A NEW ZEALANDER ON THE SOMME

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2866, 2 September 1916, Page 14

A NEW ZEALANDER ON THE SOMME

FRICOURT AND LA BOISELLE

DEADLY WORK IN A DOUBLE SALIENT (From Malcolm Doss/ Official • Correspondent vvitli N.Z. Forccs.) WAB. CORE-ESTOXUEXTS' HEADQUARTERS, France, Juiy 'J. The groat battle of the Somnie alolis an extended front became really a series of battles, and some of the fiercest lighting has taken place in the vicinity of tile batteiied villages of l''ricourt and La Boiselle—strong points in the German line that for a time held up our attack. .This was really a battle in itself, and I had the rare send fortune to watch it from an adjacent slope within easy ran.no and right out in the open. It was a unique position, from which in this war one could witness a real battle. Well within a complete circle of sun-fire, and even within the range'of the machine-guns and rjflos, had l-hey cared to shoot, we coukl follow almost every movement of our troops, in places even with the unaided eye. Doth villages had been battered beyond recognition, tty our .intensive initial bombardment, but , tho enemy still clung tenaciously/to the positions. Prisoners §aid afterwards that they had been told to on at all costs. For superb gallantry in the face of great odds I .have seeij/ nothing to equal this, fight since the attack on Chunik Bair—the highest point we gained on the Gallipoli Peninsula —by the New Zealanders. For hours our bombardment of the trenches and ruins of these villages made of them a veritable inferno: That which was the German front-line .trench at La Boiselle had in places become almost a level road. Trees in the adjacent woods had been shot to, bits, and bricks'and mortal' had crumbled till the houses were shapeless ruins. A[ametii, a village to the right, had already been taken, and when we arrived' oil tho scene our troops were trying to get round the I'ricourt AVood from there, while another body was endeavouring to join with them round the other side of the wood.

' ' ■ Lisht. Gallant work was done at Mametz .too. The men from one unit got into 'the German line with a single casualty, and weiu in tho sccond line with only two. Oiie. man himself took twenty prisoners. Other units were not so .lucky, Tlicy came up against machinegun fire, and were also heavily bombed. In one spot, lying amongst the grass in the line in which they were advancing, were tho bodies of six men and a. little dog—the mascot of the regiment—that had gone into the fight them. Oni; regiment had taken many .prisoners and was tremendously bucked up. Another had "got 1 it in the neck" and was correspondingly depressed, but they continued bravely fighting, and in the end the Germans were worsted.. Next day, as our men advanced from this position to got round iricourt Wood, the German gunners put a very hot barrage of higli-cxplo-sivo and some shrapnel in the hollow through which they had to pass, yet they got there all the same.' Tho enemy also "crumped" our tiling line, i.ii'c were too late. Our men had already advanced. "Wooli.v Bean," that burst with a pcculiiir tearing noise, were mixed with tne other stuff Ah cti:.\»r told nio that our slielling lint] lieen most effective. He had wandered into a Gorman redoubt -that had been- greatly strafed .and found it a heap of tumbled earth. Some cheery pioiieers iroin a Northern county were already at work digging a communication trench soon after our troops had taken the. German line. AVith tlie.ir more peaceful implements of war they sti'eamed down laden with beams of stout .timber.

When we arrived on the scene the real battle for La. Boiselle was just commencing, and the last ol' the main German force Was already in process of beiii"; clenred out of Frieourt. . We got 'so close to tho fighting that,, with the. unaided eye, we could clearly see the troops going into action. . They streamed round one corner of the Frieourt ruins, and swung to tho right of the wood. Others came up out of the hollow of the valley more t0.., tho left. Those also advanced, but almost at tho samo time we heard the /crackls of a machine-gun, aiid couid see that they were held up,. The gun /was hidden somewhere in the wood. .Most of them took shelter on the edge of a little cop&c, at a place that had been Fricourr, Farm. The trees of the copse had been torn and dismembered by'our shell fire. They' were living skeletons. Farther round on the oil' the crest.of a ridge overlooking a chat'eaii ill a beautiful wood was all that remained of La Boiselle after our. guns had been at it for about a week. .It.was very very little, but such ruined villages afford .a good deal of shelter to an enemy,, and with, their deep dug-outs, in which both men .and machine-guns have been saved, i they are the very devil to clean up' in an advance. In one case our men went through a village—so quick was their advance—■ and the enemy afterwards 1 came out of their "bunny-holes" and fought. But they failed to save the position. Many of the Germans who remained wero killed and wounded. The otheru wero taken prisoners. While ouh men wore held lip at the end of Frieourt Wood our gunners were meroilessly shelling the. La Boiselle position; still, strongly held by the Germans and commanded by their artillery .lip, as by our own. Tho high-explosive sent the earth tearing heavenward, and the already broken brick >valls of farm and cottage disappeared in clouds of red dust.

At intervals a big shrapnel or "universal" shell would burst .. in the air, spattering the ground With its pellets, and leaving behind it a beautiful roll-' mg cloud of light grayish green smoke. That was no doubt to catcli, any German who might take it into his head' to cut and run for better shelter. But all tho time wo watched not a. man showed himself. So ■ tcrriblo was tho shelling that one thought no-' thing could have lived within its zone. For hours the terrible "preparation" for our adv'ancc went on.

Away on the left a battery of heavy guns, with .finu teams of black horses, swung into action right in the open. This was a splendid and a. cheering Bight—a sight such as one had not expected in this war of trench and wire and dug-out.

