Wednesday, June 6, 1917

The 102nd Battalion's stealth attack and the Canadian role at Messines

After the 44th and 50th Battalions' costly failure at La Coulotte, the 102nd Battalion (North British Columbians) took a different approach. Rather than mounting a set-piece assault preceded by a conventional artillery barrage (which had alerted the German defenders and allowed them to prepare), the 102nd opted for a surprise infiltration. They advanced quietly, without preliminary bombardment, relying on stealth to close with the German positions before being detected. The tactic succeeded: the 102nd seized the La Coulotte objectives with minimal casualties, demonstrating that flexible, adaptive tactics could achieve what brute-force methods could not in the fortified terrain around Lens. On June 7, 1917, the Battle of Messines began about twenty-five miles to the north near Ypres, where British, Australian, and New Zealand forces attacked the Messines Ridge. But the Canadian Corps, positioned in the Vimy-Lens sector, had a critical supporting role to play. To prevent the Germans from shifting reserves northward to reinforce Messines, the Canadian Corps was ordered to mount aggressive diversionary operations (heavy artillery bombardments, trench raids, and demonstrations of force) that would convince the German command that a major attack was also imminent at Lens. The intense barrages that Canadian units fired on the evening of June 7 and into June 8 were part of this coordinated deception. German artillery responded in kind, and the resulting exchanges produced real casualties on both sides. For the men at medical posts behind the Canadian lines, the diversionary bombardments meant a fresh influx of wounded: the human cost of a supporting operation that would barely register in most accounts of the Battle of Messines.