The British Campaign in France (november 1918)
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(The Strand Magazine, november 1918, p. 348)
The Battle of Messines is the 19th article, published in november 1918, in a series of 21 articles written by Arthur Conan Doyle serialized as The British Campaign in France in The Strand Magazine.
Editions
- in The Strand Magazine (november 1918 [UK]) (1 ill. + 1 map + 1 diagram)
- in The British Campaign in France and Flanders (1916-1920, Hodder & Stoughton Ltd. [UK])
- in The British Campaign in France and Flanders (1916, George H. Doran Co. [US])
- in The British Campaign in Europe (1914-1918) (november 1928, Geoffrey Bles [UK])
Illustrations
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Order of battle — Messines, June 7th, 1917. -
Bombers and Lewis gunners at close quarters with the enemy in the battle of Messines. -
The scene of the fighting described in the present instalment.
The Battle of Messines
(The Strand Magazine, november 1918, p. 348)
(The Strand Magazine, november 1918, p. 349)
(The Strand Magazine, november 1918, p. 350)
(The Strand Magazine, november 1918, p. 351)
(The Strand Magazine, november 1918, p. 352)
(The Strand Magazine, november 1918, p. 353)
(The Strand Magazine, november 1918, p. 354)
"A Model and Masterpiece of Modern Tactics."
By
A. CONAN DOYLE.
Turning Sir Herbert's Hair White — Advance, Australia! — Advance of Twenty-fifth Division — The Two Irish Divisions — The Advance of the Nineteenth Division — Advance of Morland's Tenth Corps — The Results.
The operations upon the Somme in the autumn of 1916 had given the British command of the high ground in the Somme district. The next move was to obtain a similar command in the continuation of the same high ground to the north. This was accomplished from Arras to Lens in the great battle which began upon April 9th, 1917. After the complete conquest of this Vimy position, the next step was obviously to attack the prolongation of the same ridge in the Ypres direction. This was carried out with great success upon June 7th, in the Battle of Messines, when nine miles of commanding country was carried and permanently held, front the neighbourhood of Ploegstreet in the south to Hill 60 and Mount Sorel in the north. Thus many spots which will for ever be associated with the glorious dead — Hill 60 itself, with its memories of the old 13th and 15th Brigades; Wytschaete, where the dismounted troopers fought so desperately in the fall of 1914; Messines, sacred also to the memory of the cavalry and of the British and Indian infantry who tried hard to hold it; finally, the long, gently-sloping ridge which was reddened by the blood of the gallant London Scots when they bore up all night amid fire and flame against the ever-increasing pressure of the Bavarians — all these historic places came back once more into British keeping. It is this action, so splendid both in its execution and in its results, which we have now to examine, an action which was a quick sequel to the order of the German command that "the enemy must not get Messines Ridge at any price."
Turning Sir Herbert's Hair White.
For two thankless years Sir Herbert Plumer, the officer who in his younger days had held on in such bulldog fashion to the country north of Mafeking, had been the warden of the Ypres salient. His task had been a peculiarly difficult and responsible one — indeed, many a military critic might have said a priori that it was an impossible one. The general outline of the British trenches formed a loop rather than a salient, and there was no point in it which could not be shot into from behind. Add to this that all the rising ground and, therefore, all the observation, lay with the enemy, and that the defending troops were very often skeleton divisions which had come up exhausted from the south. Taking all these circumstances together, one can understand the facts which turned General Plumer's hair white during these two years, but never for an instant weakened the determination of his defence. There was no one in the Army who did not rejoice, therefore, when it was learned that the Second Army had been chosen for the next attack, and that the long-suffering Plumer was at last to have a chance of showing that he could storm a line as well as hold one.
Preparatory to the attack, some twenty great mines had been driven into the long, low hill, which is really little more than a slope, attaining a height of two hundred and fifty feet at the summit. These mines contained six hundred tons of explosives, and had been the work of constant relays of miners during many months. The accumulation of guns was even greater than at Arras, and they were packed into about half the length of front, so that the effect of the massed fire when it broke out in the morning of June 7th was crushing to an extent never before known in warfare. What with the explosions of the mines and the downpour of shells, the German front line, with its garrison, may be said to have utterly disappeared, so that when at 3.20 in the first faint flush of a summer morning the infantry dashed forward to the attack, the path of victory had already been laid out before them. Let us examine the general composition of the British line before we follow the fortunes of the various units.
