Nurses of Passchendaele by Christine E. Hallett

Author:Christine E. Hallett [Hallett, Christine E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, History, Military, World War I, Biography & Memoir, Reference, Historical
ISBN: 9781526702906
Publisher: Pen & Sword Books
Published: 2017-11-30T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

Edge of Hell

As June 1917 opened, the Allies were finalizing plans for the Ypres Campaign. The opening battle would capture the Messines Ridge, a long rim of raised land to the south-east of the city. Standing only 260 feet above sea level, it hardly deserved the name ‘ridge’ – yet, from it the Germans could gain a clear view of the movement of troops and artillery batteries in the southern part of the Salient. In 1917, the German front line was on its crest, and soldiers in deep bunkers were well aware that Allied engineers were digging beneath their feet. The Germans had, in fact, made extensive excavations of their own, and had succeeded in finding and destroying some of the Allied tunnels. In spite of these setbacks, the Allies had, by the early summer of 1917, succeeded in placing over twenty explosive mines in chambers directly beneath the German defences. Lloyd George was still unwilling to give the go-ahead for an Allied assault at Ypres, but the failure of Nivelle’s offensive at the Chemin des Dames meant that Haig believed he had the right to pursue the campaign. He was convinced that the German Army was close to collapse and that he could count on French support in the Salient. His intelligence was fatally flawed. The Germans were far from defeat, while the French, convinced that their commanders had acted both recklessly and callously at the Chemin des Dames, were on the verge of an all-out mutiny. Many believed that Nivelle had sent men to almost certain destruction without making adequate plans for evacuation of the wounded.

Allied forces nevertheless continued to prepare for the attack on Messines Ridge that was to preface the ‘big push’ throughout the Ypres Salient. Between 21 May and 7 June 1917, Allied artillery fired a preliminary bombardment of well over three million shells. Then, just before 3 a.m. on 7 June, the ammonal-packed devices beneath the Messines Ridge and nearby lower-lying hills were detonated, creating a series of explosions so immense that they were felt and heard in London. In their bell tents in CCSs within ten miles of the lines, sleeping nurses woke in shock as the ground shook beneath them and the air boomed. They knew they could soon expect to receive enormous numbers of casualties. As far away as Camiers, May Tilton heard the guns ‘pounding away incessantly’. The distant rumble of the bombardment was accompanied by a series of terrifying summer storms, in which several men in the camps were killed by lightning strikes and the thunder sounded like an ‘eighteen-pounder barrage’.1

Even as the debris of earth, rocks and bomb casings from the explosions was settling, British infantry divisions were attacking, protected by a creeping barrage and supported by tanks and machine-gun units. Incendiary bombs were dropped just ahead of the advance, inflicting horrific burns on many of the defending Germans who had survived the explosion of the mines. The Messines’ assault was, from the Allied point of view, a complete success.

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