Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1917-06-14
Details Of important Allied Vic.
tory Before Ypres.
OLD SCORE IS WIPED OUT
Capture Of Messines Ridges Peculiarly
Gratifying. as Il Was the Scene
Of Former British Defeat
Oefenses Shattered.

ASdiist tuc NcTI1in me III DeiSiuIH'
and been rewarded with notable gains
In terrain and the capture Of more
than 5000 prisoners and numerous
guns Of various calibcr. In addition
they inflicted heavy casualties on the
Germans.
The Germans, though apparently
aware that the blow was coming and
seemingly prepared to meet 1t, were
driven from their nearly three years
hold on Messines ridge, opposite poor
old" Ypres. Ypres In Il sense was
avenged today, for Messines ridge has
been the vantage point from which the
Germans haGe 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
lily but vainly to hold 1t when the Prus-
sian troops maSsed their modern and
overpowering weapons of war against
If,
Prisoners taken declared that the
bnmlardment of Why ridge was
rhild'S plar compared with the guntire
turned upon Mes>inps ridge.
Triumph for Artillery.
This fire reached its climax Just
rs dawn WAS grazing the eastern skies
and while the fun moon was sfi!l sus-
pended high In the heavens.
The attack was accompanied by MI
the arts and dcviltries of latter-day
war, The enemy guns AM! gun crews
had been balhed for days in cns shells
sent ovc by the ~long-rango British
guns.
lhc night was filed with red in
ceniiary flames. Shells that spnrtcd
lead In streams crashed in appalling
numbers about tn" heads Of the de-
Tending soldiers. High-eXploSive and
shrapnel fire was carried out with such
rnpidity that the earth writhcd under
the force of the attack.
Mines that had taken two years IL
dig and Ill with an overwhelming ex
plosivn broke into an avalanche OF
flaming destruction IN the half light OF
dawn. This was indeed an Ypres da.
Of retaliation and victory for thu
vicious slfferings Of two years ant
eight months.
Gunners Strip to Waist.
II was a day Of intense heat, and tn
eunners worked stripped to the waist
The attack went forward with clock
, like regularity.
:, The British casualties we're slight
!, Three out Of four of the ~casualtie
Il. We're reported to be walking cases, VIII
would return to duty in Il few day;
, The attack began at dawn, and tn
setting was as picturesque as can we
, be imaginable. The day before hu
) been hot and sultry. Toward erenin
there vas n series of thunder storm
which extended well into the night, tn
!, lightning mingling with the flashes q
/, the guns, hut the thunder being Writ
. ally unnoticed amid the din of the car
, non. a full moo struggled contini
ously to break through the heav
, clouds which scudded across the We
vety night sky.
=. Sing on Way to Fight.
On the way to the front were all tn
familiar pictures Of the war--endles
trains of motor trucks; all v~urietic
Of horse transport. the British SO
diers marching to battle light of hear
and singing songs familiar In ever
American community.
In the shadow of an old windmi
which has withstood the storms of
century and been undauntcd by near
three years of war, the correspondent
witnessed the last phases Of the sevel
day preliminary hombardment and IL
final outburst of the guns which SCI
the British infantry confidently c
their way to new successes In tightif
the greatest military nation the wor
has ever known.
From the German line the san
lazy. looping rocket signals were n
cending to illuminate the trenchero,
4. bit Of ground between the trench
known as No Mans Land. This nigl
~ "%strnfing" had been going on
long that the enemy considered 1t e
tirely normal and took no alarm. q
4 c%asicnally blue and yellow rookie
would be flung into the mir by Germal
b holding the front line.
Il One by one the guns became silei
4 There vas the old "grandmothc
hOwitzer Of enormous callber, viii,
kept breaking the peace at five-mi
ute Intervals, the shock Of each ~
cecding explosion ind the shrek
the heavy shells being emphasized
the silence which lay v 9 I'LL the ~
rounding country.
Like Volcanoes In Eruption.
=. Day was scarcely breaking VIII
). from the d,mly vis:.ie ridge n sea
of fiery volcanoes seemed suddenly
!. spring from the earth. The night h
" been filled with strange noises end 81
~ stranger sights, bu: these masses
- fame. lenping from the ground, had
-, :. meaning all their own. They were I
:" spectacular cDtws-S and visible g
dences Of more than a million poun
Of high explosives which had b.
buried deep In mines below the 81
my's positions for months.
All the world appeared lurid a