SUMMER CAMPAIGNING

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 6, 2 October 1917, Page 8

SUMMER CAMPAIGNING

i ON THE FRINGE OF THE FLANDERS , ' BATTLE i NEW ZEALANDERS IN ACTION ' (From. Captain Malcolm Ross, New Zea- ' land Official War Correspondent.) Divisional Headquarters, August 2. After the Mcssines battle the New Zea- . landers camo out of the lino for a brief rest. They then took up position in another sector south of Jlcssines. Meantime the artillery on both sides remained active,.our Field Artillery doing effective work on the German front, while our heavies fired on positions east of the River Lys. As the northern offensive Ixjgan to develop so the enemy airmon became bolder. In flights of varying numbers they, frequently flew over our lines, firing their macnine-guns into our trenches. On such occasions a man can only lie flat in the trench, imitating a sandbag, or shamming dead. There v.as also a good deal of night flying, the enemy endeavouring to bomb towns and villages in the rear. Once he hit a casualty clearing station, killing and wcunding some of the personnel, and a ffew of the patients. The bombs burst -with loud explosions, and the windows of billets rattled with the shock, while the houses themselves were shaken. Our 'planes returned the compliment. Further ni.rth wo obtained the mastery, and, though tho enemy increased his aerodromes a],d got up large numbers 'of his best fliers, he was no match for our intrepid pilots. Indeed, we brought down his 'plaues and balloons in considerable/numbers. His balloons, which are of three kinds, the largest holding a thousand cubic metres of gas, aided his observation on the New Zealand sector. One balloon was always on the ground in reserve. They were worked by means of electric winding gear. Daily we were witnesses of thrilling fights in the air, and many thousands of rounds were fired by. the anti-aircraft batteries of either side. Every now and then a shell that had not burst into fragments would come. Trailing down through the air. One such shell from ono of our own guns fell on a house in a village in our area. It crashed through the I roof, through the centre of a table around which a French family was gathered at breakfast; and after piercing a slate floor, ended its career in a cellar. The crockery and the table were smashed, •and an elderly woman was r 'ightly wounded, but otherwise it did no damage. The Flying Men. Often our anti-aircraft guns put across the sky a barrage that turned the German 'planes back 1 to their own lines. The enemy aircraft were most active early in the morning and between 5 p.m. (summer time) and dusk. Usually on the approach of our machines they turned' and flew back across their own lines, returning only after our machines had b°ne away. Sometimes they appeared in large formations.. Generally they refused combat unless in' superior force. At times .we 6a.w balloons on either side brought down in flames, and the occu- : pants making their descents in parachutes, which, catching the light airs of a summer afternoon, drifted very slowly at an angle to tho safety-.of firm earth. It "was quite evident that the work of ballooning was becoming more arduous and a little more, exciting. Onco some Boche 'planes got three of our balloons ,in succession, and as the balloons blazed and fell, leaving a long trail of smoke in the sky, we watched no fewer than ten observers gracefully- descending by means of their parachutes. But always as one balloon was brought down there was another ready to take its place. The German was never quite a match for the British. On occasions we would hear the scream and the burst of a fifteen centimetre, high-velocity shell in tho air, and. looking skyward, would see the smolco of the explosion three thousand feet' np near ■ the balloon. The Boche gunners seemed to. amuse themselves a good deal with this sport, and they nmused us too, but it. was only on th'o rarest occasions;.that <*iev 'scored a hit by this 6omewliat exDensivo method. A balloon in one locality -was their particular bete noir. Ximo after time tho ballon in that position was hunted down by the German, but. with true British persistence, it is still there or thereabouts to-day. By the look of things, if the war goes on long enough, nnd if the line does not shift—which Heaven forbid—that balloon will be there till the end. of time!, Other Observers. In this flat .Flanders' country, where the war is now raging most furiously, the 'planes and the balloons aro the eyes of the armies. On the 'planes, in particular, we depend. And it it satisfactory to be able to state that in all ! onr great offensives now, before the actual attack, the British have succeeded to-a marfee<l degree in blinding the eyes of the enemy. While making these statements, one should not overlook the fact that our gallant infantry have eyes nnd ears, and that they use them to some purpose, too. The proverbial cat matching a 'mowe is' not in it with a New Zenlard infantryman watching the Hun! With periscope and telescope and binocular, our men keep constant watch '«• day. By. niffht'-ti'e patrols in No Man's Land strain their eyes to see and their ears to hear what the enemy may he doing. A man. is seen goinsr out from a farm at . Th» incident is duly noted and recorded. Workinsr parties are seen going along a certain trench, transport alontr a certain Toad. k sniper's head is shot at, and he is "seen to fall." The hammering in of stakes; the sonnd nf metal upon, metal; the rattle of moving bricks is heard. These, the little sounds of war, are noted whilo the thunder of the pr inlg ; g taken as n. mntter of course. They may mean little, but often ther may mean much. Tn such a war as this you must take note of everything. . The Guns. , The shooting of our artillery, both in regard to volume and accuracy, continnes to excite the admiration' of our infantry, while for many a long day now it has been the envy of the German armies in the field. In the titanic contest up here in the north the enemy has improved -upon what lie did on the Sqmmo and at Arras and Messines, but tlie weight of metal and the palm in shooting still rest with the British and the. French. On the particular sector of the battlefield in which the New Zealand Force is operating, however, the Cferman gunners have not been idle. Throughout July ho has continuously shelled our front line and supports, while at the same time he has devoted more than usual attention to our back area, attempting to stop tho traffic on our roads, nnd to knock out our guns. Mixed with his ordinary high explosives and shrapnel, he has used thousands of gas shells, but wo know now pretty well how-to deal with these. In the shelling of towns, both near the lines and far bfiiind, ho occasionally claims a considerable number of civilian victims. At Poperinghe. a nun in the hospital there Tiad both legs blown off, and died. In a littlo village near where I now am the priest and several of his congregation were killed. But the most pitiable exploit was the gas shelling of Armcntieis, during which civilians—men, women, and littlo children—were killed. Many of them died in our military hospitals, to which they had to be taken for treatment. From a military point of view the enemy may be justified in such shelling. He has taken-, the war into other countries, where the'innocent must suffer. His own villages are free from such diabolical experiences. Tho sight of women and littlo boys and girls, some of them almost babies, suffering from shell wounds, is pitiable in tho extreme.

