,
starting as it did from near Wulverghem, was both longer and more
exposed than that of any other, and was particularly open to
machine-gun fire. Without the masterful artillery the attack would
have been an impossibility. None the less, the infantry was
magnificently cool and efficient, widening the front occasionally to
take in fortified posts, which were just outside its own proper area.
The 9th Cheshires particularly distinguished itself, gaining part of
its second objective before schedule time and having to undergo a
British barrage in consequence. This fine battalion ended its day's
work by blowing to shreds by its rifle-fire a formidable
counter-attack. The Welsh battalions of the same 58th Brigade, the
9th Welsh Fusiliers, 9th Welsh, and 5th South Wales Borderers fought
their {107} way up through Grand Bois to the Oostaverne Line with
great dash and gallantry. The village of that name was itself taken
by the Nineteenth Division, who consolidated their line so rapidly
and well that the German counter-attack in the evening failed to make
any impression. Particular credit is due to the 57th Brigade, who
carried on the attack after their own proper task was completed.
We have now roughly sketched the advance of the Ninth Corps, and will
turn to Morland's Tenth Corps upon its left. The flank Division of
this was the Forty-first under the heroic leader of the old 22nd
Brigade at Ypres. This unit, which was entirely English, and drawn
mostly from the south country, had, as the reader may remember,
distinguished itself at the Somme by the capture of Flers. It
attacked with the 122nd and 124th Brigades in the line. They had
several formidable obstacles in their immediate front, including the
famous Dammstrasse, a long causeway which was either trench or
embankment according to the lie of the ground. An estaminet upon
this road was a lively centre of contention, and beyond this was
Ravine Wood with its lurking guns and criss-cross of wire. All these
successive obstacles went down before the steady flow of the
determined infantry, who halted at their farthest line in such
excellent condition that they might well have carried the attack
forward had it not been prearranged that the Twenty-fourth, the
reserve division, should pass through their ranks, as will presently
be described.
To the left of the Forty-first was the Forty-seventh London
Territorial Division containing the victors of Loos and of High Wood.
The effect of {108} the mines had been particularly deadly on this
front, and one near Hill 60 is stated by the Germans to have taken up
with it a whole Company of Wurtembergers. The position attacked by
the Londoners was on each side of the Ypres-Comines Canal, and
included some formidable obstacles, such as a considerable wood and a
ruined country-house named "The White Château." Again and again the
troops were held up, but every time they managed to overcome the
obstacle. Around the ruined grandeur of the great villa, with all
its luxuries and amenities looking strangely out of place amid the
grim trimmings of rusty wire and battered cement, the Londoners came
to hand-grips with the Prussians and Wurtembergers who faced them.
In all 600 prisoners were sent to the rear.
To the left of the Forty-seventh London division, and forming the
extreme flank of the attack, was the Twenty-third Division
(Babington) of Contalmaison fame, a unit which was entirely composed
of tough North of England material. It was in touch with the regular
Eighth Division upon the left, this being the flank division of the
Fifth Army. The latter took no part in the present advance, and the
Twenty-third had the task of forming a defensive flank in the Hooge
direction, while at the same time it attacked and conquered the low
ridges from which the Germans had so long observed our lines, and
from which they had launched their terrible attack upon the Canadians
a year before. No long advance was expected from this division,
since the object of the whole day's operations was to flatten out an
enemy salient, not to make one upon our own side. Sufficient ground
was occupied, however, to cover the advance farther {109} south, and
without this advance it would have been impossible for the supporting
division to carry on, without exposing its flank, the work which had
been done by the two divisions upon the right. At 3.10 in the
afternoon, the Twenty-fourth Division under General Bols, an officer
whose dramatic experience in the La Bassée fighting of 1914 has been
recounted in a previous volume, advanced through the ranks of the
Forty-first and Forty-seventh Divisions at a point due east of St.
Eloi, its attack being synchronised with that upon the Oostaverne
line farther south. The operation was splendidly successful, for the
73rd Brigade upon the left and the 17th upon the right, at the cost
of about 400 casualties, carried that section of the Dammstrasse and
the whole of the historic, blood-sodden ground upon either side of
it, so rounding off the complete victory of the Second Army. So
close to the barrage was the advance of the infantry, that the men of
the 1st Royal Fusiliers and 3rd Rifle Brigade, who led the 17th
Brigade, declared that they had the dust of it in their faces all the
way.
It only remains to be added that on the extreme left of the line the
Germans attempted a counter-attack while the main battle was going
on. It was gallantly urged by a few hundred men, but it was destined
to complete failure before the rifles of the 89th Brigade of the
Thirtieth Division (Williams). Few of these Germans ever returned.
It was a one day's battle, a single hammer-blow upon the German line,
with no ulterior operations save such as held the ground gained, but
the battle has been acclaimed by all critics as a model and
masterpiece of modern tactics, which show the {110} highest power of
planning and of execution upon the part of Sir Herbert Plumer and his
able Chief-of-Staff. The main trophy of course was the invaluable
Ridge, but in the gaining it some 7200 prisoners fell into British
hands, including 145 officers, which gives about the same proportion
to the length of front attacked as the Battle of Arras. The Germans
had learned wisdom, however, as to the disposition of their guns in
the face of "the unwarlike Islanders," so that few were found within
reach. Sixty-seven pieces, however, some of them of large calibre,
remained in possession of the victors, as well as 294 machine-guns
and 94 trench mortars. The British losses were about 16,000. The
military lesson of the battle has been thus summed up in the words of
an officer who took a distinguished part in it: "The sight of the
battle-field with its utter and universal desolation stretching
interminably on all sides, its trenches battered out of recognition,
its wilderness of shell-holes, _débris_, tangled wire, broken rifles,
and abandoned equipment, confirms the opinion that no troops,
whatever their morale or training, can stand the fire of such
overwhelming and concentrated masses of artillery. With a definite
and limited objective and with sufficient artillery, complete success
may be reasonably guaranteed." It is the big gun then, and not, as
the Germans claimed, the machine-gun which is the Mistress of the
Battle-field. The axiom laid down above is well proved, but it works
for either side, as will be shown presently where upon a limited area
the weight of metal was with the Germans and the defence with the
British.
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{111}
[Illustration: Order of Battle, MESSINES, June 7, 1917]
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So fell Messines Ridge. Only when the British {112} stood upon its
low summit and looked back upon the fields to westward did they
realise how completely every trench and post had been under German
observation during these years. No wonder that so much of the best
blood of Britain has moistened that fatal plain between Ypres in the
north and Ploegstrate in the south. "My God!" said an officer as he
looked down, "it is a wonder that they let us live there at all."
"It is great to look eastwards," said another, "and see the land
falling away, to know that we have this last height and have wrested
it from them in three hours." It was a nightmare which was lifted
from the Army upon June 7, 1917.
{113}