ENGINEERS ON THE SOMME

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3026, 13 March 1917, Page 9

ENGINEERS ON THE SOMME

HOW THEY "CARRIED ON."

IN THE LANE BETWEEN THE BARRAGES. (From Captain Malcolm lloss, War Correspondent with tho N .Z. Forces iu tho Field.) Northern France, January 6. So much timo has elapsed since wo left tho Sommo that I may now without indiscretion be allowed to give somo general account of how tlio Nov/ land Engineers worked there. Tho C.O. of our Engineers is an Englishman, or whoso work' and "many fino qualities displayed under the various fortunes and misfortunes of battle in Egypt, and in Turkey, and in France wo aro all proud. There aro other Englishmen I use the term in its broader sense— who havo been in tlio thick of it with tlio New Zealand Engineers, both on Gallipoli and on the Somme. It was towards the end' of Aucust that, the Field Companies of tho Now Zealand Engineers and the Pioneer Battalions entrhined and left the area of tlio corps under which we were to fight. The transport' of these units arrived by route march at the same timo. A _ bivouac camp was immediately established. No time was lost in getting to work on two trenches which wore an important defence switch. The weather was exceedingly wet and stormy, but fire bays were reclaimed, communications improved, and wiring dono. Deep dug-outs were developed. Some work was also done on one of tho main arterial roads —a road that was continually under repair. One' night a. party went out to develop communication trenches in Delvillo Wood. At this time the wood , was not wholly in our hands. Tlio ground was new, the weather bad, and tho shelling heavy. The work was therefore not only difficult but dangerous. But it had to be' done, and done it was. • The Student of Divinity. At ono timo tho enemy shelling was very heavy for twenty-four hours. Included in the hail of bursting metal were somo choico samples of tho. diabolical ens shells. Our men wero new to these. Later, wo got a little ,of our own back in this'matter of tho new warfare. As.may be. gathered from. Sir Douglas Haig's report,, if we have not out-Hunned the Hun wo have at least got level with him. Whether wo can keep paco is another question, but I havo seen on tlio Somme a rather quiet and studious EOjriX man'from one of tho 'Varsities—l fancy lie is a student of Divinity or Logic, or something of that kind—whoso -,telegraphic address is humorously printed on his cards as "Frightful." It-was a supreme .satisfaction to lis to wolcomo . him on tho Somme. AVe can't allow tlio enemy to ao oil hitting below the belt for ever. He has beo)>. allowed too long to indulge in these tactics, and tlio Neutral Referees have booh unable to stay his band in this as in other illegitimate directions.

By September 3 our Engineers had started on work specially connected with tho memorable attack of September 15, 011 the front' allotted to tho New Zealand Division. The Engineers concentrated on one ' communication trench, tho Pioneers on another. Thcv wero deoply dug, tlioy wero duek-board-od,' tlioy wero. decorated, .with nameboards so that : no one could miss tho way, and at every two hundred yards there was a runners' sholter. Frequently tlio worlc was fnferrupted by Gorman shell fire. Or.ce ono of oilr own "hows" foil short and-hit'tho'end of a duckboard a man was carrying. Tho hoard went up in the air in splinters, but-, strangely enough, the man was uninlured, thoueli' somewhat surprised. High explosives at times play s trail no tricks. This employment gavo our Engineers one of tlio .rare chances they have bad in this war of acting as field companies. Generallv thev havo been mixed up with working parties of infantry. The Trenches Completed. By September 14 tho two trendies were completed to the foremost line, and tlioy wort), tho envy of the officers Sf °~ , r "'Visions who. saw them. An Imglish colonel,. passing one day' re-marked,-"By J ovo! Your N.Z. Engineer's will do me." "AVliy?" queried a modest field company officer. "Why, those-trenches are the finest piece of work I'vo seen. I'll make it my business to let tho Army Commander know about them," said the colonel. But the boys themselves wero quite modest about it. Thoy never tallied about what they liaa done. They ducked for cover when the enemy started to-shell. Sometimes tliey cleared out altogether , r ,.. a little while. Then, when the shelling moderated, they went back to work. In later days, when tho Sommo battle progressed, .tlieso trenches saved many lives—both New Zealand and English. Once in them you were fairly Bafe from anything but a direct hit. But the Boclie paid them a good deal of attention, and tliero were times whon I myself havo picked up chunks of iron still hot, and have walked across the bodies of men killed in them but a few minutes beforo.

_By this time our infantry had readied tho Somme battlefield, and had got into the line. They marched up these ways, in the night time, and an English division came out, practically without loss. But, in addition to tho construction of theso communications, much other work was done as well. For a Brigade Headquarters, a deep dug-out was made in seven days. It Mas t'hiity feet long. It had three stepped entrances. It was sixteen font below tse surface of the ground. This work fell to. the Pioneers, assisted by a tunnelling company detachment. Roads also were repaired, assembly trenches dug. and dumps established and stocked. In the Great Push. Then came the big push on tho loth, when the New Zealand infantry swept on behind their own barrage, through the. bursting shells of opposing batteries, over line after lino of enemy trenches, and on beyond Flers. They could have continued their victorious march right on to Gueudccourt, but the.oxigencies of the military situation were such that they wero not allowed to push forward. The Engineers had orders to hold themselves in readiness to go out.in the early morning to make strong points in the first of the enemy's lines we hoped to capture. By one o'clock in the afternoon they were working in what had been the enemy's front iine, improving the battered trench, blocking the ends against probable bombers, and forming and wiring machine-gun emplacements with a wide zone of fire, at places well-selected beforehand by the Divisional Staff with the aid of maps and tho invaluable air photographs. Theso strong points were made in two nights. At times the barrage fire was very severe, and tho work done, for tho most' part necessarily in tho open, was trying and hazardous. In. constructing theso and other strong points subsequently both officers and men showed the greatest gallantry and determination. Our advance went on quickly and so far that tho first strong points constructed were never needed, anS evon tho first-constructed communication trenches fell largely into disuse. One was quite content to walk in I lie open to tho crest of tho ridgo, risking what shelling thero was, : beforo getting into tho tronches. All the samo it was necessary to take precaution to make tlieso strong points and communications