General Plumer's army had been moved down the line so as to cover all its objectives, and Cough's Fifth Army from the south had been put in to the north of it, occupying the actual salient. This Second Army was not in the first instance engaged. The Second Army consisted of three corps. The northern of these was the Tenth Corps (Morland), which was in the region of St. Eloi. This corps consisted, counting from the north, of the 23rd, 47th, and 41st Divisions, with the 24th in reserve. Upon its right, facing Wytschaete, was the Ninth Corps (Hamilton Gordon), containing, from the north, the 19th, 16th, and 36th Divisions, with the 11th in reserve. Still farther to the right was the Second Anzac Corps (Godley), facing Messines, with the 25th British Division, the New Zealanders, and the 3rd Australians in line from the north, and the 4th Australians in reserve. Such was the British line upon the eventful dawn of June 7th, 1917.
Advance, Australia!
To take the work of individual units, we shall begin with the 3rd Australian Division upon the extreme right. The men, like their comrades all along the line, had endured very heavy shelling in their assembly trenches, and sprang eagerly forward when the word to advance was given. The 1st and 2nd Australian Divisions had given so splendid an account of themselves already in the Hindenburg Line that it was no surprise to find that their mates were as battle-worthy as any troops in the Army. The whole country in front of them was drenched with gas, which hung heavy with the mists of morning, but the weird lines of masked men went swiftly onwards in open order through the poison region, dashed over the remains of the German trenches, crossing the small river Douve upon the way, and then, pushing on from one shot-shattered building to another, keeping well up to the roaring cloud of the barrage, occupied without a hitch the whole of their allotted position. With a single pause, while Messines was being occupied upon their left, the leading line of Victorians and Tasmanians drove straight on for their ultimate goal, sending back a stream of captured prisoners behind them. Only at one trench was there a sharp hand-to-hand fight, but in general so splendid was the artillery and so prompt the infantry that the enemy had never a chance to rally. It was a perfect advance and absolutely successful. Some indications of counter-attacks came up from the Warneton direction during the afternoon and evening, but they were beaten out so quickly by the shrapnel that they never came to a head. Half-a-dozen field-guns, as well as several hundred prisoners, fell to the lot of the Australians.
Upon the immediate left of the Australians was the New Zealand Division, which had done so splendidly at the Somme. Their Rifle Brigade had been given the place of honour exactly opposite to Messines, and by eight o'clock they had occupied the village and were digging in upon the farther side. Thirty-eight machineguns and a number of prisoners were the trophies of their advance. There was no severe fighting, so well had the mines and the guns together done their work ; but the men who stormed the village found numerous cellars and dug-outs still occupied, into which they swiftly penetrated with bayonet or bomb. In one of these regimental head-quarters was found a message from General von Laffert ordering the 17th Bavarian Regiment to hold the village at all costs. It is certainly extraordinary how these unfortunate and gallant Bavarians were thrust into every hot corner, and if the reason lies in the fact that their Prince Rupprecht had the honour of commanding the German Army of Flanders, then it is an honour which will leave its grievous trace upon his country for a century to come. It is an extraordinary historical fact that the Bavarians, who were themselves overrun and crushed by the conquering Prussians in 1866, should have paid without demur the enormous blood tribute to their conquerors in a cause in which they had no direct interest, since no annexation of Briey metals or Belgian lands would bring prosperity to Bavaria.
The losses of the New Zealanders in their fine advance were not heavy, but they had a number of casualties that evening and next morning in their newly-consolidated position, which included, unfortunately, Brigadier-General Brown, one of the finest officers in the force, who was killed by a burst of shrapnel.
Advance of Twenty-Fifth Division.
