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IRISH BATTALIONS: DOWNLOAD TEXT - MESSINES RIDGE

Messines, brotherhood among Irishmen?: Guillemont and Ginchy were the graveyards of the original Irish Brigade. Many of the idealistic Irish men who joined up in the first few months of the war never came back. However, there remained one final chapter in their tragic story. It was a battle in which the Ulster Protestants were to fight side by side for the last time with their Catholic comrades from the north and south of Ireland. It was, and still is, a battle that presented great hope for reconciliation between the two traditions in Ireland. The thinking then and now was that if Irishmen can fight and die together, surely to God they could live together. Speaking of the Unionist and Nationalist Irish dead of the battle of Messines, one Irish war correspondent declared:

Shall not their blood seal a new bond of brotherhood among Irishmen, and cry out in judgement against those who should in future seek to stir up fresh the old hatreds an old divisions that have been the curse of Ireland for centuries?

Regrettably the history of the last eighty years in Ireland has not sealed many new bonds of brotherhood.

After the Battle of the Somme, British military thinking changed. The days of throwing men at machine guns and barbed wire were over.

A new approach was adopted for the attack on Messines Ridge. In January 1917, the 16th (Irish) and 36th (Ulster) Divisions were part of the 9th Corps of General Plumer’s Second Army. The weather along the front line was, according to an officer in the Connaught Rangers:
Arctic, with biting east winds, and the strain in the front line is considerable. … The breastworks are in a horrible state, frozen hard as stone, the ground is white with snow, and the garrison stands for days and nights in paralysing cold, without exercise, numbed.

At the beginning of April 1917, the 16th (Irish) Division was taken out of the line at Locre in Belgium for training in preparation for the attack.

The fighting in 1916 gave the British command of the high ground in the Somme area. The objective of the attack on Messines was the extension of these gains towards Ypres and the straightening out of the southern portion of the salient as a preliminary to a great advance to the Flanders coast. A breakout from the Ypres salient was not possible unless the ridge was taken. The Messines Ridge ran on a north south axis and dominated the surrounding countryside although nowhere higher than two hundred feet. The Germans, like all armies, liked holding the high ground. It was in their hands since November 1914 and was a vital part of the defence of this sector of the front.

Field Marshal Haig regarded the capture of the ridge as the necessary prelude to the third Battle of Ypres offensive, planning and preparation for which was already in progress by Gough’s Fifth Army Headquarters. The objective of the 16th (Irish) and 36th (Ulster) Divisions was the Belgian village of Wytschaete. On the 5th of June 1917, the commander of the 16th (Irish) Division, General Hickie, issued an order,
Let all do their best, as they have always done, continuing to show the same courage and devotion to duty which has characterised the 16th (Irish) Division since it landed in France and it will be our proud privilege to restore to Little Belgium, the ‘White Village’, which has been in German hands for nearly three years.

The battle which lay before the Irishmen in June 1917 became known as the Battle of Messines. General Plumer was a meticulous tactician. He built an exact scaled replica of Messines Ridge and surrounding enemy trenches so that his men could see what they were up against. He ordered that mines be dug right under the German defences and had tons of explosives planted in them.

On the 21st of May, the British opened their attack on Messines with an artillery barrage which lasted for eight or nine days. It is estimated that 800 heavy guns and 1,500 field pieces fired three million shells. At 2 am on the 7th of June, the British artillery fire slackened off. ‘The whole countryside seemed wrapped in sleep.’ 'Nightingales in Rossignol Wood were still finishing their nights song when suddenly hell was let loose in the bowels of the earth.’ At 3:10 am, the British exploded nineteen land mines, each with five hundred tons of high explosive under the German lines. Four mines were exploded in front of the 16th (Irish) and four were exploded in front of the 36th (Ulster). The officer responsible for the explosion was said to have taken the day off after the mines exploded due to nervous tension. The Infantry attack commenced following the explosions. The 47th and 49th Brigades were to lead the attack, the 48th Brigade with the 9th Dublin Fusiliers were kept in reserve. The idea behind keeping the 48th Brigade in reserve was so as they could ‘leap frog’ over the ground the 47th and 49th Brigades had captured thus confronting the Germans with fresh troops.

The Catholic Chaplain to the Irish Brigade was Rev. Fr. Willie Doyle S.J. He was initially attached to the Royal Irish Fusiliers but was later attached to the 8th Dublin Fusiliers. Fr. Doyle described the explosion:
I never before realised what an earthquake was like, for not only did the ground quiver and shake, but actually rocked backwards and forwards, so that I kept my feet with difficulty.

The blowing of these mines had a devastating effect on the Germans. Men of the 10th Inniskillings and Dublin Fusiliers were reported to have prayed for the German soldiers before the mines went up. One Ulster officer of the 12th Irish Rifles described the carnage:
They were all packed into the Spanbroekmoelen woods … I never saw carnage like it in such a short space. There wasn’t a human body intact lying around the place … just bits and pieces, arms, heads, feet, legs. Terrible mess.

This was the description from a veteran of the Somme. The battle lasted a couple of days and was a complete success, Irish losses being minimal compared to the Germans. An advance of two miles was made, enormous by Western Front standards. The Irish Brigade had captured eight German officers and six hundred and seventy four men along with some German artillery pieces. One captured German officer had a map of the British lines before the attack. Facing the village of Wytschaete, the word, 'Irish,’ was written on it.

