The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1927. AN ABIDING GLORY.

Hokitika Guardian, 21 October 1927, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1927. AN ABIDING GLORY.

October is the anniversary of Passehendnole, one of the gruelling fights of Hie Croat War in which the New Zealanders, including several Coasters were engaged. The long-drawn out battle began early in the month. The New Zealanders were seriously engaged on the 4th. of the month, and the 12th. of the month was the date of the second engagement. The critical day of all was the 21st. October, of which to-day is the anniversary. In “The Battle Book of Ypres,” compiled hy Beatrice Brice with the assistance of Lieut.-General Sir Win. Pulteney, and a foreword by Field-Marshal Lord Plumer, there is a recital of the abiding glory which attaches to the British arms because of Ypres and all that was enacted round about it. Passehendnele in 191“ was full of grim horror. It was a wonderful result that the New Zealanders came through for the enemy maintained a tremendous defence against the attackers, an entrenched defence made doubly strong because of the pill-boxes with their death dealing fire. Here is a resume of the story as set down by a reviewer who passes comment on the recent publication referred to above. Says the critic: No number of re-readings of the story of the Ypres salient dim the wonder and the glory of it. On no other battlefield in the world have the British peoples won so much honour or suffered so much loss, and through it all the question looms always: “How did they do it?” Tn this latest hook on the series of battles that began in October, 1914, and lasted through the war, the miracle again presents itself. How did that handful of English troops, worn to a shadow, opposed by fresh masses of the superior-equipped enemy, hold the line? There is nothing in all English history, one thinks, as one reads again here the record of that October and Novomlver fighting, that quite equals this resistance. The thin line broke again and again and was patched up just in time. Battalions were reduced to companies;

from fatigue and want of sleep men were at their very last stretch of endurance ; ammunition ran short; the very last reserves of cooks and orderlies were thrown in ; and ever the enemy pressed the front in overwhelming numbers, backed up by terrific artillery fire. Parties of English troops were isolated and died fighting. Men staggered back disputing every foot of the way, and somehow summoned up strength for a counter-attack. Weak reserves were called up and redressed the swaying balance. The Channel ports were the prize fought for, and if the line had gone the ports woidd have gone, and perhaps the war would have been lost. How did they do it? By good soldiering and magnificent pluck. These men that held the line were the remains of the old professional army, in units the most efficient fighting force that ever took the field. It is clear from the few accounts of these October and November battles, fought in warfare that was still relatively “open,’’ that the brigade, battalion and company leading was first- class. Again and again subordinate officers grasped a situation and saved the day. The fire, skill and discipline was superb; the Germans apparently do not realise to this day that they were opposed by rifles and not numbers of machine guns. And the courage and doggedness—well, as one reads these accounts one can only bow the head in homage before it. The most critical day ,apparently, was October 21st. at Gheluvelt. A tremendous attack crashed on the thin linß, and it appeared to break. Tfien the only

reserve was thrown in—3o7 men of the Worcesters. “They swept across the ground towards flaming Ghcluvelt; high explosive and shrapnel burst over them; the wounded they met cried of the certain death awaiting them; enemy file wiys redoubled upon them, but they rushed on—over a hundred men were down already—they burst upon the Germans and drove thorn out of Ghcluvelt, fighting from street to street.’’ Tho line was held. Yet, if the Germans had known the truth, could it have been held ? The resistance was so determined that they wore convinced—and apparently are so to this day—that there were strong F.ng--1 i-.li reserves. Waterloo, as the Duke said, was *n close run thing, hut not so close as Ypros. This was the early Ypros, a landscape still worthy of tho name of countryside. Of tlie horror into which it was transformed by years of war there are telling descriptions in this detailed record of the salient, “To nightmare dreams, in some visions of Hades conceived by morbid genius, a heavy conccnlraton of horror, dreariness and woe is brought to hear on our minds until the strain beeoimes intolerable. Of such stuff is pictured the battleground of Passchendaolo, 1917.’’. The publication is illustrated to depict this man-made hell. Many New Zealanders remember what it looked like—tho most dreadful place in all the history of war. This memorial volume, issued to further the aims of tho Ypros League, is a tribute to the head and to the living, who showed that tho possibilities of man’s fortitude had not previously been realised.