At 3:10am on 7 June,1917 in Flanders, Belgium, the ground erupted with the force of an earthquake as 19 massive explosions tore through the German lines.
In 20 seconds, thousands of German soldiers simply disappeared. The explosion was heard and seen as far as London. This was the start of the Battle of Messines – Major General John Monash’s first major battle as a commander, and the first time since Gallipoli that Australian and New Zealand forces fought side-by-side.
War historian Mat McLachlan’s latest Living History podcast shares the story of the Battle of Messines, a 20-minute listen that breaks down the battle and the innovative tactics that helped win it, including stories of some of the Anzacs involved, available on Spotify, YouTube, or any other streaming platform.
Months of planning went into this battle, designed to end the brutal stalemate that had lasted for almost three years. For two years, the biggest secret operation of the entire war had been going on right under the Germans’ noses. British, Canadian and Australian tunnelling companies working day and night digging a network of tunnels – some 600 metres long and descending 30 metres below ground – beneath the German lines. One million pounds of ammonol explosive was placed in 21 separate chambers in these tunnels beneath the German positions.
In the week prior to the start of the battle, the artillery was pounding German positions: 1,500 field guns and 700 heavy guns – more firepower concentrated on one front than had ever been assembled before.
By 5:30 am just 2 hours and 20 minutes after zero hour, New Zealand troops have captured Messines Village. The Australians and British have taken their objectives alongside them. After 3 years of stalemate Allied forces have advanced over 2 km in a single morning.
Messines was Australia’s first major victory in Belgium and one of the most spectacular military operations of the Great War, but it came with great cost, with large numbers of casualties and loss of life. The Battle of Messines saw the emergence of a new kind of Australian military leadership. John Monash, who was a Civil Engineer before the war, proved that you don’t need to be a career soldier to be a brilliant general, that a variety of skills were beneficial in military strategy – with his engineering background showing in every aspect of the operation. Monash understood something important, that modern warfare is about systems, coordination of units, logistics and precision – not just courage.
The third Australian division suffers heavy casualties, The 33rd battalion loses 92 men killed and 260 wounded in just a few days of fighting. Private Edward Black Adder survives but many of his mates don’t. Across the entire Australian force nearly 7,000 men become casualties, killed wounded captured or missing.
The New Zealand Division suffers 3,700 casualties, including 700 killed. That’s like losing the population of a small town in a single week. And the battle doesn’t end on 7 June 1917, the Germans counterattack repeatedly. Fresh units are thrown into the fight. The Australians have to hold what they’ve captured digging new trenches under constant artillery bombardment.
Anzac stories from Messines
Most of the Anzacs who served in the Great War were not professional soldiers – they were volunteers who came from all walks of life – shop clerks, farmers, university students, dock workers… they enlisted because they believed it was the right thing to do.
Private Edwin Black Adder of the 33rd Battalion, 24 years old from Sydney, went through the hell of winter on the Western Front, and watched mates die in the mud, before being involved in this incredible military operation.
Australia’s official war historian Charles Bean reported on the battle, recording what the advancing Anzac troops found: “Everywhere after firing a few scattered shots the Germans surrendered as the troops approached. Men went along the trenches bombing the shelters whose occupants then came out.”
Lieutenant Gerard of the 40th Battalion a school master from Launceston in Tasmania later wrote of the captured Germans “They made many fruitless attempts to embrace us. I have never seen men so demoralised.”
Captain Robert Grieve from Brighton in Victoria was there with the 37th Battalion in his first major battle. He was awarded the Victoria Cross for the leadership, courage and daring he displayed at Messines as the Anzacs encountered the German innovation of concrete blockhouses for the first time.
Charles Bean described the fighting among the concrete pillboxes as being marked by a ferocity: The artillery barrage moves forward just ahead of the advancing infantry close enough to suppress German resistance but not so close as to hit their own men. Aircraft spot German artillery positions and direct counterfire. Even tanks are used effectively for the first time in a major Australian operation. This is modern warfare at its most sophisticated. A far cry from the futile charges at Fleurs or the deadly confusion at Bullecourt.
Private Arthur Hindmarsh from Stanthorpe in Queensland is killed on 10 June 1917 in the fighting that continues after the battle, he’s just 23 years old and his death comes just two months after his brother Eddie was killed at Bullecourt – two brothers, two graves in foreign soil.
What to see at Messines today
Today when you walk the Messines battlefield you can still see several of the enormous craters left by the mines. Hill 60, the Caterpillar, the Pool of Peace and others have been preserved as memorials to that extraordinary morning. The village of Messines itself was completely rebuilt after the war, but memorials mark where Australian and New Zealand soldiers fought and died.
At Hill 60 a memorial to the Australian First Tunnelling Company is scarred by bullet holes from the Second World War. It shows that in this corner of Europe the fighting came back time and time again. In Messines Ridge British Cemetery lies lieutenant Adam Dicki from Queensland Killed on 10 June at just 25 years of age. His headstone bears the inscription chosen by his mother: “Until the day breaks and the shadows flee away”. It’s one of thousands of similar stones scattered across the Western Front, each representing a life cut short, a family forever changed.
Mat McLachlan’s battlefield tour company offers many tours to the Western Front, all of which visit Messines, visit https://battlefields.com.au/.
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