The attack on Messines by the two Irish Divisions was a complete success. The Irish soldiers handed back to ‘Little Belgium,’ their ‘White Village’. As a symbol of their gratitude to the men of the 16th (Irish) Division, the villagers of Wytschaete built a Celtic Cross in a plot near the British Commonwealth Cemetery and on August the 26th 1926 the Cross was blessed by Fr. O’Connell formerly Chief Chaplain of the 16th (Irish). The inscription on the base of the Cross in Irish reads, ‘Do chum Gloire Dé agus Onora na hEireann,’ i.e. ‘To the glory of God and the honour of Ireland.’

The success of the battle of Messines was tempered by the news of the death of Major Willie Redmond. He was the younger brother of John Redmond, leader of the Irish Nationalist Party and an ardent Nationalist and devout Catholic. Like Tom Kettle, Willie Redmond was a Nationalist M.P., representing East Clare. At a time when most politicians are thinking of some place to retire, at fifty six, Redmond was killed leading his Battalion of the 6th Royal Irish Regiment (The Derry National Volunteers) in the attack on Wytschaete. In November 1914, he made a famous recruiting speech in Cork when standing at the open window of the Imperial Hotel and speaking to the crowd below. He concluded,
“I do not say to you, Go - but,” and here he took off his hat, “Grey-haired and old as I am, I say, Come, come with me to the war.”
He strongly believed that if Irishmen, both Catholic and Protestant could fight and die together, surely they could live together. On this particular belief, he wrote to his life-long friend, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

It would be a fine memorial to the men who have died so splendidly if we could, over their graves, build a bridge between North and South … Had poor Kettle lived, he would have given the world a wonderful account of things out here. I saw a good deal of Kettle and we had many talks of the unity we both hoped would come out of this war. I have been an extreme Nationalist all my life and if others as extreme, perhaps on the other side will only come half way, then I believe, impossible as it may seem, we should be able to satisfy the Irish sentiment and the Imperial sentiment at one and the same time.

He wrote to a friend in Ireland:

I wish I had time to write you all I have seen out here. My men are splendid and we are pulling famously with the Ulster men. Would to God we could bring this spirit back with us to Ireland. I shall never regret I have been out here.

Three days later on the 7th of June he was killed. He was discovered alive by Private John Meeke, from Ballymoney in Co. Antrim, a member of the 11th Inniskilling Fusiliers. Pte. Meeke carried Willie back to an Ulster Division Aid Post. For his devotion to a dying man, Meeke was awarded a Military Medal. To a younger man, the wounds Redmond received would not have presented any major problems. At fifty six however, he was weak and died of a heart attack. The men of the Ulster Division made a donation to a memorial fund for Willie and formed a Guard of Honour at his grave. He was buried in a garden at a Convent in the Belgian Village of Locre. The death of Willie Redmond prompted a By-Election in East Clare which was won by Eamon De Valera in July 1917.

On the same day and in the same place that Willie Redmond died, a comrade of his named Henry Gallaugher of the 11th Inniskilling Fusiliers and 36th (Ulster) Division was killed in no-man's land by a bursting German shell. Henry was from Manorcunningham in County Donegal. The 11th Inniskillings Fusiliers were originally the Donegal and Fermanagh Volunteers belonging to the Ulster Volunteer Force. Henry went over the top on the 1st of July with the rest of the Ulster men. He was the only officer in his Battalion to survive uninjured. When he had reached cover, Henry noticed that German snipers were picking off his wounded comrades. He managed to put an end to this atrocity by killing some of the snipers. At Messines, the same courage was shown by this man again. Shortly after the 11th Inniskillings went into action, Henry received a severe wound to his right arm, but he carried on. When his Battalion reached their objective, Henry returned to a regimental aid post. It was on this journey back that a German shell ended his life. He was recommended for a Victoria Cross but the 36th (Ulster) Division had already won four.

Despite the victory which the Irish Divisions had helped to win, it is important to remember the killing and suffering that had been inflicted upon the Germans during the battle of Messines. Private Gallwey, a member of the 47th Battalion of the 4th Australian Division, described an assault on a German machine gun block house:

A couple of men went into the entrance where the gun crew was found all huddled up inside. They evidently had been wounded and killed by our fire. No time was lost here however, our men fired point blank into the group. There was a noise as though pigs were being killed. They squealed and made guttural noises which gave place to groans after which all was silent. The bodies were all thrown in a heap outside the block house to make sure all were dead. There were five of them together. Nearly all were young men. It is an impossibility to leave wounded Germans behind us because they are so treacherous. They all have to be killed.

For close on eighty years, Willie Redmond’s grave, like those of thousands of his fellow Irish comrades, has been a lonely and forgotten grave. The Inspector General of the Irish National Volunteers, Colonel Maurice Moore said of Redmond’s death, ‘Ireland will grieve over his loss as sorrowfully as she does over Pearse and O’Rahilly.’

On the 29th of November 1997, two young Irishmen, one from a Cavalry Regiment in the army of the Irish Republic, Paul Hughton, and Colin Dickenson from the Royal Irish Regiment, turned the sod at an opening ceremony for the Round Tower which has been built at Messines, which was built to commemorate ALL Irishmen who were killed in France and Flanders. It will be a place of pilgrimage for Irish people to visit and reflect on the folly of war. After eighty years, the descendants of the 16th and 36th Divisions were back together at Messines as Irishmen, together remembering their forgotten comrades.