the expenso of somo toll in killed and wounded and gassed. In war you never know what may happen, and very often it is tlio unexpected that happens. Fortunatoly, in this instance, it was to tho Germans that tho unexpected happened. They never camo near their old lines again. Strenuous Work Under Fire. As tho operations progressed so did raio wont of tho Engineers. They made deep dug-outs for Brigade Headquarters and machino-gun crews, they fixed up a dressing-station and constructed aid posts at which the doctors and their men could work in somo degree of safety, they continued the communication trenches, dug assembly trenches, unproved accommodation for Battalion Headquarters and various signal stations, and did much road work. Most of these operations entailed crossing a barrago of artillery flro twice a day and working under heavy shell fire. The digging of the assembly trench was on© of tho toughest jobs. Li tho words of 0110 of'the officers, they had what he called "a. hairy time" there. It was "an awful swine of a placo." All this is soldior language that conveys a good deal to an expert, and loaves a to the imagination of the uninitiateu. Tlio men did not make very much of it. at tlio time, but looking back on it now it seoms a brilliant piece of worlc" very firavoly done. So far as my memory servos me, their worst timo was on the night of September 19. They wero in a shallow trench two feet wide. The enemy turned it on to them that night properly—shrapnel, high explosive, and everything he had. Ho was slinging the shells in in salvos, four at a. time. That night 14 of them wore laid low. Four were killed, outright. A sergeant camo out of. that little adventure with tlio Military Medal. He had rescued wounded under heavy fire. ."The poor old Sappers," remarked the C.R.E., "they don't get any awards until they get into a mess !" For hours officers and men had to lie flat in tho narrow, shallow, muddy trench. Major Barclay, v/ho the other day received tho Order givon by the King of Montenegro at tho hands of tho Corps Commandor. was blown into a. shell hole. Corpl. Fear, a fino follow, who earned tho D.C.M. on Gallipoli, was.killed by a .shell splinter. The four men who were killedl werelying flat in the trench. Their bodies wero not much knocked about. Others, more fortunate, had narrow escapes. Ashell burst right at tho feet of one sapper. He was blown. into the air, biit, though wounded in four places, he escaped what everyone who saw the incident thought must bo sudden death. But, for tlio number of shells that the Boclie put over that night, tho .result was really small. Tho enemy made one mistake. We shall not "tell him jti'st' yet what his mistake was. , - Betwoen Two Barrages. ■ The work in and about Flers and!; forward of that position was of themost strenuous and dangerous nature.. Officers and men walked to and f r oiu their work between two enemy , barrages in the night-time. To a casual observer this seomed like courting death. But, the.two barrages wero no* joined up. An officer had' worked the whole thing out. He had' noticed the lane, and noted., the fact that it crntinued. Tho two barrages van obliquely and were not joined up.- Ho even had compass bearings of the lane to take. Walking along this lane in the darkness with tho thunder of tlio guns in thoir cars audi tho. flashing of the bursting shells. in thoir eyes tho men went as darkness descended, worked all" night, and returned ore it was yet dawn. .The lane was about a hundred yards wido. By keeping in tho middle of it they had fifty yards to sparo on oithor sido of tho bursting shells. It was 'pedestrian exerciso of an exciting kind, and when some Gorman guuner had not looked too well to his sights and an occasional shell burst a httlo forward of one barrago or a little short of the other, oven tlioso Who kept well in the midldlo of tho lano had little reason to complain of any hick of ihcentivo to hasten their stops. And yet thoso men wont forward as coolly as if tlioy were walking down Bond kl'-cct or crossing Piccadilly. I know of one shell that so burst within nino feot of a group of these men who, so to speak, wero "going home with the milk." But it burst straight up and not a man was hit. In any caso, they were too dog tired to take much notice of it.' They scarcely halted a second in tlicir slow stride, and emerged safely-through the smoko of it with various laconic remarks that heed not be repeated here. The Water-Finders. As soon as ih.o English and tlio' New Zealanders had taken I'Ucrs villago tho Engineers sent forward ono-of their bravest officers, whom wo shall refer to as Lieutenant X. He was asked to see what could bo dono with the oxisting water supply, and to report generally on tho water problem. A medical officer also inado an expedition into Flers, and with remarkable- promptness tho supply was tested and'reported good. This was a perfect God-send to our troops. Tho lieutenant continued his good work, making reconnaissances in broad daylight in spite of the shelling. Ho found well after well. And at night he would go out again with working parties clearing and developing tho wells and fitting' them up with windand buckets. The shelling at this timo was sufficient, as ono of the men said, to make your hair stand on end. But the work was of very great value to our forward troops, and also to some of the English troops on our right. Lieutenant X, in spite of his daring, camo through it all without a soratcli. Ho certainly deserved his luck. Meanwhilo about half tho Engineers were employed in somo extremely useful work behind the linos. The lieutenant, with liis men, made a dressing station near Longuoval. Even hero tho working parties were under shell fire. Wliile engaged in this work he had four of his men killed and wounded with one shell. Other parties did great work improving communications and transport facilities. This work continued till tho division left the Somme. Important road work also was done behind the lilies by the New Zealand Engineers.