HAPPY NEW YEAR

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 53, Issue 32409, 20 March 1944, Page 6

HAPPY NEW YEAR

SPELLED OUT BY SHELLS GREETINGS TO GERMANS How New Zealand artillery in Italy sent New-Year greetings to the Germans is described in the Eighth Army NOws, a cutting from the newspaper having been sent to his mother by Lance-Corporal R. B. Scott, of Thames,. The article says:— ‘•Happy New Year, Fritz!” spelled out nearly 100 guns to the clear frosty air, as in 17 minutes of firing over 5000 high-explosive shells crashed down on to the snow-clad ridges around. New Zealand artillery sent this heartiest of New Year greetings to enemy troops, but it is doubtful whether the Germans appreciated (lie spirit, behind (lie sentiment expressed. The shoot was the result of careful planning over some days, and it is a tribute to good staff work and careful gunnery that not a shell was wasted on an unprofitable area, writes a New Zealand war correspondent. As New Year approached it was decided that a suitable message should be sent over by the twenty-five pounders. Subsequent planning fitted the message to the areas normally covered by our artillery concentrations. As a result, four ridges, on which the enemy was known to be in maximum strength, were selected as the hoard, and (Tie required tasks were plotted. Then came (he blizzard of lammry 1. The shoot had. been arranged to take place at 8.30 that morning, and at that time, despite snow, rain and the bitter wind' our guns were ready to tire. But it was realised that the enemy would be certainly under cover, so timeliness was sacrificed to efficiency. The following day was bright and tlear, with the selected ridges gleaming under a fresh mantle of heavy snow. And the day dawned sunny.

Punctually at 9.15 a.m. the batteries opened up on the first letter. On tracers supplied to each regiment the cheery four-word greeting was marked out in a number of different colours. The colours indicated which part of each letter each regiment was to fire; for example, the letter’ “H” might have its left upright outlined in blue ink, its crosspiece in red, and its right-hand upright in green and black.

A minute was devoted to each letter —and each letter was 500 yards high. The first word. “Happy,” sprawled itself in regular, hammering “lifts” across the white face of that first ridge, covering an area 2000 yards long, and. everybody was pleased except. the gentlemen on the receiving end. Never has it been so ably demonstrated that it is more blessed to give than to receive.

Then the guns shifted to the next slope and the second word, “New,” was blasted across the ridge as by a Hercules wielding a giant punch—a black patterri of shellbursts against the snow extending 1500 yards right across the. objective. “Year” covered an area of 1600 yards, while “Fritz” which fell on the ridge behind Orsogna, was calculated to flatten anything along its 1888-yard length. The efficiency of this artillery contribution to the festive season had to be seen to be appreciated. During the delivery of the message, any man unwise enough to stand in an area nearly half a mile wide by over four miles in length would .be lucky to escape unscathed. The destructive power of such a concentration is not limited to the immediate vicinity of each individual shellburst. Flying fragments cover a wide area —and the perfect fragmentation of the 25ppunder high-explosive shell is one of the main reasons for the success of the gun.