Upon the immediate left of the New Zealanders was the 25th, a sound, hard-working British division, which had a fine and a very long record of service upon the Somme. The task allotted to this division was a formidable-one, consisting of an attack upon a twelve-hundred-yard front, which should penetrate three thousand yards and cross nine lines of German trenches, the Concealed Steenebeek Valley, and finally crush the resistance of a number of fortified farms. In spite of these numerous obstacles, the advance, which was well covered by the guns, was splendidly successful. The 74th Brigade was on the right, the 7th upon the left, with the 75th in reserve. Observers have recorded how at the very instant that the men surged forward under their canopy of shells, six miles of S.O.S. rockets rose in one long cry for help from the German line. From the right, the British wave of stormers consisted of the 13th Cheshire, the 2nd Irish Rifles, the 3rd Worcesters, and the 8th North Lancashires, veterans of Ovillers and the Leipzig Redoubt. Keeping close behind a barrage of sixty guns, they flooded over the enemy trenches, just missing the answering barrage which came pattering down behind them. These troops advanced without a check to the line of the Steenebeek, where the work was taken up by the second wave, consisting of the 9th Lancashire, 11th Lancashire Fusiliers, 10th Cheshires, and 1st Wilts, the order being taken from the right. For a time there was a dangerous gap between the Wiltshires and the flank of the Ulstermen to the left, but this was bridged over, and the advance rolled on, with a constant capture of prisoners and machine-guns. Only at one point, named Middle Farm, was there a notable resistance, but the Lancashire Fusiliers and Irish Rifles combined to crush it. All this attack had been carried out in a dim light, half mist and half dust-laden from explosions, where obstacles were hardly seen until they were reached, and where it took fine leading and discipline to preserve direction, so that numbers of men lost touch with their own battalions and went forward as best they might. These are the times when shirkers have their chance and when the true individual quality of troops is most highly tested. Out of touch with officers on either side, the British advanced and the Germans surrendered.
On the capture of all the first objectives the 8th South Lancashires and nth Cheshires of the 75th Brigade passed through the victorious ranks of their fellow-brigades and pushed on against the strong October system of trenches beyond. The 8th Borderers followed closely behind, consolidating the ground won by the forward line. It was still only four in the morning. As the 75th Brigade swept forward, it found the 1st New Zealand Brigade upon its right and the 107th Ulster Division upon its left, all moving swiftly in one great line. By eight o'clock all immediate opposition had been beaten down, and the full objectives were being consolidated by the 106th Field Company Royal Engineers, five field-guns having been added to the other trophies. These might have been got away by the enemy had not the machine-guns knocked out the gun teams. The 110th and 112th Brigades of British artillery had been pushed up after the infantry, and though some delay was caused by the unfortunate destruction of Major Campbell and his whole battery staff by a single shell, the batteries were in action within the German lines by 11 a.m.
About midday a counter-attack began to develop along the front of the 2nd Anzac Corps, involving both British, New Zealanders, and Australians, but the blow already received had been too severe, and there was no resilience left in the enemy. The attempt died away under a withering fire from rifles and machine-guns. By 2 p.m. all was quiet once more.
The British effort was not yet at an end, however. The long summer day was still before them, and there was a good reserve division in hand. This was the 4th Australian Division, two brigades of which — the I2th on the left and the 14th on the right — passed through the ranks of the 25th and New Zealand Divisions about 3.15 p.m. Their objective was a further system of trenches five hundred yards to the east and well down the other slope of the Messines Hill. The advance of each brigade was admirable, but, unfortunately, they diverged, leaving a dangerous gap between, in which for two days a party of the enemy, with machine-guns, remained entrenched. At the end of that time two battalions of the 13th Australian Brigade, the 50th and 52nd, carried the place most gallantly by storm and solidified the line.
The Two Irish Divisions.
