Battle of Messines
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The Battle of Messines , also known as the Battle of the Wytschaetebogen , was a major British attack initiated by a 17-day bombardment on German positions shortly before the Third Battle of Flanders during the First World War . The artillery preparation began on May 21, 1917 near Mesen in West Flanders (on many old maps Mesen is still referred to as Meesen or the French Messines ), the infantry attack took place from June 7, 1917. It was of particular importance for the success of the offensive a group of mines that the Allied troops had previously driven under the German positions, sometimes over several years, and whose explosion on the first day of the attack tore deep gaps in the ranks of the defenders.
prehistory
The war year 1917
At the beginning of 1917, calm returned to a large extent on the Eastern Front after the Central Powers had halted the Russian Brusilov offensive and also conquered a large part of Romania . The growing weakness of the tsarist empire presented the Entente with serious problems. The efforts of the Bolsheviks to take over power from the provisional government established after the February Revolution were actively promoted by Germany (→ Lenin's journey in a sealed car ).
In March 1917, the German troops succeeded in the area of the Somme , where the devastating Battle of the Somme had raged the previous year , an almost undisturbed retreat to the Siegfriedstellung , thus achieving a shortening of the front , which was urgently needed in view of the dwindling forces (→ Alberich company ). The balance of power on the Western Front as a whole, however, was clearly in favor of the Allies in terms of the number and size of the divisions , who were far superior to the German enemy in terms of artillery and ammunition supplies. The Hindenburg program ordered by the 3rd OHL Hindenburg-Ludendorff had not yet shown any major effects in this regard. However, this was partly offset by the fact that at the beginning of the war the German armies had already occupied dominant high positions at many points on the front, which made defense much easier, including in the Ypres arc .
In April 1917, the Allies launched two large-scale coordinated offensives on the Western Front that had been agreed at the Chantilly Conference of November 1916. The British attacked from April 9th in Artois with the aim of a breakthrough on Douai (→ Battle of Arras ), the French a week later on Chemin des Dames and in the Champagne (→ Battle of Aisne ). The French commander in chief Robert Nivelle , a hero of the Battle of Verdun , had gone so far as to predict the collapse of the German western front within a few days. The disappointment among the troops was all the greater when these expectations were not fulfilled and great losses quickly occurred. This led to a serious crisis on the French side. There were mutinies lasting several months , to which the French military leadership reacted with severe penalties.
After Germany declared unrestricted submarine warfare from February 1, 1917 and thus put the British Navy under pressure, the USA declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917 .
planning
The British general Douglas Haig planned a new offensive in the Flanders area after the spring battles . The destination was the German submarine ports near Ostend and Zeebrugge , which gained in importance after the German Reich had declared unrestricted submarine war. In order to be able to destroy these ports, the Allies first had to shut down the German positions on the up to 84 meter high ridge of Wytschaete, from which the Germans controlled the lower-lying British positions south of Ypres ( Ieper ), since the one planned further north Otherwise the main attack would have been impossible.
The attack was directed against the Wytschaete arch as an approximately 15 km long front arch , which joined the Ypres arch to the south and protruded into the Allied territory in a semicircle. Therefore, the battle in German is also known as the battle of the Wytschaetebogen . At the Wytschaete-Bogen, Messines (today: Mesen ) and Wytschaete (today: Wijtschate ) were the eponymous places of the battle.
The battle
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On the morning of May 21, 1917, the British under General Herbert Plumer opened the attack against the Wytschaetebogen with 2,000 guns . The German positions were fired at without interruption until June 7th at 2:50 a.m. The German command posts, bunkers, and field artillery were largely destroyed. The Germans were warned by the long bombardment and had time to prepare to defend themselves against the offensive.
The subsequent major British offensive began at 3:10 a.m. with the demolition of a group of mines . The explosions created 19 huge craters. Of the German troops, the 3rd Bavarian Division in particular suffered heavy losses; up to 10,000 soldiers were killed. The German defense of this section of the front collapsed.
British, Canadian, New Zealand and Australian miners had dug tunnels under the German positions at a depth of 15 to 30 meters within twelve months and placed a total of 26 mines there . Each mine consisted of an average of 21 tons of explosives , the largest mine at St. Eloi consisted of 42 tons. The explosive used at the time was ammonal , based on ammonium nitrate and aluminum . The explosion of the mines at Messines was the loudest human-made sound to date and was said to have made it as far as Dublin and from Prime Minister David Lloyd George at No. Downing Street in London . 10 to be heard; it is considered to be one of the largest non-nuclear explosions of all time. One mine was discovered and defused by the Germans, two mines did not ignite. The length of the tunnels under the battlefield was around 8,000 m and they also included the fiercely contested height 60 .
