LE QUESNOY.

Hokitika Guardian, 26 November 1918, Page 4

LE QUESNOY.

FALLS TO NEW ZEALANDERS

SURRENDER OF GARRISON.

(From Captain Malcolm Boss, Official War Correspondent with tho New Zealand Forces in the field). November 4. Tile New Zealanders were again in action to-day, when the British armies resumed their advance. In the recent .operations their trend had been northeast, but they now swung round due east. In their pathway lay historic Le Qucsnoy, with its moat and ramparts well-garisoned with German riflemen and machine-gunners. A bombardment that heralded the advance of the New Zealanders came from several brigades of artillery, while the ramparts were screened by a smoke barrage as our men moved forward in an encircling movement . The town itself we could neither bombard nor gas, as there were many civilians in it. For this reason a frontal attack was impossible without heavy casualties. The troops moved to the assemblies and ammunition was dumped in darkness. Night fell with drizzling rain, but the morning broke fine, save for a light fog which soon disappeared before a southern wind and bright sun. At five thirty our massed ; artillery broke out in a drumfire of creeping barrage, and the troops adj vanced to encircle the town. By the I time our troops bad half encircled the ! village the barrage searched the ram- | parts of flip, west and north-west faces : for a quarter of on. hour, after wliicn i patrols pushed forward to ascertain the '■ position. They were met with deleri mined (opposition from machine-guti-j nors and snipers, yet in face of this they scaled the outer ramparts with, i ladders, which they carried for that ; purpose, and so secured commanding j positions at certain points. They also I carried cork floats with which to cross | the moat should it be flooded. It was j almost with regret that they found !it dry for some of these “diggers' i would: have thoroughly enjoyed the f novel experience of such Homeric wm- ! fare. Our troops on the right were counter-attacked from the right flank of : the divisional area by five officers nntl a hundred men, fifty of whom were shot down and the rest taken prisoners. The latter came in under command of • a i couple of our runners. daring attackers. ' There were some daring incidents. A sergeant who wears 1 the ribands of R.C.M. and M.itf. scaled the ramparts, shot down the crew of a machine-gun and proceeded to investigate the position inside the town when he was shot at from some houses, wounded in the ann, and forced to retire. One of the ! first, if not the first up the ramparts, was’a Maori from the pioneer Battnl- : ions, and his rifle was thrown up after : him by a salvage officer. Neither had ; any business in the fight-, hut no doubt i the sporting instincts of the latter, I all d tho feats of the ancestors of the ! former in storming similar slopes in i tribal warfare impelled them forward ! in this venture. The Maori was nun : with bombs, and the salvage officer might have been soon later riding back with a wounded arm in a sling and beaming with delight. During the morning a battalion headquarters captured a hundred prisoners. One of our most daring battalion commanders received lus third wound, a bullet through the shin hone. [ saw him later, still conducting operations with a bandaged log. propped up in a chair. His brother, who has fom i wound stripes on his sleeve j had the ! misfortune to he out of this fight, ns he is on leave in England. One of our men who was captured by the Bodies ; early in the morning was recaptured i later in the day hv his own battalion. PREMATURE REJOICINGS. __ i When the inhabitants saw the Now ! Zealanders on the ramparts they came . • out of their houses and cheered and ! waved flags. Their rejoicings were j somewhat premature, for the enemy eon ! untied to light on. I tried to get into j town at ten in the morning, and found | the road and adjoining fields swept by l machine-gun fire. In the afternoon I i tried another way, and reached the : outer ramparts to find Boclic maclnne- - gunners and snipers still busy. The ; Maoris were sheltering under the raili wav embankment .awaiting an oppor- ! tunity to go forward to mend the road j and fill in the wide craters. The Boche were determinedly holding I out. Earlier in the day one ot our i officers had gone in to ask the garrison i to surrender, and a large number laid ! down their arms and proceeded to ! march out-, hut were fired oil by thenown machine-gunners and scattered. Another officer crossed the ramparts at a different place with a view to getting the garrison to surrender, hut the guide led him bv such devious ways that for the time being lie returned. Later still we sent a message in German by aeroplane, informing the garrison that were entirely surrounded and had bet-( ter surrender. This message was dropped inside the town, but still the Germans fought on. In the afternoon another message was sent them. This had the desired effect. The garrison at last surrendered. TOWN OCCUPIER. .The Brigadier, with other of his officers, entered the town, and wore received with manifestations of joy by about 1500 civilians. The town is expected to yield a thousand prisoners, so that the captures by the two brigades for the day should amount to 2500. On 0 brigade estimates that it alone has cap- j turecl about 50 guns. One of tho unique sights of the war was a German gun with six horses'and enemy riders up being taken hack through our lines. A doctor and his whole staff were among the prisoners captured. But this is not all. While Le Quesnoy was holding out, a brigade supported by all the available artillery that could got up, was rapidly advancing to objectives far ahead, and before the day had passed had got beyond the range of their artillery. An Auckland battalion took Rnmponeau with prisoners ) machineguns, and civilians, and two Wellington battalions' passing through them captured Villereau and Potelle, where more prisoners and civilians were found, ■and to-night our men are well into the farther end of the great Eorest of Morin al. Altogether it has been a glorious day for what the Germans have been pleased to call “a tired and worn-out division.”

