CAPTURE OF LE QUESNOY

Hokitika Guardian, 8 November 1930, Page 6

CAPTURE OF LE QUESNOY

N.Z. DIVISION’S VICTORY^ With the capture of the fortress town of Le Quesnoy ? the New Zealand Division twelve years ago, last Tuesday crowned it's victorious cmreer with one of the most brilliant and completely successful of all its actions in the Great War.

The attack opened at 5.30 a.m. on November 4, and despite the vigorous resistance of the enemy who was aided by the diversified nature of the heavilv-wooded country, the New Zealanders gained all their objectives, and Le Quesnoy was completely surrounded. Shortly before 11 a.m. some captured Germans were sent into the town to explain the situation, and later an aeroplane dropped a message to the commander of the garrison calling upon him. to surrender, but without result.

Finally Lieut. L. C. L. Averill (son of Archbishop Averill), with Lieut. H. W. Kerr, and several men of the 4th Battalion, Rifle Brigade, scaled the inner wall of the rampart. They were followed shortly after 4 p.m. by the remainder of the battalion, which thus had the honour to claim the town’s capture. The Germans gave in, and a. few minutes later the 2nd R.ifles marched in through the Valenciennes gate.

The citizens gave the New Zealanders a wildly enthusiastic welcome, and in the process of clearing up the town, eagerly assisted the riflemen by indicating the biding places of their late masters. The deliverance of Le Quesnoy has since been commemorated by the townspeople by a. memorial tablet oil tile rampart at the spot where the wall was scaled, and the planting Pf a. New Zealand garden in the moat.