NEW ZEALANDERS AT FLERS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2938, 25 November 1916, Page 3

NEW ZEALANDERS AT FLERS

THRILLING STORY OF GALLANT ATTACK " THEY PUT THEIR TRUST IN COLD STEEL" . (By Philip Gibbs, in "Tlio Daily Chronicle.") lb was inevitable that after the great battle of September 15 our line should have ragged edges., and run up or down into smalt salients. This was duo to the greater progress mado by different bodies_ of troops and to the way in which isolated groups of Germans held on very stubbornly to these stretches of ground not in the general line of ojir advance. During the past forty-eight liours a good deal has been done to' clear out these pockets or wedges, and to straighten out the line from Courcoletto eastwards. This morning our troops did a useful hit of work > in such _ a place between Courcelette and Mai'tinpuich, knocking out a strong' posTi and taking some prisoners, with whom were two officers. Elsowfiere strong posts thrust out by us heyontf tTio main trenches have been linked up, so that tho line now /runs in a reasonably even way from the. north of Courceletto across the Bapaume road above Martinpuich, andso on to the north of Piers. This linking up and clearing up work, now done to a great extent, puts us in a stronger position of defence to hold what we have gained against any attempts made hy the enemy in counterattack. Ho lias made many attempts since September 15 to drive our troops out of tho high ground, which is vital to his means of observation, and tho failure of them has cost him a great price in life. Among the most desperate thrusts pressed with stubborn bravery by bodies of German soldiers, collected hastily and flung with but little plan or preliminary organisation against our lines, were trioso, directed upon .the New Zealauders, who repelled them after hard and long conflicts fought out for the most part with naked steel. In all the fighting sinco July 1 there lias not been anything more fierce or more bloody than these hand-to-hand struggles onthe left of Flers, and the Now Zealanders liavo gained a greater name for themselves (it was already a great name sinco Gallipoli) as soldiers who hate to give up 'what they liave "gained, who will .hold on to ground with a grim obstinacy against heavy odds, and if they are ordered to retreat because of the .• military situatioii round them, conio back again with a stem resolve to / "get tho goods." • That is not only my reading of the men, and I do not pretend to Know them well, but is the, summing up of an officer not from their own country who has seen tliem fight during these .last few days, who spoke of tliem with a thrill of admiration in Ins voice after watching the stoicism with which they endured great shell ■hre the spirit with which they attacked after great-fatigues. and hardships, and the rally of men discouraged for a while fy their loss of officers which swept the Germans back into panic-stricken flight. , . The First Assault. This struggle covers a week's fighting since September 15, when at dawn the New Zealanders advanced in waves to a series of positions which would hring them up to the left of Tiers, if they had the luck to get as far. On their "ght were the troops whose capture or Flers I have already' described, and ..on. their left o-her-troops attacking High Wood and the ground north of it. The men of New-Zealand with, hardly a- check ■ to the German switch trench 500 yards fiom the starting line. ■ Thfey were men Auckland, Canterbury, Otago, and Wellington, and they put their trust in the bayonet andl desired to get close to their enemy. They had their desire. In tile switch trench the Germans defended themselves to the last gasp, and as far as I can' make out only four of them were left alive after that frightful encounter. It was a fight to the d'eath' on both sides, and the New Zealanders did not cross that ditch at full strength. On the way up they lost under shrapnel and machine-gun fire. On the other side of the ditch" their lines were thinner. But they were on the other side, arid the ditch behind them was a grave upon which they turned their backs to get across tho next stretch of ground to trenches 800 yards ahead. c The New Zealand Rifles covered this' ground quickly, moving in open order but keeping in touch with each other by- fine discipline and an esprit de corps which is better than discipline. That next system of trench work, two lines heavily wired and deeply dug part of the famous Flers link, was a great obstacle. Our gun_ fire, grand as it had been, had not laid all the wiro low nor destroyed ■ the trenches. A swish of machine-gun bullets showed that the enemy was alive and savage. An infantry assault on such a line had to be paid for sometimes by great numbers of dead and "wounded. But it was the day of tho Tanks. 'LVo of tliem had! tried to keep pace with the New Zealand attack, but had lagged behind, the short-winded creatures suffering from stitch—and no wonder, looking at the shell craters and pits across which they had to bring their long bodies) crawling in and crawling out with their tails above their heads and their heads above their tails. But they arrived in time to attack the Flers line, arid in a very deliberate and stolid way they sidled along the barbed wire, smashing it into the earth before poking their big snouts over the German parapets, hauling themselves up and firing from both their flanks upon tho German machine-gun teams. A Hazardous Position. Witli this noteworthy help, which saved time and trouble and life, the New Zealanders took the doublo trenches of the Flers line and again pushed on another 700 yards across a sunken road with steep banks and very deep dug-outs, where the enemy -Jdid not stay to meet them. Until they had established themselves on a lino running westwards from the top of Flers village, now in tho hands ol our English lads, one of the followed tliem, getting down the.stoop bank with its nose to earth and lumbering up tho other side like a huge elephant (without a trunk). A German battery 1500 yards away; searched for it with shell fire, but did not get within hitting. distance of its armoured skin. Eventually it was tho German battery that was knocked out by our guns. However, this was a sido show, and tho Tallies must not take all tho glory away from the infantry, who had not armoured skins, alas! and who were facing murderous fire elsewhere. Tlioy had been ordered to swing left to make a flanking front up the edge of a valley running north-west of Flers, right away beyond tho village. And this they did most gallantly, although at the timo they stuck out liko a thin wedge into German territory, bccauso at that time they had no support on their left (our English fellows, as I have described in an earlier dispatch, had been having a fearful timo'in and beyond High Wood), and 'on tho right the other English 'troops were busy with the capture of Flers. It was clearly and undeniably a hazardous position for tho New Zealanders all alono out there, and they were ordered to fall back to tho lino going straight westwards from the top of Flers Village, which they. . helped to

