IN JULY DAYS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 11, 8 October 1918, Page 7

IN JULY DAYS

, NEW ZEALANDERS AT ROSSIGNOL WOOD OTAGO MEN IN ACTION {From Malcolm Boss, AVnr Correspondent witli tho-N.Z. Forces.) New Zealand Headquarters, ■ July 30. 1918. About the well-known Kossignol Wood, in our present sector, , thero has in tho oarlier stages of the war been iierco fighting, in which the French, and, later, the British, took a hand. AVlien-the Gerniiins in their recent thrust pressed back tho British lino across tho Somme battlefield ono of tho positions' they reoooupied on the northern corner of tho old ground was this wood. Towards tho end of this month Otago troops wore fronting the enemy here. They, had poste out in tho corner of a square that made rather an uncomfortable salient. Further along, tho line bout' round the' wood in a salient that was just (is 'unsatisfactory to the Germans. They did not feel at all happy there. One day tho redoubtable Otngo patrols found* that tho enemy were- no' longer iu the wood. The scout's kept working ahead all the time, occasionally killing a few Germans, and generally bringing hack valuable information. It was in this fighting that Travis, the famous raiding ecout, did such excellent work, and was eventually killed. I have dealt with his exploits m another article, so there is no need to repeat them here. The work of tho Rifles on July 15 had mafle the. position of the enemy still more uncertain. On Saturday, July 20, our patrols reported that the enemy had been, blowing up his pillboxes, and was evidently retreating from the wood. The Ot.igos mished forward to keep touch with the retreating Germans. Auckland and Wellington nlso pushed out patrols. It was then decided to- attack tho enemy trenches in front of the wood. For this purpose some Otago men were' specially trained, and had made themselves thoroughly acquainted with the ground. After a trench mortar bombardment, the men advanced in tlaylight at 5 o'clock on the Tuesday afternoon. There had been heavy, almost tropical, rain the day before, and the attack had, at the last . minute, almost, been postponed from that day. The lneii from the Otagos went gaily forward, and got their first objective right away. . In ten minutes they wore in the trenches that were tlieir second , objective. • These parties pushed on on the ifight, where the enemy seemed to be massing in n trench. They pushed down ' to' f.ho junction of a second trench. Here they ran out of bombs, arid, after using all. ; the enemy bombs they could lay_ their, hand's on, they retired to their allotted positions, and established a block in the trench. They brought back with them two machineRUns, after having killed the creivs. About sixty dead Germans, half of whom were killed by tho artillery, were counted, in tho trenches. hi this little attack we had, half an hour after the start, only ten casualties. Four prisoners and five machine-guns were captured. Ration parties, small arms ammunition, and homb-cattrjing parties, moved up with great bravery under shell-fire. Stretcher-bearers stuck closely 'and indefatigably to, their work.

The following/day was quiet, j hut on tho Thursday the enemy put djjwn, a heavy artillery barrage in'tho ifiorning. As he was seen massing in his. , -trenches for counter-.attack in the evening, thi) s.o.s. went up, and our; artillery put down a very iine barrage. About forty of tho enemy got oircr into a part of ! our tronch on tha right, owing to our bombs there having been blown up by a shpll. Subsequently our' men counter-afetadied, and won bade the position, afett- killing and wounding several df tiib enemy and capturing thirty jpri'eonprs. Of these about half were fciEetf by their own retaliatory artillery fire as they were jjoing hack to the rear. A padre, with tarn- prisoners, did fiino work getting in the wounded. Somis Americans who werj with us in tho lino were keenly interested, and very |)leased with the result ■. "Thiswill do us," they said. In this fighting sonus of, the enemy fitorm troops fought well, and others bravely "pulled hack' their dead and Wounded, but still athers turned tail and fled , . One German, a regular Goliath, 6ft. 7in., gave a lot of trouble, but when he was eventually laid low liis party faded away..

Tho work of other Otago troops engaged on July 20' was equally satisfiwtor,v._ They had a po.<ft before the fight within sixty yards or , the enemy, and from the 18th. until i\>e day of the fight the opposing parties used to look at

each other across the intervening strip of No Man's Land. Tlio Otago men at tho right moment stolo around this enemy position, and pinched the Germans who wevo holding it. It was after this that the Germans cleared out of the wood. The Otagos then moved through tho wood, and some Aucklandcrs co-operated with the Otagos in clearing tho Unmans out of a trench on tho south. It was decided to push on down a set of trenches that ran duo south from the east of thp wood, and a ticiich. that ran south-east from the nvklJio io tho eastern edge of the wood. Au;r iroiiig some distance tlnv men found their patli blocked by a mass of old and now wire that filled the trench. The men got out of the trench'to continue their advance, but were met with tho iiro of machine-guns well placed. They hopped back into' the 'trench, and 'had to cut, the wire and pull i t out under fire. This was ft difficult and tedious process, but it was successfully accomplished, and t,ho : advance continued. Meantime another party waß proceeding down tho trench that joined on to (i sunken road almost at right angles. This-trench also was found to ho blocked with wire, but not to the same extent as tho other one. They got to the sunken road with some casualties. It- was about 1000 yards 'in front of the wood. There was lighting iu several of these saps, and ono mach-ine-gun position, with four Germans, was ;nptured, two of the enemy , being killed and tho other two taken as prisoners. In one place, .whero a solid mass of wire was found in a. trench, the men climbed out of the trench and doubled in tho open past tho block till they could hop into the trench again. Others of tho enemy were bombed along their trenches. Most of those ran back, and our men pushed on, but generally the. enemy ran too fast to enable these Otagos to got at close grips with him. Finally our men established themselves on their objectives. At one stage five Germans were seen .advancing from a sap in front, and a yonii!; Highlpnd lieutonant, with two or tlireo of his-braves, climbed out of the trench and fired on them with rifles. Ono was shot dead, and the others then beat a hurried retreat v; the sapIn the counter-attack already, referred to the particular Otagos at one stage saw a German officer and about twenty-five men coming towards them down another sap. The officer was shot through the head and dropped. The man next to him , ! met the same fate. The others crawled into a depression, and commenced to bomb the New Zealanders. They • also managed to sot a mnchine-g_un into action, and, under cover of this fire, commenced to move forward again. The Otagos, however, got concentrated Lewis-gun and rifle fire on to them. Six men were seen to fall. The rest turned tail and ran into our 5.0.5.-barrage, which at that moment came down, with disastrous results to these Germans. These Otagos had stood their ground throughout the operations withont any demand for nrtillery support. In reply to. inquiries, they always cheerfully reported that they were all right, and quite ready to ward off any attack with their rifles r-r.d bombs. The repelling of the German counter-attack was remarkable for the prompt initiative displayed by the platoon commanders, who had thought out the probabilities and had made t-xcel-Llenb dispositions, to meet it. The Lewisgunners did some most effective shooting, and accounted for many of the attackers. -A corporal with two men cleared a trench and drove twelve of I the enemy with a machine-pun into the fire of our troops,' ho himself capturing the gun. A sergeant from a northern battalion also did fino.worbin reorganising a post on the Otago sector, nnd, with six men, kept twenty of the enemy at bay and prevented them from .reaching our line. Altogether tho New Zealanders had .reason to be well pleased with '-heir successes in this , lighting, and, before it had been brought to this final and successful stage, thg G.O.C. hud already received from the Army Commander a letter—the substance of which 1 cabled at the time —eulogising tho <lnsh and initiative displayed by tho NonZealand troops.