November oth, 10 a.m

When tales of fiercer fights have almost been forgotten, the storming and capture of Le Quesnoy by the New Zealand Rifle Brigade will b e remem-

bered as one of the most picturesque and romantic incidents of this war. The old fortress, wliich has stood many sieges, is still wonderfully strong, with precipitious ramparts of well-preserved brick bastions crowned with tall trees and a dry moat fronting the inner rampart. Many besiegers have had a tilt at it in olden times. In 1793 the Austrians stormed it after ten day’s bombardment that laid the town in ruins. In 1918 troops from the farthest British Dominion have captured it from what

was the world’s greatest military power in as many hours. Though ultimately it fell lo one battalion, the Fourth, the credit of its capture belongs almost equally to the other battalions of tne brigade and those of the First Brigade that fought so gallantly and gradually enveloped the town in face of deteimined opposition. The German orders were to hold the town to the last. Dawn was just breaking as our troops who had assembled overnight, in rain advanced to the attack behind a magnificent barrage. Mingled with the bursting of ordinary shells were shells of Mohium and Stokes trench mortars while from still others descended a smoke curtain that screened the main advance and protected the flanks from n possible deadly hail of machine-gun bullets. The fire at zero hour was truly terrific. Small wonder that in the track of this cyclonic battle-storm were found afterwards the bodies of dead Gormans and many wounded, who could neither walk nor crawl away.

The high embankment of the railway fronting the outer ramparts was our first objective. This was strongly held, and gained only after stubborn fighting, during which several Germans were hilled and wounded, and others taken prisoner. Approaching the outer ramparts another battalion, tbe second found a 77mm. gun firing at it over open sights, making an advance in the face of casualties exceedingly difficult. Meantime other battalions were gradu--11 v encircling the town to the south ami sontli-vvest. and the Fourth Battalion, whose advance let us now follow, pushed patrols under cover of the barrage and smoke screen right up to the foot of the outer ramparts, and in places on their bastion heights. '.Wien the smoke screen had gradually drifted away, there came the stuttering noise of machine-guns, and belt after bolt of German bullets whistled through the trees at the advancing New Zealanders. One platoon found itself cut off. Its commander was killed

while endeavouring to extricate bis men,

and in the hollow between two brick .vails a daring sergeant remained with his men for six hours. SYSTEMATIC WORK.

As the sun rose and the bombardrent slackened, civilians saw our limn on the outer ramparts, and greeted them with distant cheers and waving ol (lags, inspiring them to renewed efforts. Hut' it was not till after midday that

tbe patrols, like wary deer-stalkers, began to mark down the Roche machinegunners and snipers, anti systematically shift them from the cover of their bastion:-. These enemy positions wore bom-

barded with the only available Stoke’

mortar, and one after another occupied. A narrow tbirtv-foot ladder was hauled along, and on this officers and men •limbed to the top of tile precipitous Vv-shaped bastions dominating the line t;f advance. Messages sent in to the garrison were, so far, without avail. One dropped by aeroplane told them they were entirely surrounded. Later

on an ultimatum demanding surrender within two hours made the commander think that surrender was better than annihilation and the opposition por-

ceptibily slackened, but on some of the rampart positions men lmd apparently not received tbe news, and maintained a defensive attitude.

This was tbe situation when the Fourth Battalion decided to scale the inner wall. In front, through the trees, they could see a great moat and formidable rampart of brick, crowned with machine-guns still in action. Only in one place was it possible to reach the bastion by means of their thirty-foot ladder. This was a spot at which the low wall abutted on to the main rampart. In single file tbe officers led their men to the final assault. The track beaten by their foot can still be seen leading between trees and* along the top of this narrow wall. YA’itli a Stokes mortar and machine-guns the Now Zealanders drove the enemy on to the reverse slope from the summit of the bastion. Then a ladder was placed

against the wall. It barely reached the top. Two second-lieutenants with three men ascended. It was a thrilling moment. Leaving the last rung of the ladder, those men found themselves confronted by a few Gormans, who, finding our bullets whistling about them, sought safety in flight down the slope and into an underground cavern where other Roches were sheltering. Following upon this initial success, practically the whole battalion streamed quickly in single file along the lower wall am! up the ladder. Headquarters, which throughout the (lav consisted of

one signaller with a telephone, and the battalion commander ,and was being advanced by slow stages from point to point, now mounted the parapet, men paving out the telephone wire as they climbe/1. Patrols were pushed down the reverse slope, and the Bodies sheltering underground began to surrender

freely. YA’itliin a few minutes the whole

battalion engaged in the vicinity had swarmed up the ladder and were dashing into the beleaguered town through the Rue Caillon, which was first swept with our machine-gun fire.

