NEW ZEALANDERS IN THE BATTLE

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 218, 3 June 1918, Page 6

NEW ZEALANDERS IN THE BATTLE

QUICK MOVES AND STRENUOUS MARCHING EFFECTIVE WORK ON THE SOMME INCIDENTS IN OPEN WARFARE

(From Captain Malcolm Bos 3, with the New Zealand Forces in the Field.) No. 1.

March 31. It is now no secret that at one stage of the great German onslaught on iho British Armies along a sixty-mile front there were critical days and situations in certain sectors that gave cause for anxiety. The New Zealanders arrived in the nick of time to stem the tide that might have poured through a threatened breach in the line. 1 purpose in tins article to tell, so far a.s it may now bo told, the story of their advent'upon llio scene, and the gallant manner in which they not only held the enemy at bay, but also drove him back from "a vantage paint that he held along a limited sector W the line they had established. On the day that the Germans launched their vast offensive the New Zealanders were out of the line. They were receiving instruction &t one of the military schools and practising manoeuvres in open, pleasant country well behind the line. In the afternoon word came through that they were to be ready to move at short notice. . In two days the brigades were entraining. Everyone was keen to get away, and the news that we were going fionth to take our part m the great battle was received by one Canterbury battalion with cheering.

En Route. For some days now orders and again new orders showered upon us. That was unavoidable, for the position was rapidly and continually changing from day to day. I motored from n quiet little village in Northern Prance to the old town_ of Corbie. The Germans had been shelling and bombing several towns on the way, and there was a pathetic exodus of the civilian populalior-., mostly old men and women and children, takins with them, in such vehicles as they could muster, their bedding and the household goods they treasured most, or that would he most useful to them as refugees in another town. Some women and children there were who could not join in the procession. Killed or wounded by the enemy shells, their activities had come to a sudden stop. One felt most sorry for the old women—frail, bent creatures marching very slowly with the aid of a stick, or sitting wondoringly by the roadside with their few belongings tied up in a shawl. These poor people, at least, out for German lust of power, would nave been able to spend their few remaining years in peace and perhaps in comfort. But very many there were who refused to budge. They were prepared to stick it out so long as the invaders were at arm's length, and the British and their own brave fathers and brothers, husbands and lovers, they knew full well were doing all that was possible to stem the advancing tide. Care, no uoubt, has laid a heavy hand on tho shoulders of some of thtse. The little children, who still played hop-scotch in the'shadow of-a shattered house, .were care-free. They were glowing up with the war, and when it is all over, and 'lie soldiers, with the new and rumbling guns aud other wonderful mechanical transport, cease to crowd their ■-•treets, there will be a strange blank in Uieir daily life. It is sad enough to send armies to light m aaother country; but to liavo the war m one's own country is a terrible thing. •Oil the way south we passed gangs of German prisoners that had been working en our roaus being taken by sentries farther to tho rear. Our own labour battalions also were going farther back. On tho way down we met Bean, the Australian war correspondent, who gave us tho latest news. Ihu situation was very critical. The enwny. was coming ui, and though ho had outrun his artillery he was pressing ionvurd through theer weight of numbers. Flers, which Hie New Zcalanders had, with some English troops, captured in the Sommo battle, was already his; and our line ran over well-known ground to us at Mputauban. Albert was already threatened. Farther south the to were said to be big dents in our line. The next few days might seat the late of France and of tho British Empire. We hoard also the astounding news, which few behoved, that -Paris was being shelled from a distance of over CO miles.

All this gave us food for reflection as we pursued our jouaiey southward. Wo skirted Amiens, and eventually reached it place where the i\"ew Zealand Headquarters were opened with suoh mem-, hers of the Stall as had arrived, and rne solitary clerk. • We had some diflioulty in finding billets and we had outuin our food and l>lankt;ts. The enemy was quite.close to us, and still coining in. The people of the house where we established our mess had lied with their rhildren that morning or the day hefore; but the good woman who was jeft in charge of the house cooked us an excellent dinner, for which we were truly, thankful. > The Staff was soon busy, vith telegrams and telephone • messages, and we wore visited by officers from the ' ; orps and the Army-cool, young Englishmen, who kept their neads, and even 'heir sense of humour, m (his crisis in iho nation's history. The situation, ihey said, was still seriou:.. .For some few days no' very definite opinion about it •xmld be given; but already there were signs of exhaustion in the enemy ranks, *nd wo still had faith in the' British and the French armies. The Stall' officers worked hour after heur, and, although they had had little sleep for the past forty-eight hours, they toiled on ebecrfully with their ono' tired and sleepy clerk.

