172
3.10 a.m., 7th June, 1917—Battle of Messines Ridge.
THE YPRES TIMES
By Colonel Neil Fraser-Tytler, D.S.O., T.D.
Extracted from Field Guns in France price 3s. 6d. and
obtainable trom Messrs. Hutchinson, Paternoster Row, London, E.C.4.
PONGO, the Brigade H.Q. dog, turned up at 1 a.m. with an orderly bringing the
synchronised watch and the news that Zero was at 3.10 a.m. I remember noting
down that 3.10 a.m., plus 13 seconds, by our battery watch was the moment the
flag should fall. After that I slept till the guard woke me at 2.30 a.m. Having made
final corrections from the thermometer for the range, which was somewhat anxious work,
as we were one of the creeping batteries, and had to shoot just over our infantry's heads
the whole time, I got my army dressed in their gas masks at the alert," though
once they saw the enemy's number was up, they rapidly reverted to their usual state
of undress while working.
It was difficult not to get the fidgets during the last ten minutes. There was gas-
shelling a little on our right, and one knew if by some miracle of spy work had made
known the Zero hour, a barrage might have opened on our packed assembly trenches. It
was a reeking night, hot, damp, and dark, with a clouded moon. Mist rose from the
marsh, and a poisonous smell of gas permeated everything.
At 30 seconds before Zero the whole earth shook with a sideways vibration, as the
whole line of mines went off together. The sappers had been working at them for
nearly a year, and even longer in some places, and they extended tor a great distance
under the German lines. I forget how many hundred tons of explosives were in each.
The stupendous roar as they went up was followed 15 seconds afterwards with one
rippling crash as the whole world broke into gun flashes. What an intoxicating and
exhilarating noise is a full steam barrage. It reminds one somehow of the glorious
thunder of hoofs down a hard polo ground. Once it had started all cares and troubles
vanished, and beyond strolling round to visit each gun there was nothing to do. But
the concussion of the myriad guns stirred up all the latent gas lying in the shell holes,
and that, mixed with the N.C.T. and cordite fumes and the dense clouds of dust, made
the atmosphere like nothing on earth.
The pace of our fire varied according to what was going on, e g., during the periods
of consolidation of each captured line, it would drop to a round per gun per minute,
which gave us the chance of resting the guns and doing small repairs. Then as soon
as the infantry were ready to move on the barrage re-formed in front of them, and
having gradually worked up to intense," crept forward once more. Very soon it
grew light, but the mist persisted as usual before a hot day till late in the morning.
Clarke, our F.O.O., who went over with the third wave, saw a tank trying to squash
a small M.G. fort by sitting on the roof and rocking to and fro, but the reinforced ce
ment was too strong, so it waddled back a few yards and spat its 6-pounder H.E.
shells through the slits for the necessary few minutes.
To return to the guns. They stood the strain pretty well on the whole, but by 5 a.m.
they were almost red hot. The scenes in the gun-pits were rather like the battle pic
tures of Nelson's day, a bunch of gunners stripped to the waist, covered with oil, a
mount of empty shell cases, clouds of steam rising from pools of water raised to boiling
point even though poured only once through the bore mops, rammers, more oil,
dust, and debris of sand-bags made up the picture, the whole being veiled by the green
mist made by the bower of verdant spotted netting which encircles the gun-pit—
netting which never loses an opportunity of catching fire.
