The increasing rain of shells of all calibre which was poured on the enemy defences in preparation for the battle, provoked heavy shelling in reply, particularly counter battery work, and while Messines village could be noticed visibly dwindling under the fire of our heavies, many farmhouses on our side of the line, which had hitherto escaped, were battered to pieces. Plœgsteert Wood, with its clean duckboard tracks and rustic cabins, was no
longer a suitable spot to study the phenomena of spring. The scent of the violet became lost in the odour of lachrymatory gas, and the note of the cuckoo, while still to be heard, alternated with the whistle and the crash of shells. Pont de Nieppe and its vicinity were shelled on two or three occasions, and on June 6th, the day before the battle, the company lost four men killed and three wounded in Stuff Camp itself.
Some little time before this the enemy had fired a few shells at the bridge itself, the Pont de Nieppe, on the main road into Armentières, and had succeeded in putting one shell through what appeared to be the crown of the arch. In reality, the arch had no proper crown, the central 23 feet or so of the span being bridged across by girders connected with brick jack arches. From underneath these girders looked like, and had always been taken for, steel, but the shell, which broke three of them, disclosed the interesting fact that they were only of cast iron. While just strong enough to take 3-ton motor lorries, there was certainly not sufficient margin of safety for heavier loads. The damage was repaired and the bridge incidentally strengthened by a party of sappers from the company, who stripped the damaged portion and replaced the broken cast iron beams with steel girders. These had to be slowly and painfully shaped by hand to fit exactly to the cast iron seating at each end.
Part of the medical arrangements were carried out by the 11th Company, who built an R.A.P. near Hyde Park Corner and some extensions to other posts and dressing stations.
Early in June the elaborate preparations were at last complete, and Z day was fixed for the 7th of the month. The 3rd Australian Division had reached the eve of its first large scale offensive.
CHAPTER II.
MESSINES, YPRES, AND AFTER.
1. The Battle of Messines.
The 11th Field Company was reserve company in the first stage of the attack on Messines Ridge, and very early in the morning of the 7th of June, 1917, marched from Pont de Nieppe to Weka Lines, in the little village of Romarin, on the road to Plœgsteert village. With the company moved a party of attached infantry from the 9th Brigade, which had reported to Stuff Camp some days previously. The morning was still and warm and there was a good deal of gas about the battery areas, so that part of the march was done in gas masks, and until the sun rose all ranks solemnly sat around the camp wearing them.