Show LINE details of important allied victory before ypres cypres OLD SCORE IS WIPED OUT capture of meine messines eldgee peculiarly gratifying atif ying as a it wa was the scene of former british defeat defenses Defens ei shattered with the british armies in france jone june 7 T in one of the most elaborately planned and daringly executed ma of the war sir douglas forces have dealt a mighty blo blow the german line in belgium ani sni ben rewarded with alth notable gains in terrain and the capture of more than prisoners prisoner and numerous guns of various caliber in adli addition tion they inflicted heavy casualties on the cerman the germans though ghiare that the tile blow was nos coming and prepared to meet 14 it alre driven from their nearly three years hold bold on messines ridge opposite poor old cipres ipres aprea in a sense was avenged today for messines ridge has hat ben been the vantage point from which the germane Cler mans have poured torrents of shells into hie the stricken city the british also wired wiped off an old score again against t the germans for they held the ridge in october 1014 1914 and find with ith very thin force forces find nd virtually no artillery fought blood lly fly but vainly to hold it ahn the llan olan troops massed their goodern and oyer overpowering powering weapons of war against it prisoners taken Alec lared that the bombardment of vimy nimy ridge was child a pla compared with the gunfire turned upon blessings Bles sines cidre triumph for artillery this fire reached its climax just ae its dawn was graying the eastern skies ind and while hile the full moon was uns till still suspended high in the heavens the attack was accompanied by all the arts and deviltries of latter day war the enemy guns and run gun crews had been bathed for days in gas shells sent over by the long range british pins guns rhe was filled with red incendiary cen diary flames flamos shells that spurted lead in streams crashed in appalling numbers about the heads of the defending soldiers high explosive and shrapnel ire fire was carried out with nith such rapidity that the earth writhed under the force of the attack mines that had find taken two years to dig and 1111 11 with an overwhelming explosive broke into an avalanche of flaming gaining destruction in the half light of dan this thia was indeed an day e of retaliation and victory for the vicious sufferings of two years and eight months gunners strip to walt waist it was a da do of intense heat and the gunners worked stripped to the waist the attack went forward with regularity the british casualties were slight three out of four of the casualties were reported to be walking cases who would return to duty in a few days the attack began at dawn and the citing setting was as picturesque as can well be imaginable the day before I hid iid id been hot bot and sultry toward evening thre th re was a series of thunder storms which extended well into the night the lightning mingling irith the flabb flashes of the guns but the thunder being virtually unnoticed amid the we din of the can non A full moon struggled continuously to break through the heavy clouds which scudded across the velvety night sky sing on way to fight on the way may to the front were all the familiar pictures of the war endless trains of motor trucks all varieties of horse tran transport aport lie british soldiers marching to battle light of heart and singing bengs familiar in every kmer american ican community c in lh th shadow of an old windmill which has withstood the storms of a century and been undaunted by nearly three years of war the correspondent witnessed he the last phases of the beien se en day preliminary bombardment and the final outburst of the sent the british infantry confidently on their way nay to new successes in fighting the greatest military nation the world has ha ever known from the german line the fame ly I looping iping ping rocket signals were ns as ild ilig to illuminate the treacherous bit b it of ground between the trenches known ns nol no mans tans land thia this night ly had been going on so long that the enemy considered it entirely normal and took no alarm oc ox Mo tonally nally blue and yellow rockets would be hung flung into the nir air by br germans holding the front line one by one the guns became silent there was the old grandmother 11 howitzer knitter ON itter of enormous call caliber br which filch apt P breaking tha peace at tire min lie intervals the shock of each succeeding explosion find the shriek of the I 1 anvy shells being emphasized by the alence ll ence which lay over all the our winding country like volcanoes in eruption day wits scarcely brooking breaking when from om the dimly visible ridge a wore score of fiery volcanoes seemed suddenly to pr 9 from the earth the night had hod beell 0 o filled with strange noises and still till ganger sights but these masses of IP 1 leaping ping from the groa grond id had a e all their own they vere the ta cular outward and vieille evi aill es it more than a million pounds of ghigli explosives which bad been burled arted deep in mines below the cne aral positions for months all the world appeared lurid and horrible und under er the he sinister cloy clow th earth shook as if torn by a gnat sel eels role disturbance it m was mas as not a ingle the force of the explosion actually set the arth earth rocking to aud fro and under the influence of the ho slant tant gune guns filth immediately began begun to roar from far