THE BIG ADVANCE

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2655, 29 December 1915, Page 6

THE BIG ADVANCE

NEW ZEALANDER'S LETTER FROM FRANCE. Private James Wratten, of Owafyi, writes to his parents an interesting letter containing a reference to tho big advance made by the Allies in France at the end of September. "Our trenches," ho says, - "\vere 500 yards apart, and in front of us there was a'big redoubt, strongly held by the Germans, which it was the work of the Seaforths to take. We had made a heavy bombardment for about two weeks before; I don't, know how the Germaus stood it. At 2 o'clock oil Saturday morning the guns started to fire double the number of shells they had fired before. We had 500 guns of all sizes on a two-mile front, and it was tho same all along the line for. dfl miles. Those guns wero firing for two hours just as quick as the men could load them. We had hot tea and rum in tho trenches, and by' that time it was daylight. The word came round, 'Up and over.at 6 o'clock,' and at that time the whole line went over. The ground was perfectly flat, and wo must have been a good mark for' their machine guns; but anyhow we just walked ovor and took that redoubt, and, would you believe it,- overy man had a smilo on his face all the time? You may think it impossible for a man to at such a time, but it is a fact. We felt as happy us schoolboys. "Tho redoubt was very strong, and tho Germans had dug themselves into gTPat holes that would hold half a company, about 20ft. underground, and they had theso dugouts concretcd, too. We throw bombs and hand grenades into these places and blocked the entrance. , Thoso who did not get the bayonet ran back to their first line, with us after them. We took their first line of trenches, also the second line, but by that time the battalion was getting weak. The brigades on our right and left had been hung up for a while in the barbed wire, and as we went ahead we were enfiladed by rifles and machine guns. ' The machine guns are the worst of the lot, and the Germans have hundreds of them. They mow down the long grass just like a man would cut it with a scythe. Our colonel was soon killed, then the major and the adjutant; then the captain in command of our company ana his second in command. The officers went, down quickly, and the strange thing about it was that they were mostly killed. The Gordons wero in support, and when they came up we pushed in, and fairly waded into the Germans' third line. The enemy kept on firiug till we were about 20 yards off, and then threw up their hands and call-, ed out, 'Mercy, camarad'; and they got mercy—ahout 2ft. of -it. We had no time to tako them to the rear, and if we had left them thoy would have turned on us. Some day I will tell you what they did to some of our Highlanders, and you will understand then why we wipe them out. As we were, crossing a heap of slag and stone from a coal mine 1 was hit. I felt as if someone had struck me on the back of tho thigh with a big club, and down I went. I had to crawl back over a mile to our own lines. "I was in tho Australian field hospital at Boulogne, and all the doctors and nurses wero Australians. They treated nie very well. I am row in the Brook War Hospital in Woolwich with 1100 more. I have seen many New Zealanders here from the Dardanelles, mostly suffering from enteric. ... I was at the front for five 'months, and somehow my nerves don't seem to be the same now. Anyhow, I hope to be able soon to join my battalion again. . . . People in England are expecting a lot from. Kitchener's Army, and as our division wns the first of it they were looking to us to see what we would do, and I hope they won't be disappointed when it is all over."