NEW ZEALAND’S BOYS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1616, 28 September 1916, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND’S BOYS.

CROWNED WITH LAURELS AT .FLERS. BREAKING A FAMOUS LINE.

Mr Philip- Gibbs, writing of the New Zealanders’ action in the recent advance on the Somme, says; In the fighting since the Ist July there has been nothing fiercer or bloodier than the hand-to-hand struggles on the left of Flers, where the New Zealanders increased their fame gained on Gallipoli as soldiers who had to give up what they gained, and who could hold on to their ground with grim obstinacy against the heaviset odds. This is the judgment of a British officer who watched them fighting during the last few days and who speaks with a thrill of admiration as he recalls the stoicism with which they endured the heaviest shellfire, the spirit with which they attacked in spite of intense fatigue, and their rally, though discouraged by the loss of their officers, which swept back the Germans in a panic-strick-en flight. The story (-overs a week’s fighting. The New Zealanders at dawn on the 15th advanced upon the left of Piers.

The first line of New Zealanders went forward with hardly a check lo the Gorman switch trenches, 500 yards distant. They—men of Auckland, Canterbury, Otago and Wellington —put their trust in the bayonet, and they had their desire. The Germans in the switch trench defended themselves to the last gasp, only four being left alive. It was a frightful encounter. It was a light to the death. The New Zealanders lost heavily under the heavy shrapnel and mach-ine-gun lire, and their ranks were sadly thinned when they faced the stretch of 800 yards leading to the next trenches. The New Zealand Rifles covered the ground quickly in open order, but keeping touch with each other with a fine esprit de corps which was better Ilian discipline. The German trenches were deeply dug and heavily wired, and proved a great obstacle. These two lines of trenches formed part of the famous Flers line. Our gunfire had not cut the wires or destroyed the trenches, and the swish of machine-guns showed that the enemy was alive and savage. The New Zealanders’ losses would have been serious but for the “tanks,” which had lagged behind, but arrived in the nick of time to attack the Flers line. In the most deliberate and most stolid way they sidled along the barbed wire, smashing it into the earth, and then poked their big snouts over the German parapets, firing from both their Hanks upon the German machinegun teams.

The New Zealanders, following, took the double trenches, and pushed on another seven hundred yards across a sunken road with steep banks and the deepest of dugouts. The Germans did not slop until they established themselves in a new line running westwards from the top of Flers village, which the English lads had already captured,

As the tanks followed the Germans they drew the fire of a German battery fifteen hundred yards away. The Germans missed the tank, and eventually the British artillery knocked out the battery. Meanwhile the New Zealand infantry was ordered to swing to the left to make a flanking front up the edge of a valley running northwest of Flers. They did this most gallantly, although they stuck out like a thin edge into German territory owing to lack of support on the right and lej't, due to the Englishmen being busy capturing Flers and fearful fighting in High Wood. It was a hazardous position for the New Zealanders, and they were ordered to fall back to a lino going straight westward from the top of Flers Village, which they helped to hold on the night of the 15tb-16tb.

Thenceforward the enemy made repeated counter-attacks. Sometimes these were of feeble strength, and were shattered quickly; but they grew in intensity as the, days passed, and it was seen that the New Zealanders were in a precarious position, owing to the weakness of the left flank- Here the Germans held out in shell-era(ers, whiolj enabled the supports to drive 01 i! wedge between the New Zealanders and the English troops north of Hig Wood. A brigade of Germans attempted this movement. They advanced in six or seven waves

upon the English soldiers, who were outnumbered two to one.

The Englishmen met them in the open- with the bayonet in the oldfashioned way. The New Zealanders watched the fight with enthusiasm, until they saw the derman ranks broken, and the remnant Hying. It was a great struggle, but not so long or so bloody as the tight the New Zealanders had themselves encountered.

On the 201 h, the Germans struck the New Zealanders at their point of junction with the British troops the New Zealanders at their point west of Piers. The Canterbury men, at the joint, were twice beaten back, but twice regained their ground. Throughout the night until the dawn on the 21st, there was violent bomb and bayonet fighting. It was not a matter of British on one side and Germans on another; it was chaotic struggle between isolated bodies of' men, fighting in shell-craters and in bits of trench, and of sigleligures fighting duels. The groups, without joining, formed lines, which surged backwards and forwards.