The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1917-06-15
ALLIES BIGV|CTORY
Enemy's Lines in Belgium Pierced
Along Ten Mile Front.
STUNNING BLOW TO GERMANS
kaiser's Troops Demoralized by Ex-
plosion Of Mines and Unprece.
dented Artillery Fire-eritish
Losses Reported Light.

pIosion Of Mines and Unprece.
dented Artillery Fire-sritish
Losses Reported Light.
London, June I'm q tremendous
attack which began at three O'Clock
this morning the British have captured
the Messines- Wytschaete ridge. which
commands the whole of the German
line in Belgium, and have smashed the
German salient of which Wytschaete
Is the apex.
The Germans, though apparently
aware that the blow was coming and
seemingly prepared to meet it, were
driven from their nearly three years
hold On Messines ridge, opposite poor
old" Ypres. Ypres in q was
avenged today, for Messines ridge has
been the vantage point from which the
| Germans have poured torrents of shells
into the stricken city. The British also
wiped off an old score against the Ger
mans, for they held the ridge in Octo-
Der, 1914, and with very thin forces,
and virtually no artillery, fought blood
lily but vainly to hold it when the Prus-
sian troops massed their modern and
overpowering weapons Of wal against
1t.
Prisoners taken declared that the
b%ombardment Of Vimy ridge was
child's play compared with the gunfire
turned upon Messines ridge.
Record Work Of Artillery.
This fire reached it's climax just
as dawn was graying the eastern skies
and while the full moon was still sus-
pended high in the heavens.
The attack was accompanied by all
the arts and deviltries of latter-day
The enemy guns and gun crews
had been bathed for days In gas shells
sent over by the long-range British
guns.
cendiary flames. Shells that spurted
lead in streams crashed in appalling
numbers about the heads of the de-
Tending soldiers. High-explosive and
shrapnel fire was carried out with such
rapidity that the earth writhed under
the force of the attack.
Mines hat had taken two years to
dig and fill with an overwhelming ex-
plosive broke into an avalanche Of
flaming destruction in the half light of
dawn. This was indeed an Ypres day
OF retaliation and victory for the
vicious sufferings Of two years and
eight months.
Gunners Work Half Naked.
It was a day of intense heat, and the
gunners worked stripped to the waist.
The attack went forward with clock
like 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 n few days.
The attack began ut dawn. and the
setting was rs picturesque as can well
be imaginable. The day before had
been hot and sultry. Toward evening
there was a series of thunder storms
which extended well into the night, the
lightning mingling with the flashes Of
ally unnoticed amid the din Of the can
non. A full moon struggled continu-
ously to break through the heavy
clouds which scudded across the vel
vety night sky.
Sing on Way to Fight.
On the way to the front were oil the
familiar pictures of the war-endless
trains of motor trucks; all varieties
of horse transport, the British SOL
diers marching to battle light of heart
and singing songs familiar In every
American community.
From the German line the same
lazy, looping rocket signals were as
cending to illuminate the treacherous
bit Of ground between the trenches
known as No Mans Land. This night
" "straffng' had been going on SO
long that the enemy considered It en-
tirely normal and took no alarm. Oc-
~casionally blue and yellow rockets
would be flung into the air by Germans
holding the front line.
Like Volcanoes In Eruption.
Day was scarcely breaking when
from the dimly visible ridge q score
Of fiery volcanoes seemed suddenly to
spring from the earth. The night had
been filled with strange noises and still
stranger sights, but these masses Of
fame, leaping from the ground, had a
meaning all their own. They were the
spectacular outward and visible evil
dences Of more than a million pounds
Of high explosives which had been
buried deep in mines below the enc
my's positions for months.
All the world appeared lur1d and
horrible under the sinister glow. The
earth shook as II torn by a great seis-
mic disturbance. It was not q single
shock. The force Of the explosion
actually set the earth rocking to and
fro, and under the influence OF the
giant guns. which Immediately began
to oar from far and near, the trem-
bling continued indefinitely.