The early discipline issues were overcome and, under Russell's leadership, the New Zealand Division would gain a fine reputation with success in September 1916 during the Battle of the Somme and in June 1917 the capture of Messines Ridge. On a visit to the front line at Messines, Russell was nearly killed when a "sniper's bullet passed through his steel helmet, creasing his scalp". Failure came however on 12 October that year at the First Battle of Passchendaele, when – in what is still the costliest day in New Zealand's military history – the New Zealanders' second assault was repulsed with 2,735 casualties. Russell took the blame, in what military historian Christopher Pugsley called "a rare example of a military commander's willingness to accept responsibility for failure", though Pugsley attributes the main fault to the staff of the corps commander, General Godley.