LAST DATS OF THE FIGHTING.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16417, 10 January 1919, Page 5

LAST DATS OF THE FIGHTING.

FINE WORK OF CANTERBURY i MEN. ] (From Malcolm Ross, Official Correspondent with the N.Z. Forces.) In articles already dispatched by j mail I have given details of tho fight- i ing in which the Second Brigade took 1 part between the Escaut Canal and * river and tho Solle, referring principally to the work of the men from \ the Otago Battalions. I purpose now £ supplementing that account with some < particulars of what the Canterbury ' men did. The Canterburys claim to , have been tho first of our troops to , cross tho canal. They mado a pre-' carious crossing on a small Boche rait, ] made from a duckboard and four floats. 1 They established the fact that the ] enemy had withdrawn from the iin- i mediate vicinity of the canal bank, i which he had been holding in considerable strength np to that time. Later, 1 a fighting patrol crossed, and captured < four machine-guns and thirty-six prisoners, including an officer. Another I officer showed fight after holding up his hands. He attempted to stab a corporal. The corporal promptly shot him. Other infantry from the South Island - units now crossed the canal—l havo alrea'dy described the brilliant bridgehead iigliting of the Aucklauders —and followed the enemy nip to the Masriieres line, with its broad belts of ! wire. HELD BY MACHINE-GUNS. For a time the Canterbury men were held up at this line of the enemy's defence "by strong nxachine-gun fire. They 'Were also shot at from Bel Ai6e Farm, on the right. Away on their left was the village of Lesdain, which , they had to skirt. All this opposition they overcame, but not without , losses. The loss of a major, a lieutenant, and a corporal occurred just , I abreast of Lesdain. But the j I was severely punished, and all resistance successfully overcome. Ono company tooTi no fewer than three hundred , prisoners. In the sunken road to the right of Lesdain there was a congeries gf deep dug-outs, and further opposition came from ..there, but ,the Germans wore again overmastered. More i prisoners were captured, and there was an extraordinary litter of equipment, rifles, and ammunition in ana about the aug-outs. Included in this was S some valuable medical equipment, hurriedly abandoned. Tho German cemetery at Lesdain had in it many graves. More were added to them during the next few days. Some of the ene'my ran back from the sunken road, which hero had a deep cutting with very I steep banks. They made off in the direction of Esnes, the village that lay ahead, but the Canterbury Lewis gunners got on to them, and our men followed them up beyond their own objective. Many -were killed and wounded. MORE PRISONERS! I On the main road betweon Lesdain i and Esnes, and just in front of ths latter, stood a small cluster of houses known as Le Grand Pont. . Here the enemy resisted the further advance of the Canterbury men. A trench lino ran west of the hamlet, and both from this place and from dug-outs at the I Torrent of Esnes, close on the left, there came more machine-gun fire. Again our men forced their way forward, and added to their growing toll of prisoners. As our men were marching through Le Grand Pont our heavies were still shelling tho village. They found the place empty. That same exploiting company carried on to the north-west of Esnes. till they got J in touch with the Rifle Brigade on their left, and then sent out patrols in front. These were fired on bv some of our j own artillery, who did not realise how | far they had gone. They were also fired on by enemy guns at close range and by enemy 'planes. DARING VICKERS GUNNERS. Throughout the day the machineguns were splendidly handled offensively. Two Vickers guns were right up with tho assaulting patrols. One machine-gun commander went forward to reconnoitre in front of his guns, and even in front of the infantry patrols. He' spotted two enemy guns —a 5.9 and a 1.2 —that had just been abandoned. The gunners were galloping their teams away to a placo of safety. - The Lewis gunners got to work on the retreating Germans, and j the officer's charger was shot down, j The officer, as soon as his horse had ' fallen, got up and attempted to run away, but he, too, was brought down. Other casualties were inflicted on the | teams. j A QUICK ADVANCE. j Next morning, at 5.30. tho First j Canterburys moved forward for a considcrab.o distance, without meeting a single Jioclie, and with very few casualties, to a line well ahead in front of Beauvois. and on the* following day they had passed that village. Then I the other battalion passed through them, and so on to the high ground I between Quivey and Viesly, villages I woil beyond the Cambrai-Le Cateau : road. Ono more incident may be related. A Canterbury section, headed by one of our bravest n.c.o.'s, -who had alrea.dy earned the_D.C.M. 4 endeavoured

to rush a machine-gun .position ui tho Masnieres line- It got practically wiped out. Another sergeant and two of his men. saw the position, and, without a second's hesitation, took 011 tho job. - While tho sergeant tried to draw the fire' of tho gun the other two worked round its flank, bombs, and then successfully rushed the position.