ACROSS THE SOMME

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2925, 10 November 1916, Page 6

ACROSS THE SOMME

—- —$ _ ON THE FRINGE OF THE GREAT BATTLE New zealanders en route (From Captain 'Malcolm Boss, N.Z. Official War Correspondent.) . - , ' September S. ' it o have crossed, the Somme.' We nre on tho fringe of the great battle, and as day follows day and march fol- . lows maTch the 'finger of fortune seems ■to point steadily to the fact that our small force from the most distant part •' of our far-flung Empire 'is. going to have the great good luck of taking a part in momentous and historic fighting A fortnight , ago the New Zealanders arrived at Hallencourt, and there and in the adjoining villages went , .into billets. The brigade did further .training, suitable to the new kind) of strenuous warfaro in which they were •i3»ut to engage. They had had a long spell in the trenches at.Armentieres, nnd. what with night-raiding and a good . deal of Gentian bombing and shelling iihey had had ail,anxious and a trying time. They were not in the limelight, . hut they held! a ipart of the line, and, in spite of; considerable losses, held it well. The enemy, gained' no advantage. On the contrary,- he suffered greater IOSSO3, than he had been accustomed to in. that sector for some time previeusljjj, For some days now the force has been' inarching light, the men leaving teven their blankets behind them, and having to sleep in their overcoats on (the hard earthen floor of lfarns or tho [wooden floors of other billets. ' The daily training and the change of scene land incident aro steadily improving ,/ jcheJr morale, and their pkysique. At , {the/Present moment, taking them all in all, they are just about as fit for battle las troops could he. : From Hallencourt and district we inarched to Pelloj-sur-Somme, and in . that old! and dilapidated vjllage and t:i& , iadiacent hamlets the brigades again "billeted for a few days. A heavy thunderstorm broke over the district, but afterwards the sun camo out warm and clear, and tho beautiful country was revealed in all its loveliness. It was a perfect pleasure to wander across the , downs or through' the grounds of- soma old loyalist chateau, backed by a splen- " did forest. Tho red tiled roofs of villages 'made patches of colour that relieved tho sombro green of the trees, nnd in every village the spiro or tower of some old church gave its distinctive touch 1 to the graceful landscape.

The Sound of the Gannon. ' -'' Down in the fiat, shallow valley, ran the Somme, swollen, and of a dull grey, with the silt washed from the scarred , and pitted face of the by . the thunderstorm. Paths led down' . from the village toward the river, past lagoons'fringed with raupo and a papy-rus-liko reed that rustled with every passing breeze. Quivering aspens and graceful elms were reflected darkly in these dull, placid'ponds/starred at in- , -tervals with whito water lilies. At a V bend in the pathway you .passed a peas- • ant girl lierding her kine and crooning an old song. You came suddenly upon a silent Frenchman fishing amidst tho sedges with great patience, yet with but litlo_ success for all his four rods with their quill-floated lines. But even in such a peaceful scene you could not altogether get away from the thought of war. A small enclosure, fenced in with rudely-cut posts of poplar and two strands of barbed-wire, was labelled with a bit of board and some black paint "British Cemetery." Two patches of raw brown, earth showed only too • plainly, that it lad not been fenced in - vain. In days to come somo English mother will perhaps como here on a '. pilgrimage. Near the river, beside a path, was another sign;. "Danger ; Keep Clear." As ono looked in vain for any sign or work of man the notice gave one an uncanny feeling. The river : ran close under the further slope of the' valley. Beside it tho railroad was, marked by_ the steam and rumblo of' many_ passing trains, day and night, carrying one way guns -and food and .ammunition to.the battlefield, and the other way tho wreckage, animate and . 'inanimate, from scenes of 'Jincessant strife. Beyond, the' valley rose in gentle slopes with woods and fields, in which _the_ old men and women were in tho harvest of peace. Behind the woods of the chateau I lay for tWlialf of one morning listeu- ■ ing, fascinated, to the continuous rum,ble of the guiis in a great bombardment. It was as tho beating of a. thousand drums without interval, but ..with, every minute or so, the louder ; boom. of some bigger instrument more fiercely beaten. It recalled a dav in \ Stevenson's houso at Vailima, when, after a hurricane, the sea was breaking with remorseless fury on the coral reef beyond the Vaisingano River. Doves were cooing softly in the wood. Butterflies, white, pale groen, and brown, were flitting about in the warm sun- : .shine. Overhead there came the dron-

