Battle of Messines
11 April 2007 by Craig Tibbitts. To Flanders Fields, 1917, Battles, Messines. Comments (2)
The battle of Messines fought on 7 June 1917 was the first large-scale action involving Australian troops in Belgium and it also marked the entry of the 3rd Division into a major battle. Messines was an important success for the British Army leading up to the beginning of the Third Battle of Ypres several weeks later.
At 3.10 am on 7 June 1917 nineteen powerful mines exploded under the German trenches along the Wytschaete – Messines ridge. Heavily supported by great volumes of artillery fire the British troops, commanded by General Sir Herbert Plumer, surged forward to capture the enemy positions. The 3rd Australian Division under Major-General John Monash, entering battle for the first time, was anxious to prove itself worthy of the reputation of the other veteran Australian divisions. It made a very successful attack alongside the New Zealand Division just south of the Messines village. The other Australian division involved, the 4th, under Major-General William Holmes, made a follow-up attack later in the day. Although some fighting continued, the result was virtually decided by the end of the first evening with the ridge being taken and enemy counter-attacks repulsed.
Read more on Messines (48 pages) – The Official History
Basic Map: Messines from the Official History Vol IV, p 610
Detailed original map of Messines battlefield
Download planned objectives for Messines battlefield map (PDF file)
The Battle of Messines / Charles Wheeler (1923).
September 3rd, 2007 at 1:42 pm
I was at Messines Ridge in April and was fortunate enough to have a local take me around the battlefield. She was telling me that in the 1950s, a farmer had been plowing his field when he came across some wires. A good hard yank and one of the unexploded mines went up. Most of the craters have been filled in now, but on one farm we saw two being put to good use as drinking points for dairy.
She was also telling me this whilst we were looking at a paddock which was overgrown with blackberry bushes in an otherwise well manicured landscape near Bayernwald. I asked her why that one little section was not farmed, and apparently there are too many gas shells in this one area and is extremely dangerous to farm. Rather than risk uncovering them, the paddock is fenced off and nobody is allowed to enter.
September 12th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
My Great Grandfathers brother Berthold Christian Freudenberg was kill in this battle on the 07/06/1917.
He was under 4th Division, 13th Brigade, 49th Battalion (Queensland) 7th Reinforcments.