ON THE EDGE OF THE GREAT BATTLE

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 30, 30 October 1917, Page 5

ON THE EDGE OF THE GREAT BATTLE

NEW ZEALANDERS AT LA BASSE VILLE

hand-to-hand fighting

(From Malcolm Boss, War Correspondent with the N.Z. Forces in the Held.) • r,Ti , August 5. {he story of the'capture of La Basso A ale by the New Zealanders is worth telling in detail, for though the forces engaged were not very numerous there .was some bitter fighting, and deeds of heroism that redound to tiio credit of .the junior,offioere, n.0.0.'a, and men were iperformcd with the same disregard of ffroat danger that has been a characteristic of the majority of our mon in all the battles and trenoh fighting in whioh tlioy have taken part.- In front of the new position taken up by tha Force, to tho south of Messlnes, on low land, only some sixty or seventy feot above 6ca> level, lay the ruins of the little Tillage. It. had. probably, three years ago, housed the workers and their families who were mainly employed at the .sugar refinery that had become a strong point in the Gerpan defences. In front of the village,'going northwards, ran the old Armentieres-Menin siugle' line railway, and just front of. that again' the Quesnoy-Wervicq Road, whioh out through the town of Warneton. Not many yards beyond that the winding Lys meandered through tho fertile Flanders lands, with their 'avenues and clumps of beautiful tree?.

A New Warfare. It seemed as if we were at last getting away-'from the stalemate of .absolute trench wnrfare. On this front neither army had now any continuous line of trenches in their forward' positions. Posts were established in shell-holes,, broken buildings, hedgerows. Tho men lolding;tho front lived uncomfortably in the. open. . There .were, affairs, between patrols, mostly in the fields. There was ■ scope for initiative and daring;. Day and night the positions were heavily shelled by guns of- various calibros. Gas shells were mixed with high explosive shells. The macliine-guns in. the night watches' searched for victims in the Any-Man's-Land that, for the, time being, had taken the placo of No-Man's-Land. The fertile fields were pitted with ehell holes and cumbered with, broken wire.- Tho first real defonces of. the Gormans .were behind the railway. Behind that again was the barrier of the Lys, with , its broken bridges purposely destroyed by the -enemy to bar our further progress. When tho enemy wished to come, our ■way ho came in the night, crossing- in boats. . In one or , two places ho -had precarious floating, 'bridges, built of timbers' lashed to barrels with rope. In the southern ond of our sector we had 'driven the enomy, right across the Lys. Farther to the north ho still held positions on our sido of. the river.

• By day, in his camouflaged shell-holes, he lay doggo. "No man mar'show himself by day." So ran a German order. By night the plucky, patrols crept out, shooting at each, other in the moonlight on occasions when they met. There was always danger that they might be cut off,and captured by a superior force, that they might be wiped , out atlogether. Flares that lit the landscape blazed in tho sky at uncertain intervals, mayjng the men lie motionless, wishing that they could shrivel to the size of mice, feeling that they were the size of elephants! At times the enemy would send up his red rockets that burst into two red halls of light, ■or fire arooket that showered a golden Tain—evidently signs for his artillery to fire. Sliells of various calibres, gas shells, _ and gas bombs came screeching and whistling into our front, support, andi subsidiary lines. On occasions our own S.O.S. would climb the void, and our own artillery would reply vigorously, staving off counter-at-tack and silencing, or least modifying, the enemy barrage. The enemy had other pyrotechnics at hand, amongst them yellow flares that burst.in yellow stars. His planes flew as low as 100 ft. Often, however, they came- to grief. Sometimes they flew over our lines and dropped n long streamer of the German' colours to' lho end of which was sewn a weighted cloth envelope. And. in the envelope wouTd be a list of our air casualties and prisoners, neatly printed, within a black border. Our airmen did the like by, him, for the airmen on both sides are sports. They are out to kill or capture, but not to hate. This sporting, spirit of the air services is one of the pleasant features of the war. Once some, prisoners told us that Baron Riehihofen, one of their fninous fliers, ' had been shot down with, two bullet wounds in his head, by an English aviator, hut that he had landed iii a field, .and had taken to a hospital. In this Any-Man's-Lcnd there was, naturally, much sniping. , .