, Moved On At/ain. Just as wo had tuouguc ourselves es'.ablisheu in the little town, and were thinking—suck of us as could get it— of sleep, a lnossago came tnrough that we hau to shift to another village, north ol Albert. It was apparent thai wo were being side-stepped to till a threatened gap in the line. Through this gap the enemy, had he only knuvu, and had he not beou so exhausted, might have swarmed. Mad ho, taken this tide at the liood he might,, perchance, havo led nis troops on to- iortune. Up to this point one could not but .idniiru his wou•Jcruil impetus—iiis energy and resource, iiis saerineo, we knew, was great. We left in our cart shortly More 1 in the .morning, on a clear, cold, moonlight .Mght, All this country is criss-cross-ed with roads in an extraordinary way, so wo drove slowly, and, at the junctions, stopped to consult lue map and 'ho signposts, for otherwise, we might easily run into the advancing enemy, and laid ourselves on the wrong side of the lence. The two stall officers-with me had their revolvers. My only weapon was a mashie, with winch i had been practising in our quiet seclusion of the week before with ono of the aforesaid Staff officers behind the line. According to the regulation!, a war correspondent is not allowed to go armed except in savage warfare! In the present war tho irony of this regulation has often occurred to me; but so long as it :t> there, and so long as German warfare is not supposed to be savage warfare, one must play tho game. Ono Staff ifficer and one of the signals had to go on to open the new Headquarters, while another Staff officer and others of tho signals remained behind to keon opon their old office till the new was established. In war there must be no break in such comiminientions, for ono never knows what a day or an hour may bring forth. We fetched up at our now Headquarters at 2.30 p.m.,' foodloss <ind bkuikefjless. The General wild his A.D.C. had already arrived. There they continued their strenuous life all through, the night, close to tho advancing enemy, and not knowing the moment we might have to fall back again. We slept on the hard floor in our clothes mid boots—except in those intervals when the cold kept us awake. All this I. am writing down now because the public is apt to poke fun at "tlie. gilded Staff," and the man in, the trenches often asks: What do tho Staff do? and what is a G. 5.0.1, or an A.A. and Q.M.G.? The answer is that, next to the General and the Brigndierß, they are tho men with the burden and the

responsibility upon their shoulders, and that siuce the war began they have been toiling day and uigbt, .Saturdays and Sundays included, except for brief intervals 6f leave.

We had two miserable days and nigXis at this Headquarters. Already the owner of the house had sent his wife and family away, and on the last day he himself very wisely (led. The General s A D.C.. and his batman helped in the kitchen, which was also our diningroom. Bully beef and biscuits onco again appeared on the menu. The Germans wero unpleasantly close. The threat or a gap m the line was still an unpleasant reality. But we were not downhearted. Our kit arrived, but we deemed, it wise to send most of it Kick to the rail-head. We had shifted to this place not n whit too soon. Within twenty hours we heard that our last Headquarters was in the front line, and mat places we had passed on the way up were in enemy hands. We got away from this Headquarters also nom too soon. As we were preparing to rfiift a shell burst in a house near bv, an" a cloud of brick-dust -and smoke rose slowly above the ruin. II , V (is followed by a second and third, with splinters of shell raimnsr down upon, the just and the unjust alike. One piece 'found a vulnerable spot in the heel of our O.C. Signals, so, for Hie time beiiiir, we are minus his services; but otherwise we escaped scot free. Each one who had now no particular duty to .stood not upon the order of his going, but went at once. Tt was just a little bit too close to the line, that Headquarters, but it answered our purpose while it lasted.

"Nae Sac Bad." On the way to our new Headquarters wo saw sections of various units that that been retiring before the German hordes. Some had come a long way and were tired and battle-worn. There were men from the Naval" Division; men lrom various English counties and distinctive dialects, and some kilted infantry who had fought with great gallantry. Tired as they were, these latter came with a linn stride along the road, sumo steelhelmcted, other with bonnets on their heads,' and, like most Scotsmen, they were non-committal. I asked a burly sergeant-major if they had had a bad time, and a dicker of a smile spreau over his unshaven face as he remarked, "A T ae sae bad." But all the time these were going back then were the entering sight of other divisions coming in—some with their bands playing. Uuus were also coming up—a cheering sight to tin} infantry who were to take up the new Hue.

