New Britain herald., 1928-11-13
MESS|NES REBUILT
 SINCE DAYS OF WAR
It Was Here That \ b''-4 0'~"'e :" :" Explosion Of Histor [ '
BY WEBB MI,
"IOo MI 7 Messines- Wytschaete Ridge 6atue.

sines-Wytschaete Ridge asatue. field. Belgium. Nov. 13 (UP)-Ai 3:10 on the morning of June '. 1917, the most terrific deliberate explosion in history blew the top off this ridge. Nineteen great sxiines containing 937,O0L pounds of dynamite, gun cotton and amnol were exploded be- meath the German lines by the Brit ish
 The top of the hills slowly lifted, blinding sheets of golden flame sh ot upward, the earth shook like a sud- den earthquake and a blast of hot wind swept like a hurricane drop ping fragments of mems bodies. chunks of wood and stones for miles.
 So great was the shock of the ex- plosion that men three miles away ? tcppled to the earth, thousands in Lille. . city of 100000 persons, 14 miles away were thrown from their beds and 8 panic ensued. The de- tonation was heard more than 100 miles away. One mine alone is known to have blown 1270 Germans to bits. Thousands were blown into eternity by the IS other mines.
 The British guns in 24 hours fired co,307 tons of shells into the Ger man positions that day. The 3-inch guns alone fired 537,747 shells. Hun dreds of Germans were driven in- sane by the horror of the explosion and bombardment and babbfed inco- herently when captured, some were totally deaf, some wept like children.
 Mcssines Rebuilt
 That was III F years ago. Today standing on the lip of the largest mine crater and gazing over the rich, populous Flanders plain if is difficult to believe such terrible scenes were enacted here.
 In every direction lie peaceful v'l- lages with their red-tiled roofs shin ing in the autumn sun. Within easy view there are half-dozen towns which were utterly destroyed. Eight miles away in the haze is the new town of Ypres with bleaming church steeples. Nearby is Wytschaete 
 brick and tile with big church dominating the village.
 There is Messines, where so many British were killed, rebuilt brick for brick. It is a squalid, raw village of perhaps 100 houses, without trees or grass. Clinging to the side of Rem mel hill is the new hamlet of Rem mel. The chateau has been recon structed. On the top of kemmel hill is 8 large church visible dozen miles across the plains of Flanders. Several miles across the French frontier can he seen the smoking .factory stacks of Armentieres. To inc right is Neuve Eglise, and fur ther Dickenpusch. and Poperinghe. All are thrifty, placid villages.
 Between the scattered towns and villages are cozy little farms of a few acres with grazing cattle in the fields. and slow-moving peasants cultivating the soil.
 Hell Farm Built Over
 The largest mine crater IS about two miles from Messines and the cultivated wheat fields and beet patches extend right up to the brow of the hill. There has been on ef- fort to preserve the place for sight seers. The crater is about 500 feet from edge to edge and there is d deep pond about, so yards in diame- ter at the bottom" - This was the place where 1270 Germans were blown to bits. Without doubt some Of the remains are still at the bot tom Of the pond,
 Soldiers who fought in this sector would have difficulty now in locating