Tommy's Prisoner, On the slope of the Fricourt-La-floiselle. Ridgo our nfen were nonchalantly walking about, and tho stretcheruearers were going and coming in tho upen.' Amongst the uniforms I noted some that wero strangely grcv, and, looking through my glasses, 1 saw that tlicy wero Germans, right among our men. But they were German prisoners. There must have been a. wholo compauy of tliem, under the gleaming bayonets of half a dozen guards. They were marchcd down mp, yblely to a barbed-wire enclosure well away from tho battle-ground. Other "Tommies" were bringinE in prisoners in twos and threes from tho captured trcnchea on the Fricourt-La

BoisseiTe ridgo. At intervals for fully half an lioui we watched one humourist slowly bringing his man ,in." The prisoner scorned to be shamming, and ivas reluctant to conio. Apparently, lio thought he was going to iiis doom. Occasionally there would be a bit of an argument, m which a threatening bayonet point played a part, but the "Tommy" persevered. Ho made tho man cross the trenches In front of him, and when it was Ins turn to clamber up the other side he made tho prisoner stretch out his hand and help him up tho other side. The position ut lioth Frieourt and La Boisscllc was intensely interesting. In modern' war in such country ono might not see such a battle m a lifetimo. So we ventured along a little farther to where a small giotip of our soldiers were lying on the yellow earth of a communication trench. The group consisted ot a colonel, a major, and some signallers. Amongst them was a big handsome young Australian, whose father was a Broken Hill millionaire. He Had been in England v.beri the war broke out, Mid had joined the artillery. He was enthusiastic, aiid seemed to bo thoroughly enjoying himself. For tome hours we ■lay' beside these nfeu oil the yellow clay watching the wonderful battle spectacle, and listening to one end of messages going and coining over the field telephone. Expressions; of delight were sandwiched in betwecu orders, aria messages to the guns' "There's another blighterl'Jis hands areupl" liis hands are up 1" "There's another fellow in a long coat by the Crucifix!" The "crucifix" and thb "Poodle' came into it a. good deal. The "Poodle" turned out to be a woollylooking tree on the far . ridgo just in front of the other German line. "Tho Crucifix" was a real crucifix still standing amidst a : small clump of' naked trees, on the horizon. Crucifixes seem to have a way of escaping' shell lire, and jn those cases the French peasants regard them with, a sort of superstitious awe. Interspersed with such talk wero other sentences of a more technical kind, such as putting "No. 4 gun on to Burnham Wobd," or "Xo. 3 on to X 20 ak.16," "dropping twentyfive" or "twenty minutes more left," as the ease may. be. The Germans were Silelllllg our troops, in a placo called by tiiese enthusiasiS "Loseuge \\oud,' 1 and our aforesaid-guns were now ciiecr- l fully straling uie Germans just over the ridge. ' j'lio sheiis' tore past, and we watched them , fturstmg just over the ridge. Unr iniiiutry hau been in Crucifix.'l'iencu, and ouiers advaucing. ot the further attack were now held up at "Tile Poodle." The shelling was to let them gbt oil. This they subsequently did, and by next day the whole. Frieourt Wood was surrounded and the position made gdod. Another battery commander wanted to know over the 'phone if he could "chip, in," but an olticer replied: "Xo, Major iitank's bat.tery will do the necessary." It was very much 'us if .a man were sitting in his otlico-ordering a ton of coal"for his household, or arranging a deal in shares or produce. . They could not, of course, ste their own guns. Neither could the gunners see what, they wero shooting at —it was all done witli scientific accuracy from the map and from observation in this forward position. The position at Frieourt having been satisfactorily cleared up, wo again tinned our attention on La Boisselle, which was .more than ever now being whipped with a rain of shells. ■ Other batteries, including' sumo, "heavies" far back wero doing this. It seemed as if the gunners had warmed to their work. Ono could imagine them stripped to the shirt going for all they were worth. Their shelling was dreadfully cftoetive mid terribly accurate. Presently tlicy banged in a' tornado of- shrapnel, and then suddenly "lilted." From that we knew that, tho infantry attack on La Boisselle was just, on the point .of being launched, and, sure enough, in a minute.or two we saw the first of the tuen debouching from a communication trehclr iind creeping up across a battered German', trench in .the direction of what had been the village. Others followed, and • soon there was a little group ill a very exposed position waiting their chance to go forward.

A Carman Barrnga.' It was now tiie turn of the German gunners. ■ They put a heavy barrage in the hollow to the left, to endeavour to prevent our men coming up, and they also shot at the, little group crouchjug on tho white chalky ruhbh: ol a' damaged trench, on which they were finding all too inadequate shelter. The ground was whiped with shrapnel and.high explosive, and a German nia-chine-gunner, who had evidently lived through our lire, now bravely emerged from his "bunny hole" and commenced firing. There was also the crackle of rille lire iicV mingling with the reports of the guns that were banging away all around us, and with the noise of the bursting shells immediately in front. ' One felt very sorry for tlio little group of brave men crouching there in the open. * Presently there was a burst of shell beside them, and another right'over them. The smoke of the shell and the whipped-up dust obliterated them lor a moment. AVlien it cleared, we saw man after man get up, .and crouching low, advance into tho village against the machine-gun tiro from the leafless wood and the ruined houses. There were some seven or eight who.did not.move. Thcv still lay in strangely huddled attitudes, motionless oil tho light earth of the battered trench.' They wero still lherc next' day—in the same strange attitudes. • Death bad caught them in the very hour of victory. But other gallant felloiys came oil through tho pitiless hail of • German shrapnel to take their places. They, came singly and in twos and threes. Some dropped, but tlure was lio flinching—no turning b.ack. -It was all very aad, but finely inspiriting. , ,l.t made the pulses thrill. Ono felt proud to be of the breed. In this manner did wo gain our footing in La Boisselle. And all the time with this wonderful battle''panorama being unfolded before us, on a slope dccked with red poppies and blue cornflowers, the swallows were Hitting about, and in tho blue above a soaring lark was putting all his soul into his.:-song!