Germans take Messines

On 1 November 1914 the Germans took the ridge between Messines and Wytschaete (PL), south of Ypres. Wytschaete fell during the night, and at 9 a.m. the British cavalry abandoned Messines without a fight; the Württembergers had broken into the town the previous day. It was the greatest German success in the Battle of Ypres since the start of the offensive by General Max von Fabeck’s army group. The Germans could not go any further, however, because the French had occupied the western slopes of the ridge.

The London Scottish’s night

On the afternoon of 31 October the London Scottish battalion went into a counter-attack on the ridge north of Messines. It was the first infantry battalion of the volunteer Territorial Force to go into action in this war. The Scots from London had new Lee-Enfield rifles of an older pattern, which the magazines issued to them did not fit. In the heat of the fighting the rifles turned out not to feed cartridges, and the men had to load them by hand, one at a time. Among the wounded that day was Private Ronald Colman, later one of the best-known actors in Hollywood, who limped for the rest of his life from the wound he received.

In the evening the battalion held a stretch of the ridge near a windmill, between the two villages, together with dismounted cavalrymen. After midnight, in the moonlight, battalions of the Bavarian 6th Reserve Division attacked it. According to accounts the Scots repulsed several bayonet attacks, but the Germans slipped through gaps in the thin line and worked round the defenders’ flanks and rear. At dawn the remnants of the battalion withdrew from the ridge. Of some 750 men the London Scottish lost 321 killed, wounded and missing. On the site of its first fight, on the road from Messines to Wytschaete, a memorial to the battalion stands today.

The fall of Wytschaete

Wytschaete itself was defended by about 400 cavalrymen. By about 2.45 a.m. the village was in German hands. In the morning the 12th Lancers counter-attacked, and with them battalions of 9th Brigade from II Corps, which lost almost a third of their men within a few hours that day. They did not recover the ridge but, according to British accounts, broke back into the village. Battalions of the French 32nd Division also came to help, promised by General Ferdinand Foch to Field Marshal French on the critical day of 31 October. The French held the hills west of the Wytschaete–Messines line but did not retake the ridge.

To the south, holding Messines once the Germans had the ridge north of the town threatened its defenders with encirclement. At 9 a.m. the British 1st Cavalry Division left the ruins of Messines and fell back to the next, lower ridge at Wulverghem. The withdrawal went unhindered, and the Germans soon occupied the whole town. Kemmel hill, from which the entire rear of the defenders of Ypres could be observed, remained in Allied hands.

The List Regiment

The Bavarian 6th Reserve Division, which took Wytschaete, included the 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment, known as the List Regiment, in which Adolf Hitler served as a volunteer. The regiment did not, however, take part in the night attack. A few days earlier it had fought at Gheluvelt, where it suffered enormous losses, and on 31 October its commander, Colonel Julius List, was killed. At the beginning of November it was moved south, to Wytschaete and Messines. Sources differ as to when it went into action there: according to some as early as 2 November, according to others from 6 November.

On 1 November, according to most biographers, Hitler was promoted to Gefreiter, the lowest non-commissioned rank, and a few days later, on 9 November, he became a runner at regimental headquarters. For the following months he served on the sector whose prize was the very ridge taken that day. The Germans held it for two and a half years, until the great British attack in June 1917.