THE LAST OF THE FIGHTING.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16418, 11 January 1919, Page 10

THE LAST OF THE FIGHTING.

WITH THE NEW ZEALANDERS TO LE QUESNOY. BRILLIANT ADVANCE OF SOUTH ISLANDERS. •(From Malcolm Ross, Official Corre- ■ • spondent with the N.Z. lorces.) October 26th, 191 S. The brilliant advance of tho- South Island Brigade' from a line in front of Solesmos to" the high ground west of , Le Quesnoy deserves a fuller report than I have been able to give by cable. The fighting in connexion with this advance started early in the morning of tho 23rd. An English division were in front of us. They had been in the line for a few days, and, starting off under a barrage, they now secured the limited objective allotted to them in front and to the north-east of Solesmes. One of the Otago battalions, which had a long day's fighting, went through them. An advance i guard from this battalion went oh with' the English division, and, before the time of the attack by the battalion had arrived, saw about eighty of the enemy in a position ahead. Two lance-cor-porals, boldly advancing, got their Vickers guns round on the enemy t flank and captured the lot. This was a good beginning, for this party of Germans would undoubtedly have given trouble later on. On the right the line swung south-westward towards! the village of Beurain, which the 37 th ] Division was attacking, and from which i trouble might have been expected on i the New Zealand right flank.- To 1 minimis© this probable opposition an officer's patrol was sent towards the village at 5 a.m., and, getting on to the high ground, came up against a machine-gun post on top of the ri<Jgo. The patrol proceeded to deal with this post, and those that remained after a stoaay peppering put up their hands and surrendered. Immediately afterwards one of these prisoners shot an Otago lieutenant, wounding him in the leg, whereupon the subsequent proceedings interested this little party of Germans no further. The wounded Hentenant limped back, we'} content with tho rotributive action of his men. and thev. not ill-pleased with this timely incident, plus the capture of one ma-phine-gun. remained to carry on the day's work. THE,ADVANCE BEGUN. These preliminaries were but the prologue to the play that began with the main advance, when, at 8.40 a.m., the first battalion of the Otagoans hopped off from their line. Fronting the small village of with its church spire -rising above the red-tiled roofs of the houses, was a stream that had to bo crossed. No sooner hod the leading waves' got over this obstacle than they began to be Bniped at from the rear, for, owing mainly to preliminary shelling by the enemy, tho attack on the right had not gone so quickly. Two sections were detached;to attack these snipers, who shot from among die trees and the high grass on the other side. Trouble also came from the right between Vertigneul and the Crucifix,. but this also was successfully overcome, and, in the process, a field gun that the enemy had not time to get away-was captured. Later, at the • Chapel" of tbte Six Roadß, more trouble developed from tho vicimty of a Crucifix. A German machine-gun post blocked the .way on th© right of the New Zealand flank. Here a fine incident occurred. One of the 'Otago''officers, the ground tiding : unsuitable- for a Lewis £un position, let. tljej gunner use his body for. a suj>port "while he "took.'on" tlie opposition. Standing up practically in. the onen, the officer got t^ie; gunner to place, the machine on -his shoulder, and in that position, the drums rattled off. The enemy. in the post were all' of icap.tiirediViand,'i we. got the r " There were some'thirty of this finfimy endeavouring to hold us up from that position. Somewhere about noon battalion reached its first objective without severe losses and still comparatively fresh. ACROSS THE ST. GEORGES. "On the left, during this advance, was a Canterbury Battalion. They had a shorter distance to "go; and they were not so much affected by- the opposition that camo from tho right, but thfjy did their work well;' The crest of theSvigh ground beyond the Harpies stream had now been passed. Ahead th© bar© fields sloped down to the St. Georges, a deeper stream with steep banks, and orchards and trees giving cover to the enemy in the valley and for some distance up the'further slope. It was an ideal position to defend, and we looked for stiff opposition from this region. Shortly after, noon the Canterburys and the Otagos advanced down the slope. Near the centre of our advance the shattered buildings of a large farm and a tall mill stood beside the road thai crossed tho stream. Here the road was blocked by a huge crater that , the enemy had blown. With r the same charge the strong brick fridge had disappeared. Other bridges right and lefl : had also been blown. Machine-gun fire and the bullets from .the snipers' rifles came from the trees on the commanding ground across the stream. Th( men dashed forward to the stream ; . plunging in, some_ of them up to theii i necks, and, dripping wet, rushed fori ward to storm th© slope above. Moan ; time the German machine-gunners wer« [ pouring in a hot fire. .. Th© villages or . the right had not yet beeii taken, am ; fir© continued to come from that flank ; Near Pont-a-Pierres, where the farn . and the mill were, we', recaptured one oi ( our old tailks with the German blacl , crosses now painted on it. Apparently the enemy had been using it against us or getting it ready for use in one o: ; his attacks. In this vicinity batteriei of four-twos and five-nines were cap tured, and also an eight-inch gun. Thi . trams and the personnel had vanished , There were dead horses along the roadi and in the valley. The feature of this fighting was th( t fact thaifc the men went forward so de .terminedly and so steadily behind i ' thin barrage and under very fierce ma chine-gun fire. Two companies of thi Canterburys had all their officers ex cept wo put' out of action, but stil fought on with'great determination One company officer was wounded ii the face early in the day, but refusec to leave his men. Later he was wound ed in tho left arm, which becami powerless, but he still carried or and refused to he evacuated until thi following day. By evening these Can tcrbury men had pushed forward to thi outskirts of Beaudignies. They wen' _ through this pretty little village on thi St. Georges River in tho moonlight. Thi Boches had evacuated the village, ,hu' " now came trickling back. It was at i bridgehead on 'this river that one of on: V.C.'s was killed. H© was shot in thi head by on© of a German patrol cominj down the main sweet. In the gloom o. night he mistook the patrol for some o: j our own men. There were no civilian! p found in this village, though there wer< evidences that they had been m recen _ i occupation. During'the day our mei j had seen the limbered waggon: L clearing out of Beaudignies. - SOME DETERMINED FIGHTING. With the Canterburysin this part o the advance were some Otagoans. The; came, un to another Otago battalion a eight minutes past and fou: minutes later the second barrage cami down and .they started fighting thei - way ahead. They encountered machine , gun fire .from the direction^ of Salewhe on their right rear. They took Le Mesni