Passing from the area of the Anzac Corps to that of the Ninth Corps we come first upon the gallant 36th Ulster Division, which had not reappeared in any battle since its day of glory and of tragic loss in front of Thiepval. It was now, by a happy chance or by a beneficent arrangement, fighting upon the right flank of the loth Southern Irish Division, and the two may be treated as one, since they advanced, step by step, in the same alignment up the bullet-swept slope, and neither halted until they had reached their full objectives. The Ulstermen went forward with the 108th Brigade of Irish Rifles upon the right in close touch with the 25th Division, while the 108th was on the left, keeping line with their fellow-countrymen, both Irish divisions dashing forward with great fire and resolution.
The 16th Irish Division for the purpose of the attack consisted of four brigades, having been strengthened by the addition of the 33rd Brigade from the nth Division. In the attack, the 47th Brigade was upon the right and the 49th upon the left. If some further detail may be permitted in the case of men who were playing so loyal a part at a time when part of Ireland had appeared to be so disaffected, it may be recorded that the Irish line, counting from the right, consisted of the 6th Royal Irish, the 7th Leinsters, the 7/8th Royal Irish Fusiliers. and the 7th Inniskilling Fusiliers. In this order they sprang up the Wytschaete slope, closely followed by their second line, which was formed by the 1st Munster Fusiliers, 6th Connaught Rangers, 2nd Royal Irish, and 8th Inniskillings. In this order, in close touch with the Ulstermen upon their right and the English 19th Division upon their left, they swept up the hill, their Celtic yell sounding high above the deep thunder of the guns. The explosion of the huge mines had a disconcerting effect at the first instant, for great masses of débris came showering down upon the men in the advanced positions, so that the dense smoke and the rain of falling earth and stones caused confusion and loss of direction. The effect was only momentary, however, and the eager soldiers dashed on. They swarmed over Wytschaete village and wood, beating down all resistance, which had already been badly shaken by the accurate fire of the guns. It was in the assault of the village that that great Irishman, Major Willie Redmond, fell at the head of his men. "He went in advance when there was a check. He was shot down at once. As he fell, he turned towards his men and tried to say something. No words came, but he made an eloquent gesture with his right arm towards the German line, and the Irish swept forward." The profound gratitude of every patriot is due to him, to Professor Kettle, to Mr. Stephen Gwynn, M.P., and to all those Nationalists who had sufficient insight to understand that Ireland's true cause was the cause of the Empire, and that it was the duty of every Irishman of all shades of opinion to uphold it in arms. O si sic omnes! An Irishman could then hold his head higher to-day, and Home Rule would have been endorsed by the cordial consent of all.
By 3.45 a.m. the first objective had been taken, and by five the second, save in front of the Leinsters, where there was a stout resistance at a German machine-gun post, which was at last overcome. It was at this period that a dangerous gap developed between the retarded wing of the right-hand brigade and the swiftly advancing flank of the left, but this opening was closed once more by seven o'clock. By seven-thirty the third objective had been cleared by the 1st Munsters on the right and the 2nd Irish Rifles on the left, for the second line had now leap-frogged into the actual battle. By eight o'clock everything had fallen and the field-guns of the 59th and 113th Brigades R.F.A. had been rushed up to the front, well screened by the slope of the newly-conquered hill. The new position was swiftly wired by the 11th Hants and a detachment of Royal Engineers.
There now only remained an extreme line which was, according to the original plan, to be the objective of an entirely new advance. This was the Oostaverne Line, so called from the hamlet of that name which lay in the middle of it. Its capture meant a further advance of two thousand yards, and it was successfully assaulted in the afternoon by the 33rd Brigade, consisting of the 7th South Staffords, 9th Sherwoods, 6th Lincolns, and 6th Borderers. It has been frequently remarked, and Guillemont might be quoted as a recent example, that both Englishmen and Irishmen never fight better than when they are acting together and all national difference is transmuted suddenly into generous emulation. So it was upon the field of Messines, for the advance of the 33rd Brigade was a worthy continuation of a splendid achievement. Keeping pace with the 57th Brigade of the 19th Division to their north, they dashed aside all obstacles, and by six o'clock were in complete possession of the farthest point which had ever been contemplated in the fullest ambition of the Generals.
