Show BROKE GERMAN LINE details ot of important allied victory before ypres cypres OLD SCORE IS WIPED OUT capture of messines sines ridges peculiarly gratifying as it was the scene of former british defeat defenses Defens cs shattered with the ho british armies arales in france june 7 in one of the most elaborately and daringly executed maneuvers or of the war sir douglas haig forces have dealt 11 mighty blow ng against the german line in belgium wid ind been regarded ded with notable gains in terrain and the capture of more than arl prisoners boners and numerous guns of various caliber in addition they inflicted heavy beavy casualties on the germans the germans though apparently nwart that the blow was coming coining and seemingly prepared to meet it were driven from their nearly three years hold on Mc mcaines sines ridge opposite poor old ypres cypres cypres ypres in a sense was nas rt th avenged today for messines ridge ha has been the vantage point from which tile the germans have poured torrents of shells shell into the lie stricken city the british also wiped ot off an old score against the germans for they held the ridge in october 1914 and with very thin forces and N virtually no artillery fought bloodily but vainly it when the prussian troops troop massed their modern and overpowering ie weapons apons of war against it prisoners ners taken declared that the bombardment of vinly vimy ridge was childs play compared with the gunfire turned upon ridge triumph for artillery this fire reached its climax just ns as dawn daun was graying the eastern skies and while the full moon was still suspended high in the heavens leavens the attack was accompanied by all the nit aits nits and deviltries devil tries of latter day war ar the enemy guns ind and gun crews had been bathed for days in gas shells s sent over by the long range british gung g ung the nic night was filled with red incendiary cen diary flames shells that spurted lead in streams crashed in appalling numbers about the heads of the defending soldiers high explosive and shrapnel fire was carried out with such rapidity that the earth writhed under the force of the attack mines lines that had taken two years to dig and in fill with an overwhelming ex broke into an avalanche of naming flaming destruction in the half light of dawn tills this was wag indeed an cypre s day of nf retaliation and victory for the vicious sufferings of two years and eight months gunners strip to waist it was a day of intense heat and the gunners worked stripped to the waist the attack went ent 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 tile the attack began at dawn and the setting was as picturesque as can well be imaginable the lay day before had been hot and sultry toward evening tb thare re was naas a series of thunder storms which extended well into the night the lightn lightning inc mingling with the flashes of the lie guns but the thunder being virtually unnoticed amid the din of the cannon A full moon struggled continuously to break through the heavy clouds which scudded studded across the velvety night sl sky sing on way to fight on the way nay to the front were all the lie familiar pictures of the war endless trains of motor trucks all vari varieties etIL as of horse tran transport port the british soldiers marching to battle light of heart and singing songs familiar in every american community in the shadow of an old windmill v aich has withstood the stor storms of a century and been undaunted by nearly three years of war the correspondent witnessed the last phases of the seven jiny ilay preliminary bombardment an and the final outburst of the guns which sent the british infantry confidently on oil their way to new successes in fighting the greatest military nation the world has ever known from the german line the same lazy looping rocket signals were ascending to illuminate the trea treacherous cherow bit of ground between the trenches known as no mans land this nightly straning str aning had been going on so bo long that the enemy considered it entirely normal and took no alarm occasionally casio caslo nally blue and yellow rockets would be flung into the air by germans holding bolding the front line one by one the puns guns became silent there was the old grandmother howitzer of enormous caliber which kept breaking the peace at uve five ute lite intervals the shock of each succeeding explosion and the shriek of the heavy shells being emphasized by the silence which lay over all the surrounding country like volcanoes in eruption day dav was scarcely sen reel y breaking when from tile the dimly visible ridge a score of alery vol volcanoes canoe s seemed suddenly to spring from tile the earth carth the night had been filled with s strange noises and still stranger ranger Bt sights but these ril masses asses of flame leaping from the aroun ground d had a meaning all their own they were the spectacular icolar outward and 1131 ble ci 01 than a n million pounds dences genf e or ol more which had bad been of high explosives burled buried deep in mines below the ene mys positions for months all tile world appeared in lurid rid and I 1 horrible under the sinister figov the earth shook as if torn by n great inic disturb disturbance rince it was not a single shock the force of the explosion actually set the earth roe rocking icing to and fro and under tho the influence of the giant guns which immediately began to conr from far an and near the trembling continued indefinitely