'arm near therivor with some.prisoners. Lbout five o'clock ij» the e\ emng as the atSioa Commander's groom ua s rid- . jviL-nrH with his rifle slung he camo - Sdd'SJ'SUaGerman Battalion Co m . iV ~-ith thirtv men. The officer aroom to "take them prisoners, latter c ° :n P lled > l:nndag the bunch over later, to an Otago °A°line of. wire.fan from .Salesches to. rards Pont a Pierres, and hero a plararas rvu plucky bit of work. oon serge* with Bis Lewis gun le crawled alu j found tho ection bel •• tet j j n three main New Zealanders opened fire ?£%*. torfk ranee, and soon there was ? f f v,f>twe«n fifteen and twenty , cluster^L be t lS Following this da,erman dead 2ealandera. rushtructiycfiro ™*/®£, tur ed sixteen of d tho pos s remained olive. S®"^vSKffound so fl a nk. The oboen dug in » f r }ag e was gained ircumstances. * ecaillon briogeheam STORMED. Awav ahead Bnaudignies and tbe Scaillon River blocked our P a 1 jj a £ j* d Aernei indeed, formidable obstacles. Km? had been blowup «P roads tnd bridgeheads, and it was espo.iuu.* mportant to get some bridges across Ws river if full success was to crown he day's work. Looking at the position th/ map Jb. ■ the Gon«al Olßtor Comnandtas rang ~|> the Brigadier aad id I>V it «•«<»»%" "S§ S O make the attempt. The word was ias«ed on to the battalion commanders vho nt once iumped at the chance of winding off the Attack so successfully Canterbury/"d Otago old off to do the 3 ol} - Jt w?s lark, and so there was no opportunity 0 reconnoitre the g ro " n 4' jearings wero takon and the men went >n. To get to the river they had still ibout a thousand yards to go, and their irders were not only to make the jridgeheads, but also tho high ground 1 thousand yards ahead across the river. All ■■ this they did, meeting with little reposition, for all but a few of the ?nemy had gone. Two Germans, strolling nonchalantly through the village, ivere surprised to find the Now Zeaanders there, and, not 'J nw A ,nj r 3 '' ;amo back as prisonors. . Other Boches ivore seen later advancing with waggons. evidently with tho idea of blowTig up the bridges, but they were quickly driven off. ENEMY HOISTS THE WHITE FLAG. Next morning, when the troops on the right came level with them, our men (vent forward once more, and, running across a party of about eighty-of the enemy made most of them prisonors. Chi tne loft front wore some Germans, holding what appeared to be practice trenches. With Lewis guns the New Zealanders killed between twenty and thirty of these, and over seventy others, at the head' of whom were t^reoofficers, put up the white flag and surrendered. Their instructions had been to told on to the last minute. Discretion rather than valour was the quality'dictating the interpretation of the order as to what actually was "the last minute 1 For these troops'.the . remainder of the day was spent in pushing on through the farms du Fort Martin and Beart. Two French civilians were found jhiding in one of the cellars. They came out and kissed their New' Zealand deliverers. Some time was spent in clearing out a copse and orchard. ' From these camo machine-gun fire and 6nipirig that killed three of our brave runners: Two were shot through the . head, and one through tho " heart. t - On',the loft these Otago troops now. lifi^ed'-Up witn Canterbury men, level with the outskirts of le Quesnoy : ; on'the .west.",■, ENGINEERS" AM>= S. At'last the' "day. of--the' engin.ee.rsfbas arrived. They have for years.- been carrying about with them all the material for pontoon and other bridges, such as would be necessary in any rapid advance. Recently the /New Zealand Engineers ; done fine work: in ibridg-. ing streams and 'canals.- i.Vlhe- day -\Ve crossed' the St. Georges they were already getting their material up, and next day I came upon a section in command of a lieutenant who in private life is a civil engineer in Canterbury, busy malting- ways across the. stream for guns and limbered waggons. They did their work with marvellous expedition. They are, however, proudest of their feat in building a tank bridge across tho Sellc. It was a bridge of 12 x 12 timber with 12in steel joists and a 34ft span. The reconnaissance for this bridge was made while the enemy were shelling the valley and the machine-gunners were only some four or five hundred yards away. One man was killed during tho reconnaissance. 'The bridge w&s completed and ready for traffic in tliirteon hours, which must be just about a record performance.