The Monticellonian. [volume] (Monticello, Ark.) 1870-1920, 1917-06-14
BROKE GERMAN LINE
Details of important Allied VIC
tory Before YpreS.
OLD SCORE is WIPED OUT
Capture of Messines Ridges Peculiarly
Gratifying, as 1t Was the Scene
of Former British Defeat
pefenses Shattered.

June TN one of the most elahofaieiH
planned and daringy executed ma
neuvers of the war Sir Douglas Haig's
forces have dealt mighty blow
against the German line in Belgium,
and been rewarded with notable gains
in terrain and the capture of more
than 1000 prisoners and numerous
guns of various caliber. 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 vas
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 nm old score against the Ger
mans. for they held the ridge in Oeto-
Der. 1914. and with very thin forces,
and virtually no artillery, fought blood
ily but vainly to hold It when the Prus-
sian troops massed their modern and
overpowering weapons of war against
IL.
Prisoners taken declared that the
bombardment of Vimy ridge was
ehild's play compared with the gunfire
turned upon Messines ridge.
Triumph for Artillery.
This fire reached its climax Just
MS dawn was grazing 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 deyiltries of latter-day
war. The enemy guns and gun crews
had been bathed for days in gas shells
sent over by the longrange British
guns.
The night was filed with red In
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 that 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
eight months.
Gunners Strip to Waist.
1t WAS 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 ont of four of the casualties
were reported TO be walking cases. VIII,
would return TO duty in few days
>Vhe attack began at dawn, and tht
setting was rs picturesque as can vel
be Imaginable. The day before hat
been hSt and sultry. Toward eveninl
there WIS series of thunder storms
which x\ended Well into the night. TIL
lightning mingling with the flashes q
the gunsN but the thunder being virtu
ally unnosiced amid the din of the can
non A lfull moon struggled continu
ously toy break through the heav.
clouds which scudded across the vel
vety night sky.
Sing on Way to Fight.
On the way to the front were all I'll,
familiar pictures of the war-endles
trains of motor trucks; all varietie
of horse transport the British sol
diers marching TO battle light of hear
81. 10, In
American community.
In the shadow of an old windmill
which has withstood the storms of
century and been undaunted by nearl
three years of war, the correspondent
witnessed the last phases of the sever
day preliminary hombardment and tn
final eHtburst of the guns which sen
the British infantry confidently o
their way to new successes in fightin
the greatest military nation the worl
has ever known.
From the German line TIE SAN
lazy. looping rocket signals were II
cending ~ illuminate the treacherot
bit of ground between the trench,
known as No Mans Land This nigh
~ "stratling' had been going on :
long that the enemy considered 1t ri
tirely normal and took no alarm. q
casionaIly blue and yellow rookie
would be flung into the alr by German
holding the front line.
One by one the guns became siler
There was the old "grandmethe
howitzer of enormous ealiber, viii
kept breaking the peace mt tive-mi
ute Intervals. the shock of each 81
ceedins explosion and the Shrek
the heavy shells being emphasized
the silence which lay over all the 81
rounding country.
Like Volcanoes In Eruption.
Day was scarcely breaking VIII
from the dimiy visible ridge Il sec
of fiery volcanoes seemed suddenly
spring from the earth. Tie night II
been filed with strange noises and s.
stranger sights, but these masses
fiame. leaping frem the ground. had
meaning all their own. They were I
spectacular outward and visible e
dences of more than million pour
of high explosives which had BIZ
buried deep in mines below the e
my's positions for months
All the world appeared iurid 6
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