hold on tho night of the 15th to 16th. From that day onwards ( the enemy made counter-attacks. Sometimes they were in feeble strength and scattered quickly, but'- they grew in intensity and numbers as the days passed, while the New ; Zealandcrs were still in a rather precarious position, "a rocky position," says one of their officers, owing to the weakness on their loft flank. Right down on that bank Germans were still holding out in shellcraters with a way" open .behind them, so that supports might come down to drive a wedge between. the New Zealanders arid the English troops north of High Wood. This, was attempted by something' like a brigade of Germans, who advanced in six or seven waves upon the English soldiers—who were outnumbered by more than two to one —in a steady, determined way. .They were met out in tho open with tho bayonet. Man Against Man. It was the old way of fighting, men meeting men, staring into each other's eyes, trusting to their own strength and skill with sharp steel, and not to engines of war with high explosives or quick-firing guns. If men', fight it is the best w'ay, though not pleasant and agreeable for ladies to watch from silken canopies, as in the old days of tho tourney, when gentlemen hacked at each other with axes just for fun. A New' Zealand officer watchedi. it from' a little distance, and his breath came quick when lie described it to mo. The German ranks were broken, and the remnant fled. But it-was not so long or so bloody a..fight as ; what the New Zealariders themselves .had to encounter three days ago. Tlie enemy struck a blow against tho New Zealand troops at the joining point between these men and their comrades on tho left, who had come up to the west of Flers. The New Zealanders —who were. Canterbury men—were beaten back twice, and twico regained the giound. All through the night of September. 20 until . the dawn of the 21st there was violent bomb-fighting and bayonet fighting. There was no, straight line of men, British on one side. German on the other. It was a confused mass; isolated bodies of men struggling around shell craters and bits of trench', single figures fighting twos and threes, groups joining to form lines which; surged backwards arid forwards, andr a night horrible with the crash of bombs and the cries of the-dying. One New Zealand officer, a very splendid, heroic man, was the life and soul of this defence and' counter-attack. There were moments when some of his men were disheartened because their line had fallen hacli; "and the number of their wounded lay too thick about them. He put new fireV into them hy the flame of his own spirit. He led them forward again, rallying the gloomy ones, so careless of his own life, so eager for the honour of New Zealand, that they followed him under a kind of spell because of the magic in liim. They thrust back the enemy, put him to flight down, the valley,' remained - masters of the ground when the dawn -Brightened into the full light of day, revealing the carnage that had been hidden in the night. It'"was not the end! of the fighting here. In the afternoon the enemy came again in strong numbers sent forward by their High Command, men at the end of far to retake the ground and ordering new assaults which were sentences of death to German soldiers, not at the end of fay telephones, but very near to British bayonets. They came on thickly, these doomed men, shoulder to shoulder, and it -was again tho captain of the Canterburys 'who led his men against them in a great bayonet charge right across, the open. It was bayonet against bayonet, for the Germans stood to receive tho charge, though with blanched faces. For tho New Zealanders came upon them at the trot, and they_ sprang forward with bayonets as quick- as knitting-needles. Germans Routed. The Germans cried out in terror. Down the hillside beyond those who could escape ran and fell as they ran. It was a rout, and the end of the counter-attack. : The New Zealanders were now sure of themselves. They knew thai with the bayonet they can meet the Germans as their masters. So 'scornful are they of their bayonet fighting that they have it in their hearts to pity them, and 6ay, "poor devils." To my mind, and to others, the finest heroism was shown by the -New Zealand stretcher-bearers. They did not charge with the bayonet. All their duty was to go out across open country in cool blood to pick up men lying there in blood that was not cool unless they had lain there too long. They had to go through salvos of 5.9'5, which tore up the ground about them, and' buried them and mangled many of them. And they went quite steadily and quietly,- not once or twice,' but hour after hour until more than 60 of them had fallenj' and hour after hour they carried out their work of rescue quite careless of themselves. • "I am not a sentimentalist," said a New Zealand officer to-day as he looked at me with grave eyes, remembering those scenes, "but the work of those inen seemed to ma very noble and good." Iu New Zealand, and in the quiet farmsteads there those words will be read gladly, I think. And if any words of mine could give a little extra share of honour to these colonial boys, who have come so far overseas to fight by tlio side of British soldiers, I should be glad, and proud,_ too, having a heart very full of admiration for the valour of these men, who have fought in these great battles as well as'any troops who shared the day with them.