2-365-025 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Mining at Messines Ridge, Belgium, World War I, 1914-1918. The Battle of Messines was launched on June 7, 1917 by British General Herbert Plumer's Second Army. The attack began with the simultaneous detonation of 19 huge mines in shafts dug beneath the German lines. The battle was an Allied success and marked the first large-scale operation in which casualties sustained by the attacking forces were actually less than those suffered by the defenders. Stereoscopic card detail.