Wo heard that Albert had fallen. It had been badly bombed tho night before, and the streets were strewn with dead horses. We felt a little anxiety abaut the position there, but, latei, heard that just in front of.it the line had held. The civilians who had gone back tliere had hurried away once more, and for some days past various commodities, including good wine, had been going uhoap. Our Y.M.C.A. representative, whom tno Kinfc had recently honoured, had been on a pilgrimage "there, and had reaped a small harvest of sugar and other things left behind by the other Y.M.C.A. men. In a field beside the road the personnel of a tank were at their breakfast beside their prehistoric-looking monster, whils overhead the swift cavalry of cioudland camo and went. /

There were few New Zealand troops en the road. They bad already secured •.he threatened gap—a long, thin'khaki .'ine, somewhat tired, too, but cheerful and eager. The day before, one had watoheit them marching in at the ena of many wearing miles anu concentrating in a fold of tho hills. In the early morning, while a cutting wind was blowing, I wandered through their bivouacs, come were breakfasting, and there was no lack of food. Others were asleep on the cold ' ground with only their waterproof sheets and leather jerkins to protect them from the damp cartli and the keen March wind. A column of tanks fanio past across the road and sidled up it slope, then took the roaa: again. At a bend a hurrying motor tneu conclusions with ono of them, and came off second best, to the amusement of the nidookers and the dismay of tne motor-' let. In another hollow a battalion of •'.he Rifles was falling-it; for the march, their baud playing a lively quickstep. ■Jn the slope above the Maoris were making themselves comfortable on heaps of fir-trco brunn'hes, just as tfiey might have done in land on beds of scrub or fern during a hunt after pigs oi wild horses, wood pigeons, or kiwis. Ono stalwart tribesman camo down tht> Village' road swinging by the head a "lead fowl ,that would soon be plucked and in the morning pot Rr.bably he had purchased ic in tho village. Thu Maori is over a good forager. In a little mud-ilcored building I '.aine upon Headquarters, and found 'friends, including a brigade major who was washing down some bread and jam v.ith. a welcome cup of tea. He had been into, or almost into, fioauinont Hamel on a bicycle with, the enemy ah abont lum, but he had had Ids most .nterosting day in France, and told a uerry talo of his experiences. It wai open warfare at last, andhe seemed to ,bo thoroughly enjoying the novel adventure, A day or two later a littlo wooden cross marked his grave near, a new Brigade Headyuarters. He hud received his orders to report to a.Higner Authority. And with him had passed his brigadier .nto tho Elysian Fields of the Great Unknown, where there are no more battles io bo fought. With honours well won, each had given his all foi England, and, already, other valiant men had taken up the burdens they had laid down.

A CABLED DISPATCH RAIDERS DISTINGUISH THEMSELVES. (Special from .\ew Zealand Correspondent.) By Cable, May 28. Goaded by our. harassing artillery lire and continuous raiding,' or lor sumo otner .reason, the enemy has become increasingly active with His artillery. At night lie has poured over many gas shells, but witu little result so far as the New Zealanders are concerned. He has also shelled the front and back areas With guns of various calibres. Y/esterday he put down a Heavy locai barrage, the shells raining in at the rato ot about sixty per minute on a front of about 3001) yards. As a spectacle tins shelling was interesting, though it was not very effective. Some parties of New Zealanders recently distinguished themselves in raid.ng enemy posts. Ono 'company, under a young Auckland officer who wears a ri'bbon of the Military Cross, has a particularly good recuiu. After an onemy post had. been located by a patrol, a small paroy was sent out, but was stopped by machine-gun liro and bombing. The company commander later sent out a larger party under an officer. These surprised the post, killing soven and wounding ten or twelve. They also captured three prisoners and two machine-guns. One of the party, a sergeant, had been slightly wounded in the iirst venture, but he bravely carried on and did line work in bombing a machine-gun position. Subsequently a patrol found that the Germans had remanned this post, so another raiding party was sent out. This party successfully attacked it,, killing four, wounding six, and capturing one prisoner. A patrol of four from the same company had one man shot'through the head. At night an officer went out and carried the body in; that company commander shows what stuff we have got in the division. All these were' silent raids, that is, they were carried out without preliminary bombardment, and our losses were infinitesimal.

The troops were delighted to rcceivo a large number of parcels from the' Kaikoura Patriotic Association. They ask me to convey their hearty thanks for these timely gifts. Decorations for Service, Bar to Military Cross.-Coptain K. R, J. Saxon (Ride Brigade). Military Cross.—2nd Lieutenant H. T. Marshall, Rev. C. B. W. Seton, Lieutenant M. A. Stedman, 2nd Lieutenant J. A. M'llroy, Lieutenant R. J. Grant, Captain H. AV. Kennedy, -all of the Rifle Brigade. The Corps Commander has awarded the Military Medal to the follnwing;:Sorgeant R. C. Travis, who already has the D.C.M., and Privates R. .H. W. Conway, N. Thomson, H. Melville, and A. D. D. Clydesdale, all of an Otago regiment.