The Pulaskian., 1917-06-15
BROKE GERMAN LINE
Details of Important Allied Vic
 tory Before Ypres.
OLD SCORE IS WIPED OUT
Capture of Messlnes Ridges Peculiarly Gratifying, as It Was the Scene of Former British Defeat
 Defenses Shattered.

With the British Armies in France, June 7.-~ln one of the most elaborately planned and daringly executed ma neuvers of the war Sir Douglas IIaig's forces have dealt mighty blow against the Gertdpn line in Belgium and been rewarded with notable gains in terrain and the capture of more than 5000 prisoners and numerous guns of various caliber. In addition they inflicted heavy casualties on tls Germans.
 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 'poos old' Ypres. Ypres in a sense 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- her 1914. and with very thin forces, and virtually no artillery. fought blood fly but vainly to hold if when the Prus- sian troops massed their modern and overpowerng weapons of war against it.
 Prisoners taken declared that the bomhardment of Vimy ridge was child's play compared with the gunfre turned upon Messines ridge.
 Triumph for Artillery.
 This fire reached its climax just as dawn was graving 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 devjltries of latter-day war The enemy guns and gun crews had been bathed for days in gas shells sent over by the long-range British guns.
 The night was filled with red in- cendary flames. Shells that spurfed lead in streams crashed in appalling numbers about the heads of the de- lending soldiers. High-exnlosive and shrapnel fire was carried out with such rapidity that the earth writhed under tfFe force of the attack.
 Mines that had taken two years 10 dig and fill with an overwhelming ex- l 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 Strip to Waist.
 It was q 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 few days.
 The attack began at dawn. and the setting was as picturesque as can well be imaginable. The day before had been hot and .sultry. Toward evening 1 there was series of thunder storms l which extended well into the night. the lightning mingling with the flashes of l the guns. but the thunder being virtu- ally unnoticed amid the din of the can non. A full moon struggled continu- l ously 10 break through the heavy clouds which scudded across the vel vety night sky.
 l Sing on Way to Fight. 1 On the way to the front were all the 1 familiar pictures of the war-endless l trains of motor trucks; all varieties of horse transport. the British sol | fe. Iffrl,4 <,p and singing songs familiar in every 1 American community.
 Tn the shadow of an old windmill l which has wthstood the storms of a | century and been undaunted by nearly 1 three years of war, the correspondent witnessed the last phases of the seven l day preliminary hombardment and the 1 final outburst of the guns which sent l the British infantry confidently on l 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 as bit of ground between the trenches i known as No Mans Land. This night ly "straffing" 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.
 One by one the guns became silent. There was the old grandmother howitzer of enormous caliber. which kept breaking the peace at five-min- ute intervals. the shock of each sue ceeding explosion and the shriek of the heavy shells being emphasized by the silence which lay over all the sur rounding country.
 Like Volcanoes in Eruption.
 Day was scarcely breaking when from the dimly visible ridge score of fiery volcanoes seemed suddenly to i spring from the earth. The night had