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For eighteen months prior, British soldiers had been digging a series of twenty-two tunnels below the German position. The tunnels extended up to 2,000 feet in length, and some were as far as 100 feet below the surface of the ridge where the Germans were dug in. Once complete, the tunnels were filled with 1 million pounds of high explosive and plugged with sandbags. The blast was heard as far away as London.

Slow British Progress in France

Although the Battle of Messines Ridge was a relatively small battle, it had considerable psychological impact for both sides. It also broke the Germans’ hold on the ridge, forcing them to retreat eastward and marking the beginning of a slow but continuous loss of ground by German forces in the west. After the battle, British forces continued to push the Germans back a few hundred yards at a time toward the high ridge at Passchendaele. The Germans fought back with mustard gas, a notoriously slow-acting chemical agent that maimed or killed enemy soldiers via severe blisters on the skin or internally if breathed.

The Battle of Passchendaele

By mid-September 1917, the British, close to their goal, began a new offensive movement. The fighting was slow and exhausting, and even the slightest forward progress came with innumerable casualties. The British reached Passchendaele on October 12 during a driving rain that turned the landscape to impenetrable mud. During the Battle of Passchendaele that ensued, the British suffered 310,000 casualties, while German casualties numbered 260,000. The battle proved the last great battle of attrition on the western front and again saw the use of mustard gas and other deadly chemical weapons.

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