There was a pause. A low rumbling was heard. The earth rocked and quivered until with a prolonged and rending crash a screen of fire rose where the German front lines had been.
Masses of earth were hurled skywards, and as they rose gleamed for a moment purple and gold in the first rays of the sun. They writhed and shifted, fantastically swaying, and shot through with flames. Balls of fire were hurled in every direction, and the air quivered and vibrated with the shock. Before the tortured earth could fall again, down came the stunning roar and crash of the British barrage; and Tanks and infantry were over the parapet.
By 7 a.m. the Anzacs were in Messines, and both Tanks and infantry had reached Fanny’s Farm by noon, their day’s objective gained.
One Tank working with the 2nd Corps reached its final objective (at a distance of about two miles) in an hour and forty minutes.
A Tank led the Ulstermen and the Southern Irish of the 9th Division into Wytschaete.
By about three o’clock three Tanks had reached Oosttaverne, and they patrolled the ground beyond the village till their accompanying Welsh and West Country troops came up.
By nightfall we held our final objective everywhere, and had besides captured 7300 prisoners and 67 guns, 94 trench mortars and a very large number of machine-guns.
All through the night of the 7th-8th the Germans launched small hastily organised counter-attacks, and in repelling one of these, chance enabled three Tanks to play a curious and useful part.
Three of the Tanks, which had helped in the capture of Oosttaverne, had ultimately got ditched near a place named Joye Farm.
It was impossible to extricate them in the darkness, and the crews stood by, hoping to get them out as soon as it was light again.