NEW ZEALANDERS IN BELGIUM

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 158, 23 March 1918, Page 12

NEW ZEALANDERS IN BELGIUM

[ARTILLERY AMONG THE SAND-DUNES ON HISTORIC GROUND (l'rom Malcolm Ross, War Correspondent with the N.Z. Forces in the Field.) \ N.Z, Headquarters, January 9. The artillery of a division is not necessarily all tho timo with the division to which it belongs. Not infrequentta it goes into a fight before its division, aud sometimes it stays in the fight for soinc timo after tho division has been relieved. Sometimes, to suit tho exigencies of an occasion, a part of it may lind itself for a considerable period on a sector far removed from its infantry. At the time it may be advisable that tho enemy should not know of such movements. Hence the dolay in writing this article.

Months have elapsed now since a brigado of New Zealand artillery trekked ljorth towards the dunes at Nieuport. 'It was after tho, Lombartzydd affair, when the Germans, making a sudden attack along the boacli, pushed some of tlio British troops back across the Yser, and mado prisoners of a. number of the Australian Tunnellers wlio were working in that region. Along the Belgian coast In this place one came into a most interesting part of tho battlefront. One went via La Panne. La Panne, built as a summer seaside resort right on the dunes, with its fronting a shelving beach and a shallow sea, was then untouched, or almost untouched, by shell or bomb. It was - a long, straggling, picturesque town, and still housed a considerable civilian population. _ Once string bands played in the cafes in the evenings, and, on sunny day v s, the "plage" was a promenade for soldier and civilian, and well-dressed Belgian, French, and English women. Some of the English had been living there since the beginning of the war. A. Belgian military hospital, staffed by 'the handsome Belgian _ nurses in their equally handsome uniforms, was there, and soldiers from the three nations passed through its wards. Farther north, along the coast, were other seaside resorts, set down in the midst of tho waving marram grass of the dunes, the houses greatly shattered by the German shellfire. La Panne, with its bathers—men and women—reminded you of the pro-war days, when peaco and plenty reigned along this coast. The Belgian soldiers gathered in groups _ and rings on the sands, playing with_ great zest and jollity, their interesting games that were new to us British folk. They were a merry crowd with an effervescent and almost juvenile hilarity seldom to be found in tho _ Anglo-Saxon. Later, came an invasion of British soldiers, tho beach was thronged with thousands of bathers, and the Germans in their high-flying 'planes saw the new invasions The kilted bandsmen of Highland regiments played their wild tunes, and _the_ Belgians looked and listened in admiration, tinged, perhaps, with somo amusement. Amidst the throng in the main street • and along tho "plage" and in tho cafes you marked the tall New Zealanders with their high-point-ed crowned hats and the artillery pugaree.

Coxydo los Bains and Nieuport les Bains, tho latter especially, in picturesque ruin, were on the seashore. As you went northward you camo into the midst of the sights and sounds of war. That morning an English airman had landed on the beach with his observer dead in the fuselage behind him. They took the body out, covered with the man's tunic ana carried it a Way on a stretcher to the 'Belgian Hospital. The pilot set his propeller going ag.v'n, climbed into Jiis seat, and, rising from tbo sands, flew along tho seashore, and then inland to tell his story at the .aerodrome. The Germans were t crumping tho road along which we went with fivenines, which burst with groat noise and clouds of smoke and sand. We made a slight detour across the dunes behind this shelling, scraps of iron from the* bursting shells falling about us as we went. It was interesting to note the effect of the. shelling on the sands. In tho soft Flanders mud that we were so used to the shells buried themselves in the ground beforo exploding, aud the effect was somewhat local. But here the shell burst the moment- it hit the sand, making' scarcely any crater, and sending its splinters flying over a wide area. Shell-fire in such conditions may be much more destructive than in the inland war zone.

By strange ivn.ys that must not bo described we made our way right up to the Yser, near where the mole ran out to sea, and amongst the beams of ivliicli the German Bnipers secreted themselves to fire on any unwary soldiers who had the temerity to walk along the beach. Lombartzyde, once on tho sea boach, and, farther inland, Nieuport, lay close at hand in front of lis, and, at the risk of a crack from a German sniper,, you got a good view at close quarters of the enemy £(iu\s. The ;great, f.TvelliJ.ig Muncs rise to heights of about a hundred feet. It is historic ground. As far back as the ninth century, the Flemish counts had erected here a castle to protect themselves against tho Normans. In 1480 there was fighting with the French, and in 1600 the historic "Battle of the Dunes," in which tho Dutch led by Maurice of Orange defeated the Spaniards under the Archduke Albert. And now the sceno of old battles has become the scene of new, and much good blood has been spilt, and many deaths caused, even without the spilling of blood, because of German military inventiveness. It was here that one of the early efforts with a particularly venomous kiud of gas was made by the modern disciples of'kultur. It was into this country, not far from here, just after the Lombartzyde reverse, and practically on tho three hundred and SBveiiteßnfch anniversary of "lhe Battle of tho Dulles/' 1 that the New Zealanders came and planted their guns. The batteries found themselves on virgin ground, and had to build their own gun-pits. Some of them found themselves in a veritable bog, whore the water was close to the surface, and each shell-hole soon filled with water. Others, more fortunate, were on the edge of the sand hills, and so had drier ground. The brigade was under the command of ono of our old Gailipoli officers, who did memorable shooting at a critical time at pointblank range in the night time on tho Turkish trenches that were so closo to our own at Quinn's Post. in this new scctor there was much work to do, and at first the German gunners gave them a warm time, with big stuff. Five-point-nines camo over at frequent intervals, and then tho enemy went on to deal in eight-inch and even eleven-inch calibres. They also had expcricnco of a fifteen-inch yun, with which the enoiny also shelled Dnnkerque, fourteen miles behind the Now Zealanders, in French territory. Night and day the enemy deluged this aroft with harassing fire. He used a delay-action fuse to destroy dugouts and gun-pits. One day he put in 250- fivc-point-nine' shells, 'and wound up tho performance with a couple of dozen eleven-ineherß, one of» which wrecked an officers' mess, and everything about it. Though there were officers in the adjoining dug-outs fortunately there were no casualties from this shell. But it's hard luck to ha.vo your i mess blown up. ' Some of tho batteries were knocke'd out, but tho Now Zealanders were rather lucky, with their men, and dur- 1

ing the months they were there tho casualties—including thoso of four English battorios that wero with our brigade—wero not heavy, especially when one considered tho fact that the shells, fitted with an instantaneous luso, detonated extremely well in the sand, leaving practically 110 crater and sonding tho fragments living over a very ividc area. Exactly what damage tho New Zealanders inflicted on tlio enemy it is impossible for me to say, but there can be no doubt that it was not light.

At one period the New Zealanders had three days of thunderstorms, which flooded the flats and the gun-pits, but the Eunnors remained cheery and worked the guns with their boots on and their nether garments off. This was no doubt not quite according to the book, but it was thought better to keep the clothing dry.

During the time they were in this sector the Now Zealand Artillery gained 'one D.5.0., two military crosses, and about a dozen military medals, so it may be judged that they bad some serious work to do, and that their services were appreciated.