DUIJIIUg. , Flame-Throwers. In one local attack the,enemy used his flamnienwerfer, manned by men. from the Divisional Sturmtrnpp. Some men in one of our posts suddenly saw a brilliant light flashing in front of them. A stream of fire shot out. They just had hme -to get away before the burning liquid fell. They were dazzled bv the flame, which appeared to be sprayed along the trench, and they could not see anything behind it. But iust before the flame was directed at them they say two Germans, who threw bomb's irl T, ev refalintetl with grenades. Inenthe Germans threw smoke bombs and immediately the flame burst forth a " 15tanc e of twelve or fourteen yards. But our men came back and reoocupied the post. They found it blackened on the sides and bottom for a distance of about forty yards bv a tarrv substance.

La Basse Ville—The First Fight. Tho first attack on La Bassee -Villo was made on the night of July 27 by men of a Wellington regiment. 'Not many men were employed. The attack a.m., under Qover of an ai cillery barrage. There had been, several previous bombardments, so that when this one commenced the enemy did not anticipate an attack, and was taken by surprise. Onco Tonsed/the Germans fought: stubbornly, but they were driven from the village, and the New Zealanders established four advanced posts on the outskirts of the broken houses. The enemy, however, suddenly counter-at-tacked with reserves that had been in hiding in the "Warneton cellars, and our men were driven back fighting gallantly all the time. The enemy was enabled l to advance under cover of hedgerows, clumps of trees, and scattered building? the low visibility that prevailed at the time preventing our s.o.g. being seen by the observers. Though our own men did not cet back without casualties, they ajso inflicted severe casualties on tho anc * some prisoners from the 23th Regiment of the 16th Bavarian Division.

R I 0)™ 0 J >raT< r deeds were done in this tight. A private belonging to one of the machine-gun sections, when all with him were knocked out, fought 1113 Lewis gun awmst a party of between fiortv and fifty oncoming Germans until, they got within bombing distance of him. Bv this time his gun was disabled, but ho managed to retire and brought, the disabled gill) back with him. Another man fought his Lewis gun till the last drum was emptied. I no Germans in the ruing of the sugar refinery were firing a ma-chine-gun on our men, and a private, when nil the men iu I he machine-gun crew with him -wero killed, attacked, single-handed, the enemy machine-gun killing them all with his gun and thfr bombs he had available. In (ho cellars of tho ruined buildings" in the little village some Germans sought shelter, but a New Zealand corporal led several bombing attacks against them, and. with sheer dash and bravery manneed to capture fourteen prisoner's! Somo of our men, though wounded, carried on as long as possible. On the night of .Tuly 28, at !M0 p.m., a heavy Itarrage fell 011 and behind one of our posts, which was attacked by about sixty of. the enemy, who were, however, dispersed by rille and machine-gun fire. At about halfpast ten a. patrol of fifteen were seen coming down a track, and on being fired on by lho New Kcalanders the.v lied, laving eight killed. These men belong'Bavarian regiment, and woro of e fine type. They carried neither bayonets nor equipment, but each man had a rifle, and in his pocket twenty rounds •>f small arms ammunition. The two (f-nf men carried stick bombs. The German main defences against

this attaok were behind tho railway. We learnt subsequently that our barrage had struck the-enemy .very heavily at one point. One company had no fewer than forty casualties, mostly killed. A company commander was killed by their own artillery shooting short. Their counter-attaok was launched with two companies fi;oni tho reserve battalion. Their attaok on the night of tho iiSth was mode by regimontal Btunustrupp, with the objeot of improving the main position by pushing their outposts further forward. It did not succeed, and the casualtiis were severe. , Generally, their orders wore to hold the fronh position, and to counter-attack if they were driven back. This they did, and for a time, succeeded, but the Now Zealanders came at them again, won tho village, and held it against all further attacks. How this was accomplished must be told in another, article. ' ' '