The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-08-11

The battle itself was rehearsed bit
 by bit. The infantrymen who follow | ed the equally well trained artillery
 mems barrage had been drilled for | their journey by practice trips far from the scope that left nothing to
 chance-they were taught where to go
 and how to get there, and no peace
 time tripper nourished by guide-book
 ever strated better equipped for the
 hospice by Wytschaete or the Institu-
 tion Royale, long since laid in the red
 dust of a broken ridge by the weight of our bombardment.
 The infantry learned their lesson
 we'll during the long, tedious weeks and months when Messines and Plug street. and the flattened site of Ypres
 above it were quiet-over-shadow
 by the Somme and Arras and forgot ten by all the world.
 | They learned their lesson well, as
 did their faithful conveys, the tanks, and they worked as did their comrades
 of the air and the gunners who sent them confidently to victory in the
 wake of their well-aimed shells. | The stage was set at last and all | the parts well learnt. There remain
 ed only the dress rehearsal of the
 guns, the testing of that great new
 machine pieced together stealthily and mysteriously behind the few hills and insignificant ridges that skirt the plain
 of Flanders.
 It had grown under the very eyes
 of the enemy without his realizing the i full extent of it's power and intentions I cannot tell you how many guns fifteen inch to fifteen pounder were in action on the Messines battle front this morning, but it amazed me that
 so many guns could be hidden so ef- Actively in such little space-a master magician had tucked away the grand mothers of all guns in Ibillets that
 seemed absurdly inadequate against scrutiny from the air and from the
 ridge that dominated us.
 That edge of Belgium and the part l of France it joins simply reeked of I guns. They had come from many Iplaces each to it's own place, and the hour of rehearsal found each gunner
 nursing his targets and adjusted in the great scheme as carefully and deli cately as part of the mechanism of a watch. | They had their rehearsal. I do not some of the prisoners who came know what the Hun called it. although
 through it unhurt said today that ii
 was simply damnable." F. You must understand that the guns were not loosed suddenly to view. The Huns had been deluged with shell day
 and night for more than week with
 varying degrees of intensity. At times the hurricane would ease down into 3 steady shower, but never during this i,,o o efis fnT, 1t wholly cease.
 A barrage was, laid nicely across itheir avenues of approach. You vii
 remember how the guns blockaded the German garrison before Arras until some of the prisoners we took
 were nearly starved. The same ef-
 fective preparation" was dealt ou , to the Prussians and Bavarians al
 Wytschaete and Messines.
 Incoming reliefs were badly holec by high explosive, and the frayee , regiments they superseded dreaded
 the journey to their rest billets ever more than the ordeal in the front line That was the situation for at leas
 a week. We extensively raided ana probed the morale of he Hun. Oul
 parols went over in daylight and came
 back with twenty, thirty, forty on one . s' outrageously kidnapped in view o. their comrades.
 Our airmen added to the agonie.
 of the week. Flying on an average 500 hours per day, this corps-I re fer to the front engaged today-main tained a constant surveillance of tht
 enemy country, watched his men ant , guns coming up to stiffen the garri son round the ridge-he had nor,
 than a shrewd suspiciona that w
 meant to hit him heavily somewheri south of Ypres-bombed his dumps
 his aerodromes, all his various estab lishments, fought his air. scouts il ! their own clouds, photographed hi
 new and nefarious designs of earth
 worths, and in every other conceivabl' , way contributed by the daring self i, sacrifice of it's splendid pilots and ob : servers to. the harassing and eventua
 undoing of this cocksure garrison O
 Messines Ridge.
 The week of preparation brough us to the eve of the battle with ev , cry detail of difficult attack per Lfected, and a great army sitting 1n tn . sunshine of a perfect summer day !. calm and confident of the morrow. I met some of the troops tha
 fought so we'll quietly resting in tn , I1olQS, COnSclOuS that they were read, = for the work. They slept in the sun
 shine or gathered around the plan, in the village cage to. sing the popu lar melodies the soldier loves best, an, I came upon 200 of them sitting il their shirtsleeves in the courtyard O . an old religious house listening to 1, lconcert by their band.
 They were even-tempered and in
 terested in the trivialities of the mo :, ment as though they had no part il the great drama to be enacted a fev ihours later. They sang songs tha lwere anything but sentimental, an, ? some of them quarre1led about tn name of a certain Derby winner. Their friends the enemy were by n Il means as detached from affairs. Gu ! daily bombardment was more tha-
 usually vicious and thorough. Gu guns still lashed them with unabat ed vigor when the sun dropped belov y the western hills. Through the nigh = they pounded the already shapeles g masses of earah and mortar along tn
 Lcrest of the ridge and the fragment l of the wood below it.
 y The thunder of batteries rose an f sank as the night closed in, some g. times falling away to desultory clat s ter, only to swell once more to eve
 l