Belgium 2015 - Day 5 - Messines Ridge (New Zealand) Memorial and The Huts Cemetery

II Anzac Corps comprising of the 3rd Australian Australian and New Zealand Division along with various British division fought in the Battle of Messines. The objective was to capture the ridge as a prelude to further attacks in the Ypres Salient.

In the II Anzac Corps area, the 3rd Australian Division consolidated the southern defensive flank of the attack, digging-in astride the river Douve with its right in the new craters at Trench 122, defeating several hasty German counter-attacks; the left flank of the division was anchored by a captured German strong-point. 

The New Zealand Division attacked Messines village, the southern bastion of the German defences on the ridge. The village had been fortified with a line of trenches around the outskirts and an inner defence zone of five pillboxes and all the house cellars, which had been converted into shell-proof dug-outs. Two machine-gun posts on the edge of the village were rushed, but fire from Swayne's Farm 400 yards (370 m) north held up the advance until a tank drove through it and caused 30 German troops to surrender.

The New Zealanders penetrated the outer trenches behind the creeping barrage, which slowed to 100 yards (91 m) in 11 minutes; the German garrison defended the village with great determination, before surrendering when the commandant was captured. (wikipedia)

Pano from the memorial looking down the valley

The start line for the New Zealand Division was at the bottom of the valley. Around the far side of the ploughed field.

In the memorial are the remains of two blockhouses/pill boxes.

These were typical German defensive structures. You can see how impregnable to artillery they were.

The Messines Ridge (New Zealand) Memorial stands within Messines Ridge British Cemetery and commemorates over 800 soldiers of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force who died in or near Messines in 1917 and 1918 and who have no known grave. (CWGC.org)

Adjacent to the New Zealand Memorial is the Messines Ridge British Cemetery. There are now 1,531 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in the cemetery. We didn't actually go for a walk around this one as we wanted to move on.

Our next stop was the The Huts Cemetery. This one is a little of the beaten track, only a little mind you. It's on 6 Kkms south-west of Ieper (Ypres) town centre. 

This cemetery takes its name from a line of huts strung along the road from Dickebusch (now Dikkebus) to Brandhoek, which were used by field ambulances during the 1917 Allied offensive on this front. Plots I to X and XII to XIV were filled between July and November 1917. Plots XV and XI followed. Nearly two-thirds of the burials are of gunners as many artillery positions existed nearby.
The cemetery was closed in April 1918 when the German advance (the Battle of the Lys) brought the front line very close. The advance was finally halted on the eastern side of the village, following fierce fighting at Dickebusch Lake, on 8 May.
There are now 1,094 Commonwealth burials of the First World War in the cemetery. 

We were going here because earlier in the year, as part of  buy a poppy week (see here) a work colleague of Jo had purchased poppy to commemorate a Australian soldier who had died in world War I. The soldier, Ann's poppy was for was Private R.T.O Rees, Australian Army Service Corps. He died on the 28 September 1917, aged 26.