and near the trembling continued it was as 3 10 clock when this final terrific began it has seemed that the battle of the attained the ultimate in the close cloie assembly of war ar weapons but this sudden outpouring on ridge was as beyond ah alt calculation the lighter field guns far forward set up a perfect curtain fire under which the assaulting troops trl ed confidently to their allotted goals farther back the deap throated heavies began to pour out torrents of high explosive shells on the german trenches and communications while title still other runs guns enough to win any ordinary battle confined themselves solely to the tile task of deluging german guns and gunners in baths of gas ailred in shells of every conce halle liable caliber the effect of this counter battery work aps not appreciated until later in the day when the infantry sent back bach biord won hat that their progress had not been by tho tile enemy artillery nd that their casualties amounted to virtually nothing enemy nemy signals for help great black observation balloons balloon hill stolen skyward during the din of 0 the newly begun battle in the wood back of the NOnd windmill mill spring birds awakened by the deafening clamor had begun to sing joyously like so many children who have come into the consciousness of being in the midst of the war these birds regarded the appalling noise of the battle as its a normal condition of life the smoke moke of the giant mines ex plodded along the battle front mean time rose in great curling plumes toward the sky and was punctuated by red signals for help from the stricken germans in the front and support lines never was vms the air filled with more frantic notices nt danger the entire horizon glowed with red balls of fire sent up by the nervous germans more and more british airplanes began to make their appe appearance artince one fiew flew over the lines the flashes of the guns being reflected brilliantly on its highly glazed wings under thia this appalling fire trudged forward on the ten mile front general plumer Ilu iners a army at many places the inan fauni german troops utterly dazed by the mine explosion and the ordeal of tho the artillery fire first taste of 0 new warfare many of these troops tod find but recent ly come from russia where they had spent IS 18 months and knew nothing ot of what actual warfare was like oo 00 the western front they had bolted at the th first kinf explosion and had only been gathered together in groups by their noncommissioned off officers leers when the appeared out of the smoke and shells and made them prisoner they said they had been given to understand by thir th ir officers that the th british always killed their prisoners it was really i in some instance to see the manner in which these prisoners cringed to their captors ti a a matter of fact the british sol dier when the fighting Is done Is in dined almost too strongly to treat the th german prisoners prison cra as pals some ol of the pilson prisoners ers taken today bud had only gone into the german lines last night and had made their way forward un tin der tier a galling fire and had lost heavily but the troops already in the line wert were calling for relief in such a manner thai that their appeals could not bo be denied failed to time attack in view of the fact thai that the attack had hall been expected the german corn com mande a were endeavoring to get thelt best units actually into tle front but had underestimated whee the british would strike the kroopf in a strange line were utterly beail dered when the attack began and fell pry erity prey to the advancing british the irish new ea landera and aus au trul who ullo had been rehearsed la in every detail of the show knew jus just aliat brit to do from the moment the word to advance was given the battle was far frore rore visible daring the first uncertain moments than later when the sun gradually burnel burned Us its way through the eastern banks ol 01 cloud P by that time ume the smoke of ex floding shells and the vapors from th the blinding barrage which had been part pail of the artillery duty obscured the chemor mor tristant ill stant landscape to such nn an extent I 1 that the roaring guns could not be seen it 41 nil although the firing was as almost it tt ones feet fl tho the brilliantly leaping shells breaking far for above ground appeared through a thick mist only as brief and brilliant electric sparks british plane planes rule flute air a month past but especially sine drice june 1 the airplanes on thit this front have been indefatigably at work during evay eva y possible hying flying hour they had bad brought down nearly 60 50 machine machines in rix oft day days ns as a mean of blind ing the enemy y lately tho Germ bermana ler mana have hare endeavored valiantly to obtain airplane observant ob observations ions for their artil if lery IT but their ob arving machine have seldom idom been able to direct more morle than one or two shots before the brit ih jh croute had pounced upon them and either sent them arn crushing ahing to the f r th tit or had driven them to cover at tit breakneck peed today the british s flew fat tat and lung long our oler the enemy retreating lines and w were ere only challenged by unit antiaircraft some rome 1 ery ry bad shooting batteries all through the day planes ruled the air they eft operated actively with the british artillery and Jn fentry in maintaining the Pr Access of his this brilliant episode in modem modern war wal fare |