A MEMORABLE SCENE. Then a memorable scene occurred. The inhabitants, realising that at last deliverance had come, rushed from cellars and houses, and soon, from every building the tricolour was flying in the breeze. Along a street lined with an exoited, cheering throng, the “diggers” marched, embraced and kissed and showered with autumn flowers. The enthusiasm knew no bounds. Here and there a rifle still cracked, our men taking no chances when they saw a Bochc who had not surrendered. The battalion Commander marched with revolver in one hand and garlands in the other. The excited civilians stuck flowers in the men’s tunics, and even in their gas respirators, and followed cheering to the main square where the German commander, with a hundred men. already drawn up. surrendered to a voting New Zealand captain, whom* he formally saluted, and to whom he handed his revolver. Meantime other Germans had deliberately fired some of the houses, and dense columns of black smoke rose and drifted across to the northern ramparts. Two New Zealand officers were sent with a hundred pri-

sowers to fight the flames. Other prisoners were rounded up and gathered in the main square. Close at hand was a great barbed wire enclosure where these French man and women said our prisoners had been left in the rain with out food or clothing, till some of them died of hunger and exposure. They seemed surprised that we should treat the Germans so humanely. The battalion got its steaming cook ers into town, and the men, after their strenuous fighting, enjoyed a hot meal. Tbe inhabitants had given them hot coffee from their own scanty stores, and pressed upon them the best accommodation their homes could afford. Many a “digger” used to damp day slept that night in a warm bed.

SHOWERED WITH FLOWERS. 1 This morning the Divisional General and Brigadier formally visited the town. The former, after a brief stay, rode off to the Forest of AI urinal to see how his still advancing troops were getting on. Beyond Quesnov he established headquarters in his motor ear. The Brigadier remained to receive a civic welcome and congratulations. The band of the Second Battalion played the “Marseillaise” and our National Anthem amid renewed jubilation. Then the battalion now somewhat reduced in numbers, because of its dead and wound ed, formed up in the square, and headed by a band playing inspiriting music, marelied past tbe Brigadier, who, sitting on bis charger, hand to rim of steel casque, took the salute of bis war-worn heroes. Swinging proudly down the -main- street the little column was showered with flowers and flags. AY bitehaired old men doffed their fiats as the battalion passed, but tin* younger people, less sedate, followed cheering and waving their tricolours, thus in a cold drizzle of rain, but still in great heart, with band playng and flags flying, and a solitary English gun shooting at a far distant target, the New Zealanders marched off from the old town they had delivered from the ruthless enemy. A RED LETTER DAY. NON’EAIDER, sth. 11. 10 p.m.

Yesterday and to-day will remain''for ever red letter days in the history of tbe New Zealand division. Apart from the capture of Le Quesnoy by tbe Rifle Brigade, tbe splendid advance of the other brigades must be regarded as an almost unique achievement. In two days tbe division bad advanced between eight and nine miles, fighting all the way. From west of Le Quesnoy it lias passed through the great Forest tf A For ma 1 to within a short distance of the canalised Ha mb re. Yesterday the Auckland and Wellington troops, under cover of a smoke barrage, broke through the German lines to the north of Le Quesnoy r.ml stormed Rampnnenu, Y'illerean, and Tlerbiuges, through difficult country, largely covered with orchards and hedges, and dotted with farms. Penetrating right into the enemy battery positions, they captured many guns, and by nightfall bad established themselves half a mile inside the Forest of Alormal, on its western side. 1 Aliuiy German dead in Hie track of these troops, and horse teams lie prostrate beside abandoned guns. The advance was continued to-day by the Otago and Canterbury troops, who gained the objective east of the forest seven thousands yards ahead, and within about half a mile of tlut Hambre. A feature of this fighting was that they bad to go the whole way through the forest without artillery support. It was an advanced guard action almost all the way. with only machine-gun suppert, for the artillery could move along only outside roads, and could not see what was doing in the forest, where the •iiemy bad posted machine-guns at stars formed by the cross-roads. Progress was by no means easy. To-day about 150 prisoners were captured.