In 1917, the British blew up a mountain ridge to break a bloody stalemate.
To capture the strategic Messines Ridge in Belgium, the British Second Army executed a feat of engineering and artillery coordination unprecedented in the First World War. By detonating nineteen massive mines simultaneously and employing a sophisticated creeping barrage, they shattered German defenses that had long dominated the Ypres Salient.
By June 1917, the Western Front had been deadlocked for years, with German forces holding the high ground of the Messines–Wytschaete Ridge. This position allowed the German 4th Army to observe British movements and direct devastating artillery fire against Ypres. Following the failure of the French Nivelle Offensive, which led to widespread mutinies, British Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig ordered General Sir Herbert Plumer’s Second Army to seize the ridge to shorten the front line and prepare for a larger Northern Operation.
The British preparation was a masterpiece of industrial-scale planning. Starting in 1916, military geologists and sappers tunneled into a layer of blue clay, eventually laying 26 mines packed with 447 long tons of ammonal. The detonation of nineteen of these mines on 7 June 1917 devastated the German front line. This was supported by a massive artillery effort: in the week preceding the attack, 2,230 guns fired over 3.5 million shells to destroy strongpoints and counter German batteries. The Second Army also utilized centralized control, sound-ranging equipment, and aerial reconnaissance to map 90 percent of German artillery positions.
The assault itself, which lasted until 14 June, saw British, Australian, and New Zealand troops advance behind a 700-yard-deep creeping barrage. The infantry were supported by tanks, aircraft, and innovative machine-gun barrages fired over their heads. While the battle was a tactical success that deprived the Germans of their commanding views, it served primarily as a prelude to the much larger and more controversial Third Battle of Ypres, or Passchendaele, which began in July 1917. The victory at Messines demonstrated the potential of new combined-arms tactics, yet the subsequent months of the war would continue to exact a staggering human cost.
The battle remains a study in the evolution of military technology. By 1917, the British had refined their use of aircraft for counter-battery observation and developed complex communication networks, including buried telephone cables and wireless interception. These advancements allowed the Second Army to dominate the skies and suppress German artillery with a level of precision that had been impossible in the earlier, static years of the conflict.
Source: Battle of Messines (1917)