it was nas when this finni final ter rifle lc bombardment begun began it has seemed that the battle of the somme attained the ultimate in the close assembly of war Nc weapons apons but this sudden outpouring on IN intestine TessIne ridge was ns beyond all calculation the lighter field guns un far forward set up a perfect curtain fire under which the assaulting troops trudged confidently confident IN to their allotted goals farther back the deep throated heavies began to pour out torrents of high explosive shells on the german trenches and communications willie while still other guns enough to win any ordinary battle confined thein geles solely to tile the t task ic of debug deluging ing german guns and gunners in baths of gas fired in shells of every conce conceivable lable caliber the effect of this counter battery work was not appreciated until later in the day when tile tho infantry sent back word that their progress had not been hampered by the enemy artillery and that their casualties amounted to virtually nothing enemy signals for help great black observation balloons had stolen skyward during the din of the newly begun battle in the wood nood back bacic of the windmill spring tpring birds awakened by the deafening clamor ind begun to sing joyously like so ninny many children who ho have come into the consciousness of being in the midst of the war these birds regarded tile the appalling noise of the battle as a normal condition of life the smoke of the giant mines exploded along the battle front meantime rose in great curling plumes plume toward the sky and was wa punctuated by red signals for help from the stricken Gerin germans geriann nn in the front and support lines never was the air filled with more frantic notices of danger the entire horizon glowed with red balls of fire sent up by the nervous germans more and more british airplanes began gan to make their appearance one flew over the lines the flashes of the guns gun being reflected brilliantly on its highly glazed wings under tills this appalling fire trudged forward on the tennille ten nille mile front general blumers Pl umers army at many places the alie inan found germ germin german in troops utterly dazed by the mine explosion and the ordeal of the artillery fire first taste of new warfare many of these troops had but recently ly come from russia where they had spent IS 18 months and knew nothing oi of what hat actual warfare was like on the we western tern front they had bad bolted at the firt first mine explosion and had only been gathered together in groups by their non noncommissioned commissioned officers when the baltish appeared out of the smoke and shells and made them prisoner they said gald they had been given to understand by their officers that the british always killed their prisoners it was really pitiful in some instances to see the manner in which these pris ancis cringed to their captors As a matter of fact the british soldier alien the fighting lb Is done is inclined almost too strongly stion gly to treat the german prisoners as pals some of the prisoners taken today had bad onn gone into the german lines last night and lind made their way for forward Nard under n galling fire and had lost heavily but the troops already in the line were calling for relief in such a manner that their appeals could not be denied failed to time attack in view of the fact that the attack attach had been expected the german coni coin manders were endeavoring to get pt theli bt best units actually into the fighting front but had underestimated when hen the british would strike the troops in a I 1 line were utterly bewildered when the attack began and tell fell easy prey to the advancing british the irish new Ze alanders and aus aug tra lians alio lio had been rehearsed in every detail of tile show knew jus aliat liat to do from the moment the word to advance was glen ghen the battle was far more risible during tile the first uncertain moments than litter later when the sun gradually burned its way through the eastern banks ol of clouds by that time the alie smoke of ex floding hells and the vapors from the blinding barrage which had been part parl of the ai tillery duty obscured the chemor mor distant landscape to such an extent that the roaring guns could not be seen at all although the firing was almost at ones feet the brilliantly leaping shrapnel shells breaking far above ground appeared through a thick mist only as brief and brilliant electric bpark british planes rule air for n month past but especially since juno june 1 the airplanes on this front have been indefatigably tit at work during every possible flying hour they had brought down nearly 50 machines in six days as a means of blinding the enemy lately the germans have endeavored valiantly to obtain airplane observations for their artillery but their observing machines have seldom been able to direct more than one or two shots before the british fighting scouts had pounced upon them and either cither sent them crashing tc the earth or had driven them to cover at breakneck speed today the british planes flew far und and long over the retreating lines and were only challenged by some very brid bad shooting antiaircraft anti aircraft batteries all through the lay day british planes plane ruled the lie air they operated cooperated co actively with the british art artillery I 1 11 c r y an and d infantry in maintaining the success of tills this brilliant episode iti modern wa war faro fare |