Iron County news. [volume] (Hurley, Wis.) 1913-1950, 1917-06-16
ALLIES BIG VICTORY
Enemy'S Lines in Belgium Pierced
Along Ten-Mile Front.
STUNNING BLOW TO GERMANS
kaiser's Troops Demorallzed ey Ex-
ploslon of Mines and unprece.
dented Artillery Fire-6ritish
Losses Reported Light.

London, June Tin q tremendous
attack which began at three o'clock
| this morning the British have captured
the Observation-Disclosures 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 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-
Der, 1914, and with very thin forces,
| and virtually no artillery. fought blood
| lily but vainly to hold il when the PruS-
sian troops maSsed their modern and
| oyerpOwering weapons Of war against
| II.
Prisoners taken declared that the
| bOmbardment of Nimy ridge was
child's play compared with the gunfre
turned upon Messines ridge
Record Work of Artillery.
This fire reached its climax Just
as dawn was craving the eastern skies
and while the full moon was still sus-
! pended high in the heavens.
go III
the arts and deviltries Of latter-d 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 filed with red in
| cendiary flames Shells that spurted
lead in streams crashed in appalling
numbers about the heads Of the de
| Tending soldiers Hlgh-explosive and
shrapuel fire was carried OFT with such
rapidity that the earth writhed under
the force Of the attack
Mines that had ,aken two years to
dig and FIJI with an overwhelming ex-
plosive broke into an avalanche of
flaming destruction in the half light Of
dawn. This was indeed an Ypres day
If retaliation and victory for the
vicious sufferings Of two years and
eight months
Cunners Work Half Naked.
It was a day Of intense heat, and the
| Eunners 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 70 be walking cases. VINO
wouId return 10 duty In "a few days
The attack began at dawn. and the
setting was as picturesque rs can wen
be imaginable The day before had
been hot and sultry. Toward evening
there was q series Of thunder storms
which extended well into the night. the
lightning mingling with the flashes o{
the gurS but the thunder being yirtu-
ally unnoticed amid the din Of the can
non. fun moon struggled coutinu-
| 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 an the
familiar pictures Of the war-endIe~>
/ trains of motor trucks; an varietie,
Of horse transport, the British sol
dlers marching to battle light of heart
and singing songs familiar in every
American community.
From the German line The same
lazy. looping rookie, signals were as.
cending to illuminate the trcacherou~
BIT Of ground between the trenche,
known as No Mans Land. This night
ly "strafing' had been going on $50
long that the enemy considered it al.
tirely normal and took no alarm. Oc-
casionaly blue and yellow rockets
would be flung into the air by German,
holding the front tine
Like Volcanoes in Eruption.
Day was scarcely breaking wher
from the dimly visible ridge score
Of fiery volcanoes seemed suddenly to
spring from the earth. The night had
been flied with strange noises and SINS
stranger sights hut these mas>e, ~
/ fame. leapn2 from he ground had 81
meaning all their own. They were the
spectacular outward and visible eg.
dences Of more than q million pounds
Of high explosives which had been
buried deep Ia mines below the ere
my's positions for months
An the world appeared lurid and
horrible under the sinister glow TIE
earth shook as If torn by great eeie-
mic disturbance I; vas NOT single