ing noise of a flight of aeroplanes' fly- ■ ; ing very high up, and themselves looic'ing for all the world .' like white butterflies in tho clear sunlight. A reaper and binder at work in an ad-' jacont field made a similar droning noise, rising and falling on-the breeze, except for its more metallic rattle. All this "was buu the prelude to scenes and incidents of a strangely different character and battle musio with a more Wagnerian sound. Next day our troops marched out again, along the dusty roads toward the great contest. In the morning a cool breeze mademarching pleasant, and before the hour was far advanced the brigades had left tho greater number of tho fourteen miles they had to do behind them. For hours I watched them passing through a dip"in the Amiens-Albert road. From St. Gratien and Allonville, from Cardonette and Rainneville, from . Coisy and Doulanville, they niarched by diverso ways, trending all in the one direction—tho main artery leading to the - great battle that is raging in , Picardy. A brigade group, with its fouy battalions, its special sections, its 'A.S.C., and its Field Ambulance, takes an hour and twenty minutes to pass. Two_ of the brigades came past to tho musio of their bands and the skirl of the bagpipes. Another brigade has 110 hands, and that makes a great difference in the marcliing. New Zealanders have not yet tbo- . roughly acquired the strict discipline of the Toll to inarch, and there is a tendency to straggle over, the road, but this day the men marched very well, and seemed vory fit. Some niarched .better than others, but tho difference .was not so great as to warrant comparison. Some wero billeted, others had to bivouac, for the night, and it was rather a cold night, but young -welltrained troops take no harm from a cold night out of doors, and the experience serves to harden them for the sterner work that lies ahead. One would have .thought that after their long march .they would have been .glad to lie down and rest awhile, but they had '•no Booner reached their bivouacking ground than they crowded in lar<*e numbers on either sido of the broad road to become interested spectators of the stream of traffic. How manv I thousands of British feet have trod its hard metal? Many have come back tho v way they went in motor ambulances, ' and there are many who will never come back at all.

Their New Gamp. In the evening we wero established in. our new headquarters in a hollow in undulating country in the midst of a vast camp. • A line of thin-walled, tar's, paujin-roofed huts were used as offices.

There were similar mess huts, and the staff lived in otuer liuts and tents. But we were fifteen tents short. They had disappeared mysteriously with an outgoing division. It was probably a case of peaceful annexation. For some days now the guns had been thundering in one continuous cannonade. • There were several shots poi second,v so that in the great noiso you could scarcely distinguish tine report from another, except when some nearer or bigger gun broke in upon the general pulsation. A division was attacking High Wood,'and in. their first attack had- not succeeded. " No 011 a had any doubt that sooner or later the Germans would bo driven out of that strong point, just as one had seen them driven out of, Fricourt and Mametz and La Boiselle, and other strong points in the early days of tlio great advance. The best of the enemy's troops could not withstand tho "fury of such an attack driven home with the force of our tremendous artillery and the heroism and determination of our infantry.

In July all the ground now covered by this vast camp was green fields. Now it was mostly bare earth trodden •hard with hoof of horse and feet of many thousands of men. The traffic rumbled past continuously. Our planes flew overhead, and our captivo balloons swayed in the blue, straining at their steel ropes. Seldom did wc see an enemy plane or balloon. The mastery of the air remained with the British, firmly established since the first days of the great Battle of the Somme. In the darkness of' night the flashing of the guns added a. strange picturesqueJiess to the scene.