The enemy had been dazed by the terrific blow, but late in the evening signs of a reaction set in, for the German is a dour fighter, who does not sit down easily under defeat. It is only by recollecting his constant high qualities that one can appreciate the true achievement of the British in all this series of battles, Arras, Messines, and the Flanders Ridges, when pitchforking out of terribly-fortified positions the men who had so long been regarded as the military teachers and masters of Europe. Nerved by their consciousness of a truly national cause, the soldiers fought with a determined do-or-die spirit which has surely never been matched in all our military annals, while the sagacity and adaptability of the leaders were in the main worthy of the magnificence of the men. As an example of the insolent confidence of the Army, it may be noted that on this, as on other occasions, all arrangements had been made in advance for using the German dumps. "This should invariably be done," says an imperturbable official document, "as the task of rapidly getting forward Engineer stores is most difficult."
A number of ruined farms formed part of the new British line, and upon this there came a series of German bombing attacks upon June 8, none of which met with success. The 68th Field Company of the Engineers had inverted the position, turning the defences from west to east, and the buildings were held by the Lincolns and Sherwoods, who shot down the bombers before they could get within range even of the far-flying egg-bomb, which can out-fly the Mills by thirty paces, though its effect is puny in comparison with the terrific detonation of the larger missile. From this time onwards the line became permanent. In this long day of fighting the captures amounted to eight officers and seven hundred men, with four field-guns and four howitzers. The losses were moderate for such results, being eleven hundred men for the Irish and five hundred for the 33rd Brigade. Those of the Ulster Division were also about a thousand.
The Advance of the Nineteenth Division.
Upon the left of the Irishmen the advance had been carried out by the 19th Division, and it was, alas! the last operation which their gal1ant General Bridges was to command, since an unfortunate wound was shortly to deprive the country of valuable services which had covered such varied activities as the rallying of the retreat from Mons upon one side, and the conduct of a military mission to America upon the other. Few individuals have deserved better of their country during the Great War. Of his hard fighting division, the same which had carried La Boiselle upon the Somme, the 56th Lancashire Brigade and the 58th, mainly Welsh, were in the line. The advance was a difficult one, conducted through a region of shattered woods, but the infantry cleared all obstacles and kept pace with the advance of the Irish upon the right, finally sending forward their reserve Midland brigade as already stated to secure and to hold the Oostaverne Line. The ground to be traversed by this division, starting as it did from near Wulverghem, was both longer and more exposed than that of any other, and was particularly open to machine-gun fire. Without the masterful artillery the attack would have been an impossibility. None the less, the infantry was magnificently cool and efficient, widening the front occasionally to take in fortified posts which were just outside its own proper area. The 9th Cheshire particularly distinguished itself, gaining part of its second objective before schedule time and having to undergo a British barrage in consequence. This fine battalion ended its day's work by blowing to shreds by its rifle-fire a formidable counterattack. The Welsh battalions of the same 58th Brigade, the 9th Welsh Fusiliers, 9th Welsh, and 5th South, Wales Borderers, fought their way up through Grand Bois to the Oostaverne Line with great dash and gallantry. The village of that name was itself taken by the 19th Division, who consolidated their line so rapidly and well that the German counter-attack in the evening failed to make any impression.
Advance of Morland's Tenth Corps.
We have now roughly sketched the advance of the Ninth Corps and will turn to Morland's Tenth Corps upon its left. The flank division of this was the 41st. This unit, which was entirely English, and drawn mostly from the South country, had, as the reader may remember, distinguished itself at the Somme by the capture of Flers. They had several formidable obstacles in their immediate front, including the famous Dammstrasse, a long causeway which was either trench or embankment, according to the lie of the ground. An estaminet upon this road was a lively centre of contention and beyond this was Ravine Wood, with its lurking guns and criss-cross of wire. All these successive obstacles went down before the steady flow of the determined infantry, who halted at their farthest line in such excellent condition that they might well have carried the attack forward had it not been prearranged that the 24th, the reserve division, should pass through their ranks, as will presently be described.
