NEW ZEALANDERS AT HEBUTERNE

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 277, 12 August 1918, Page 6

NEW ZEALANDERS AT HEBUTERNE

RECENT SUCCESSES OLD BRITISH LINE RECOVERED (Special Dispatch from the Official War ' Correspondent.) By Cablegram, August 8. The New Zealanders, after a spell in the back area, recently returned to the lins slightly north of their former sector, and for some days now have been acquitting themselves well in minor enterprises. These, have resulted in the capture of several enemy trenches to a depth of about a thousand yards on a. front of three hundred yards. Included in the captured area is the fnmous Kossiguol Wood, where tho French fought in the early davs of the war, and where tubsefluently 'the British had some hard fighting. The beginning of the matter was with the Kifles, who captured some enemy trenches in front of Hebuterne. An officer and four men went out in daylight, crawled through tho wire, and jumped into tho trench, whore they killed three Germans and captured oneprisoner, without any casualty. Shortly afterwards Lieutenant W. G. Salmond, a young and promising officer, was killed by a bomb at Kossignol Wood. Following this preliminary investigation of the enemy line, the Kifles gained some ground in the old British front lino by exploitation. Then two companies of tho Rifles attacked, after a ten minutes bombardment, on a thousand yards of front while at tho same time the men m front of another battalion did a bombing attack down some old German trenches in tho Gommecourt sector. Iho enemy offered resistance in places, but tho objectives set for our men wero easily taken When the barrage lifted, patrols went forward, and succeeded in capturing the whole of the old British line in front of Hebuterno. Not content witn gaining their objective, tho bombing parties went forward and captured n tench 300 yards beyond. In this operation we took 37 prisoners, some Ugh. ma-chine-guns, three heavy machine-guns, and two mine-throwers, one of winch we destroyed with a bomb to prevent tho possibility of its recapture. Seventy Germans were killed. Our men have buried 51 and several < there can still be scon lying out in No Man's Land. Next morning, about half-past Hires, the enemy counter-attacked and drove in two of our posts. During this attack they captured a New Zealand corpora, who, though badly wounded afterwards escaped and crawled back to our lines. The former situation was promptly restored by a New Zealand counter-attack

Brigadier Wounded. On the following day tho brigadier, while going the round of the front posts, was wounded' in the arm and thigh to * German sniper. Ho was able to walk into Hebuternc, and was afterwards conveyed on a stretcher to a dressing eta lion. His injuries are not serious, and his return is expected in a few weeks. While some of theso events had Men taking place, men of another bngode-tke-Cunterbury's-had established post* in the west edge of tho Hossignol Wood, but were held up by machine-gun fire from strongly wired pill-boxes. They escaped lightly with four men wounded. Our troops started to consolidate the positions gained, and immediately atterwards it was ascertained that the enemy was blowing up his pill-boxw,. evidently with the intention of retiring from the spot that was getting too warm for him. Our patrols went out, and getting in touch with the enemy found ho was retiring from Eossignol Wood. Iho Ota»o troops were pushed forward to keep in touch with the enemy, and, the Aucklanders co-operated on the right and pushed down the enemy trenches. After a certain amount of bombmg our men succeeded in clearing the enemy out. of three successive lines of trenches and establishing a line of posts right in front of the wood. In this advance we killed twenty-fivo Germans and captured three prisoners, three machineguns, and one grenade-thrower. On the following day some fighting took place in these captured trenches, and that night the Wellington men pushed out their patrols another 500 yards without meeting any further opposition, Yesterday the Auckland and Wellington troops co-operatetl in pushing patrols torward, and succeeded in forcing the enemy out of the old front and support lines in front of Hebuterne. They took two more prisoners, who weft) sheltering in shell holes, and who seemed not sorry to come in. A machine-gun was captured, and two large mortars were blown up. Afterwards the enemy shelled the wood heavily, but ho only wasted his ammunition, for wo had no casualties as the result. In the sheling of tho trench we had gained we naturally had some casualties, but these wore quite out ot proportion to tho casualties inflicted on the Germans. The" morale of troops opposed to us was poor, and on one occasion our men stood up in the open and had some good shooting at the retreating Germans, as they fled before our barrage. Lieutenant Sabnond's body was found in the Eossignol Wood by I'ravis, shortly before tho latter was himself killed. A Hero Goes West. To-day Sergeant Richard Charles Travis "and an officer who was with him were killed by a stray shell. In Travis the New Zealand Force loses one ot its bravest soldiers, who made a specialty of raiding, and had earned more than local I'aiiie for his many successful exploits. He is the man reforred to specially as the Olago man in my message of' June 11. His methods in .raiding were peculiarly his own. He was something of a character, a man of great resource and considerable initiative, He studied thoroughly beforehand his various enterprises, thus eliminating as tar as possible the ordinary risks of war, by carefullv marking down (hose of the enemy "destined for ■'destruction or capture or both, much as a big game hunter stalks his prey and notes and turns .to his own advantage configuration of the. country and the cover available. Whether raiding by night or in broad daylight, Travis was invariably successful, and ho was well backed by other daring Otago men .who accompanied him. It is the irony of fate that after his many dangerous exploits in battle and his raiding in No Man's Land he should fall a victim to a chance shell. He had been awarded the D.C.M., the Belgian Croix de Guerre, the Military Medal, and a bar to the latter.