Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1917-06-15
ALLIES BIGVICTORY
Enemy's Lines in Belgium Pierced
Along Ien-Mile Front.
STUNNING BLOW TO GERMANS
kaisers Troops DemoraIzed by Elk
posion of Mines and Unprece-
dented Artillery Fire-British
Losses Reported Light.

= London, June I'm q tremendous
ATTACK which began at three o'clock
this morning the British have captured
the Messines- Wytschaete 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 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-
Der, 1914, and with very thin forces,
and vi ualIy no artillery, fought blood
lily but vainly to hold it when the Prus-
sian troops massed their modern and
overpowering weapons of war against
1t.
1TlSOlicIS ldktu QCtidl GU lii1l tiiC
bombardment of Vimy ridge was
child's play compared with the gunfire
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.
The attack was accompanied by all
the arts and deviltries 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 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-
pIosive 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 Work Half Naked.
It 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 out of four of the casualties
were reported to be walking cases, who
would return to duty in a 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
there was series of thunder storms
which extended well into the night, the
lightning mingling with the flashes of
the guns, but the thunder being virtu-
ally unnoticed amid the din of the can
non. A full moon struggled continu-
ously to break through the heavy
clouds which scudded across the vel
Yety night sky.
Sing on Way to Fight.
On the way to the front were all the
familiar pictures of the war-endless
trains of motor trucks; all varieties
Of horse transport, the British sol
iiers marching to battle light of heart
and singing songs familiar In every
American community.
From the German line the same
azy, looping rocket signals were as
lending to illuminate the treacherous
Dit of ground between the trenches
Known as No Mans Land. This night |
Y "straffing" had been going on so |
ong that the enemy considered it en- |
irely normal and took no alarm. Oc- |
,asionally blue and yellow rockets |
would be flung into the air by Germans
holding the front line.
Like Volcanoes in Eruption.
Day was scarcely breaking when |
rom the dimly visible ridge a score
# fiery volcanoes seemed suddenly to
;pring from the earth. The night had |
,een filed with strange noises and still
stranger sights, but these masses of
lame, leaping from the ground, had
meaning all their own. They were the
pectacular outward and visible evil
Iences of more than million pounds
f high explosives which had been
uried deep in mines below the enc
ny's positions for months.
All the world appeared lurid and
orrible under the sinister glow. The
arth shook as if torn by great seis-
mic disturbance. 1t was not a single
hook. The force of the explosion
ctually set the earth rocking to and
10, and under the influence of the
liant guns. which Immediately began
D roar from far and near, the trem-
ling continued indefinitely.