Battle of Messines (1917) 1917
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 7 June 1917 – 14 June 1917 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1917 | Wikidata P580 (start time) |
| Era | World War I era (1914–1918) | derived from year |
| Location | Belgium | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Western Front | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Australia, Dominion of New Zealand, German Empire, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 50.7800, 2.8639 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Messines (7–14 June 1917) was an attack by the British Second Army (General Sir Herbert Plumer), on the Western Front, near the village of Messines (Dutch: Mesen) in West Flanders, Belgium, during the First World War. The Nivelle Offensive in April and May had failed to achieve its more grandiose aims, had led to the demoralisation of French troops and confounded the Anglo-French strategy for 1917.
The attack forced the Germans to move reserves to Flanders from the Arras and Aisne fronts, relieving pressure on the French. The British tactical objective was to capture the German defences on the ridge, which ran from Ploegsteert Wood (Plugstreet to the British) in the south, through Messines and Wytschaete to Mt Sorrel, depriving the German 4th Army of the high ground. The ridge gave commanding views of the British defences and back areas of Ypres to the north, from which the British intended to conduct the Northern Operation, an advance to Passchendaele Ridge and then the capture of the Belgian coast up to the Dutch frontier. The Second Army had five corps, three for the attack and two on the northern flank not part of the operation; XIV Corps was in General Headquarters reserve.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Messines (1917) (revision 1379969651), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Battle of Messines (1914) 1914 · 3 km
- Actions of the Bluff, 1916 1916 · 6 km
- Capture of Hill 60 (Western Front) 1915 · 7 km
- Battle of Mont Sorrel 1916 · 8 km
- Siege of Ypres (1678) 1678 · 8 km
- Siege of Ypres (1383) 1383 · 8 km
Other battles of the Western Front
- Battle of Mont Sorrel 1916
- Battle of Thiepval Ridge 1916
- Battle of Verdun 1916
- Battle of the Somme 1916
- Hohenzollern Redoubt action, 2–18 March 1916 1916
- Battle of Arras (1917) 1917
- Battle of Cambrai (1917) 1917
- Battle of Passchendaele 1917
- Battle of the Hills 1917
- Second Battle of the Aisne 1917
All 48 battles of the Western Front →
Browse more: battles in Belgium · Europe · World War I era battles