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and ‘Hill
62’ rise 60 metres and 62 metres (66 and 68 yards) above sea level respectively. The plain stretching towards Ypres, then occupied by the Allies, lies at between 50 and 55 metres (55 and 60
yards) above sea level. The flatness of the Flanders landscape means, however, that even the smallest rise dominates the surrounding country.

    In 1917, the German Army occupied the whole ridge, forming a minor salient into the Allies’ territories. It became an important objective for the next offensive. Field Marshal Sir Douglas
Haig, Commander-in-Chief of the British armies on the Western Front, gave the task of taking the ridge to General Sir Herbert Plumer, commanding the Second Army in the Ypres Salient. His planning
and preparation, which lasted for months (hence the model of the ridge used for training during Harry’s time at Rugeley), were meticulous. The most significant element was the siting of huge
explosive mines deep underneath the German positions. Sappers (Royal Engineers), for once given a job true to their title, became tunnellers. (The word ‘sapper’ derives from the tunnels
and other earthworks which, in earlier centuries, were dug under fortifications to ‘sap’ their strength during a siege.) Men who were miners in civilian life were drafted in to dig
tunnels under no man’s land to reach a point beneath the German front line on the ridge. The whole undertaking spanned more than a year, but on completion the sappers had planted a total of
almost five hundred tons of high explosive in twenty-one mines across the six miles or so of the ridge.
    The tunnelling was hazardous. There was always the possibility of collapse. Moreover, the Germans knew that the British were working underground, with the result that both sides were tunnelling
and counter-tunnelling at the same time and each maintained listening posts, trying to detect the enemy’s activities. There were occasions when one side would break into the other’s
tunnel, and in the darkness hand-to-hand fighting would often follow.
    Eventually, by the end of May, all was in place on the ground, ready for the assault. The troops had been carefully trained. As we have seen, Harry’s battalion spent five days practising
on the Boescheppe training ground where their objective, Mount Sorrel, had been simulated with an arrangement of flags. Harry would already have gained an overview of the whole ridge from the
mock-up at the Cannock Chase training area before he even crossed the Channel.
    General Plumer (later Field Marshal Viscount Plumer of Messines) – his intelligence, detailed planning and care for his men belied his almost comical looks. (From a
    painting after a portrait by William Orpen.)
    The orders for the operation would have been passed down from General Plumer, via his staff, to the different levels of command. On receipt of these, Lieutenant-Colonel Bowes-Wilson, commanding
the 9th York and Lancasters, prepared written orders for his officers. (These may be seen at the National Archives at Kew, as may the battalion war diary.)
    Responsibility for the operation was, for once in that war, in the correct hands. General Plumer, a skilful commander who did everything he could in the circumstances to minimize casualties
among his soldiers, and who was in consequence liked and admired by them, appreciated the problems that his troops would encounter and made sure that they were dealt with as effectively as
possible. He learned from the use of mines in the initial British assault at the Battle of the Somme, almost a year earlier. On that occasion, there had been a ten-minute pause between the firing
of the explosive charges and the signal to attack. That gave the defenders time to recover their composure, man their positions and take control of no man’s land. At Messines, by contrast,
there was to be only a minute’s gap between the blast and the start of the assault.
    During the first few days of June, Harry’s battalion