Of the results of our own shelling we hear a good deal from German prisoners, and. wo ourselves see-a great deal of its effect. On July 26 in the course of one afternoon's shelling three of the enemy's ammunition dumps behind the Warneton line Mere blown up. From day to day others went up in the same manner. On that line our shelling drove him out of his comfortable billets in the Belgian farmhouses, and he has since then lad to live uncomfortably in shell holes. Over these holes he has made rough shelter .with corrugated iron from tho roofs of some of his own hutments destroyed by

oar sbolling. Oil top of the iron be has put earth and grass and thistles, and green boughs, to that the eyes of our army might not note tlio habitation. The only entrance is an aperture at the back just big enough for a man to ciawl through. Existence in these shell holes day and night is said to bo very trying, and tho inhabitants always run the risk of being buried in their own homes. In his back areas the enemy has to endure a much more galling fire than ho tieats us to. In one village in three days a single German company had eight men killed and sixteen wounded. Prisoners still speak of the terrible effect cf our shelling in the Battle of Messines. So many of tlieir batteries were knocked out that tho Bavarians blamed the Faxons for betraying their positions. At the snme time the German infantry complain bitterly of their own artillery shooting short. This has caused many casualties in their ranks. We cannot claim ei-tire immunity from this feature of mudovn warfare, but generally one hears from our own men only unbounded praise of our artillery, however much they may curse that of the enemy. In tho Battle of Messines the German infantry declared that their own artillery was inadequate, owing to the destructive nature of our counter-battery work, and certainly tie .fenemy's reply on tho morning cf the battle, and for a day or two afterwards, left much to be desired. Either !.e was somewhat short of guns or of 'lmmunition. In the present battle ho has made a much better showing with his artillery, though it is still not nearly the equal of that, of the Allies. Finally, a word must bo said in praise. of our trench-mortar batteries. The personnel, and the moral of the Now Zealand trench-mortar batteries from their inception has been splendid, and officers and men have done magnificent work.