The British then fired a barrage from around 2,250 guns on the German positions. Nine allied divisions of the British 2nd Army went on the attack, three more divisions were available as reserves. The use of poison gas and 72 tanks supported Plumer's actions. In the northern section, the X. Corps under General Thomas Morland attacked with the 23rd, 41st and 47th Divisions, behind them the 24th Division as a reserve. The main thrust in the middle was from the IX. Corps led by General Hamilton-Gordon with the 16th, 19th and 36th Divisions , the 11th Division was available in reserve behind them. In the south, the II. ANZAC Corps under General Godley with the British 25th Division on the left, the New Zealand Division in the middle and the Australian 3rd Division on the right. The 4th Australian Division formed the reserve behind it.
The German defense of the attacked section of the front quickly collapsed, and within three hours the front line was taken. The German group "Wytschaete" under General von Laffert was completely surprised, 7,500 soldiers were taken prisoner, the remaining crews had to withdraw fighting. The intervention divisions in reserve ( 7th Division and 1st Guard Reserve Division ) could not intervene in the action quickly enough.
The German counter-attacks to the west of Comines that began in the following days were unsuccessful, the front line fell completely into British hands until June 14 after the reserve divisions deployed in heavy fighting.
After the loss of the Wytschaete front arch, the General Command XIX. Army Corps replaced, the newly deployed as "Gruppe Wytschaete" IX. Reserve corps under General Dieffenbach fought for several months to maintain the new front line west of Warneton - Hollebeke - Zandvoorde. On June 26, the Bavarian 10th Division occupied the positions between Klein Zillebeke, Hollebeke and Groene Linde. To the right of this the Prussian 22nd Reserve Division and the Bavarian 6th Reserve Division followed up to Herenthage , to the left of it the "Group Lille" ( II. Bavarian AK ) established itself with the Hessian 25th Infantry Division deployed on the right .
Result and aftermath
The Battle of Messines is considered the most successful Allied offensive in World War I and boosted the morale of the Allied troops. Plumer wanted to continue the offensive, but was held back by Haig, who was instead preparing for the Third Battle of Flanders.
During the battle, not all mines were detonated for various reasons (damaged detonators, changed front lines, etc.). On June 17, 1955, static electricity from a thunderstorm triggered a mine to explode under a field. This created a crater 60 m in diameter and 20 m deep. Apart from a killed cow and damage to houses, there was no further destruction. There are still more mines suspects, one of them directly under a farm. Since the corridors have now collapsed or filled with water, it is no longer possible to get to the explosives to defuse them.
See also
literature
- Alexander Barrie: Was underground. The Tunnellers of the Great War. Spellmount, Steplehurst 2000, ISBN 1-86227-081-3 .
- Gerald Gliddon: Arras & Messines, 1917. Sutton Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire 1998, (VCs of the First World War Series), ISBN 0-7509-1641-9 .
- Peter Oldham: Messines Ridge. Ypres. Cooper, London 1998, (Battleground Europe), ISBN 0-85052-624-8 .
- Ian Passingham: Pillars of Fire. The battle of Messines Ridge, June 1917. Sutton Publishing, Stroud, Gloucestershire 1998, (VCs of the First World War Series), ISBN 0-7509-1704-0 .
- Hedley Paul Willmott : The First World War. Gerstenberg, Hildesheim 2004, ISBN 3-8067-2549-7 .
- Christian Zentner : Illustrated History of the First World War. Bechtermünz, Eltville 1990, ISBN 3-927117-58-7 .
Web links
- 1914–1918.net (English)
- Long text for battle (English)
- Ian Jones : The Battle of Messines - 7th June, 1917. Archived from the original on October 19, 2014 ; accessed on May 2, 2018 .
- firstworldwar.com - The Battle of Messines ( English )
- Battle of Messines ( English )
- The Battle of the Wytschaetebogen - German reports from 1917
- historical film recordings by Australian troops
Individual evidence
- ^ Medical report on the German army in the world wars 1914/1918 , III. Volume, Berlin 1934, p. 53 ff.
- ↑ James Edmonds (ed.): History of the Great War, based on official documents . Volume 4: Military Operations France and Belgium 1917 . Volume 2: June 7th - November 10th. Messines and Third Ypres (Passchendaele) . Macmillan, London 1948.
- ↑ 1917, the year of the war at flandernfields.be
- ↑ James Edmonds (ed.): History of the Great War, based on official documents. Volume 4: Military Operations France and Belgium 1917. Volume 2: 7 June - 10 November. Messines and Third Ypres (Passchendaele). Macmillan, London 1948. p. 55.
- ↑ Michael Duffy: The Battle of Messines , 1917 (with details of the detonation site and the explosive power of the mines), accessed on June 28, 2014.
Coordinates: 50 ° 45 '52 " N , 2 ° 53' 53" E