To the left of the 41st was the 47th London Territorial Division, containing the victors of Loos and of High Wood. The effect of the mines had been particularly deadly on this front, and one near Hill 60 is stated by the Germans to have taken up with it a whole company of Würtembergers. The position attacked by the Londoners was on each side of the Ypres-Comines Canal, and comprised some formidable obstacles, including a considerable wood and a ruined country-house named "The White Château." Again and again the troops were held up, but every time they managed to overcome the obstacle. Beside the ruined grandeur of the great villa, with all its luxuries and amenities looking strangely out of place amid the grim trimmings of rusty wire and battered cement, the Londoners came to hand-grips with the Prussians and Würtembergers who faced them. In all six hundred prisoners were sent to the rear.
To the left of the 47th London Division, and forming the extreme flank of the attack, was the 23rd Division of Contalmaison fame, a unit which was entirely composed of tough North of England material. It was in touch with the regular 8th Division upon the left, this being the flank division of the Fifth Army. The latter took no part in the present advance, and the 23rd had the task of forming a defensive flank in the Hooge direction, while at the same time it attacked and conquered the low ridges from which the Germans had so long observed our lines, and from which they had launched their terrible attack upon the Canadians a year before. No long advance was expected from this division, since the object of the whole day's operations was to flatten out an enemy salient, not to make one upon our own side. Sufficient ground was occupied, however, to cover the advance farther south, and without this advance it would have been impossible for the supporting division to carry on, without exposing its flank, the work which had been done by the two divisions upon the right. At three-ten in the afternoon the 24th Division advanced through the ranks of the 41st and 47th Divisions at a point due east of St. Eloi, its attack being synchronized with that upon the Oostaverne Line farther south. The operation was splendidly successful, for the 73rd Brigade upon the left and the 17th upon the right, at the cost of about four hundred casualties, carried that section of the Dammstrasse and the whole of the historic, blood-sodden ground upon either side of it, bringing it within the British line, and rounding off the complete victory of the Second Army. So close to the barrage was the advance of the infantry that the men of the 1st Royal Fusiliers and 3rd Rifle Brigade, who led the 17th Brigade, declared that they had the dust of it in their faces all the way.
The Results.
It was a one day's battle, a single hammer-blow upon the German line, with no ulterior operations save such as held the ground gained, but the battle has been acclaimed by all critics as a model and masterpiece of modem tactics, which show the highest power of planning and of execution upon the part of Sir Herbert Plumer and his able Chief of Staff. The main trophy, of course, was the invaluable Ridge, but in the gaining of it some seven thousand two hundred prisoners fell into British hands, including one hundred and forty-five officers, which gives about the same proportion to the length of front attacked as the Battle of Arras. The Germans had learned wisdom, however, as to the disposition of their guns in the face of "the unwarlike Islanders," so that few were found within reach. Sixty-seven pieces, however, some of them of large calibre, remained in possession of the victors, as well as two hundred and ninety-four machine-guns and ninety-four trench mortars. The military lesson of the battle has been thus summed up in the words of an officer who took a distinguished part in it: "The sight of the battlefield, with its utter and universal desolation stretching interminably on all sides, its trenches battered out of recognition, its wilderness of shell-holes, débris, tangled wire, broken rifles, and abandoned equipment, confirms the opinion that no troops, whatever their morale or training, can stand the fire of such overwhelming and concentrated masses of artillery. With a definite and limited objective and with sufficient artillery, complete success may be reasonably guaranteed." It is the big gun, then, and not, as the Germans claimed, the machine-gun, which is the Mistress of the Battlefield. The axiom laid down above is well proved, but it works for either side, as was soon to be proved, where upon a limited area the weight of metal was with the Germans and the defence with the British.
So fell Messines Ridge. Only when the British stood upon its low summit and looked back upon the fields to westward did they realize how completely every trench and post had been under German observation during these years. No wonder that so much of the best blood of Britain has moistened that fatal plain between Ypres in the north and Ploegsteert in the south. "My God!" said an officer as he looked down, "it is a wonder that they let us live there at all." "It is great to look eastwards," said another, "and see the land falling away, to know that we have this last height and have wrested it from them in three hours." It was a nightmare which was lifted from the Army upon June 7th, 1917.
