THE BATTLE OF MESSINES RIDGE—BRITISH SMASH THE GERMAN SALIENT SOUTH OF YPRES
After an intense bombardment that lasted all day of June 1, 1917, and part of the night the Germans on the 2d, employing large forces, hurled five attacks on the French Craonne position; three against the eastern face of Californie Plateau and two against Vauclerc Plateau. It seemed as if the Germans hoped to win the coveted position on the heights by sheer weight of numbers. Advancing in dense masses shoulder to shoulder they formed an impressive spectacle. But not for long. Soon great gaps were torn in the solid lines by the famous French artillery.
The ranks quickly closed up and again surged onward in dense gray waves, only to be shattered again and again by the splendidly served French guns. The same process was repeated, the Germans advancing, their ranks depleting, and then as the French fire became even more destructive they fell back, leaving the battle ground littered with dead.
The French rightly called this a victory, for they maintained all their positions and the Germans had not succeeded in gaining a foothold at any point. The German headquarters was silent concerning the fight on this date.
While the French continued to hold their position on the eastern extremity of the Chemin-des-Dames they threatened to turn the right flank of the Laon bastion by an advance over the open ground north of Berry-au-Bac. For this reason the Germans were desperately anxious to recover the Craonne position, which was the key to the whole tactical situation in this part of the front.
For about two weeks the British had been bombarding the strong German salient south of Ypres. On June 7, 1917, they delivered against this position or series of fortifications an overwhelming blow. It was one of the most spectacular military operations carried out during the war and marked a brilliant victory for the Allied arms. By this startling coup the Germans were forced out of one of the strongest positions they held on the western front. As far as human ingenuity and military skill could make it so, the position was impregnable. From its commanding situation the Germans were able to observe with ease all the preparations that were in progress in the British lines and arrange to checkmate them. The value of the position to the Germans in this area was therefore of supreme value.
For two and a half years the Allied armies in this little corner of Belgium had held the Germans in check, and during that time they were almost at the mercy of the German guns on the Messines-Wytschaete Ridge.
The German front defenses of this position consisted of the most elaborate trench systems and fortifications, forming a belt of about a mile deep. Farms and woods around were garrisoned and machine-gun emplacements were set up in every available corner. Concrete dugouts of the strongest description were provided for the protection of garrisons and machine gunners, and nothing that labor and skill could devise was neglected to make the position indestructible. Yet all this laboriously constructed defense work that had taken many months to complete and the strength and skill of thousands were swept away in a few hours' time.
For nearly two years companies of sappers—British, Australians, and New Zealanders—had been busily engaged in tunneling under the low range of hills upon which the German position stood. In these underground passages engineers had planted nineteen great mines, containing more than a million tons of ammonite, a new and enormously destructive explosive. The secret of the mines was so well kept during the time they were preparing that the Germans seemed to have had no suspicion of the great surprise in store for them.
At exactly 3.10 in the morning of June 7, 1917, all the nineteen mines were discharged by electric contact and the hilltops were blown off amid torrents of spouting flames with a roaring sound like many earthquakes that could be heard distinctly farther away than London. Large sections of the German front, supporting trenches, and dugouts went up in débris amid thick clouds of smoke. To add to the terror of the defenders of the position the British guns after the explosions shelled the salient steadily until preparations were completed for attack. Then the British infantry under Field Marshal Haig and General Sir Herbert Plumer advanced with a rush to the assault and the German front line for ten miles was captured in a few minutes.