BELLEVUE SPUR.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2646, 16 October 1923, Page 3

BELLEVUE SPUR.

SIXTH ANNIVERSARY.

The sixth anniversary of the buttle of Bellevue fell on Saturday? 1 This whs one of the battles for Pitssehendnele Ridge, in which the New Zealand infantry fought a. gallant fight, hut were beaten by had weather. Bellevue Spur was an ugly V-shaped hill, rising 200 ft. nhove a flooded creek. Its slopes ran 1,000 yards back in to Passchemlacle village. The point of the V —about 200 yards wide —was defended by massed machine-guns in concrete emplacements, behind two lines of wire. This was the position allotted to the New Zealanders. Tn heavy rain, which had been falling for some time, the New Zealand Division was sent into the centre l of the line, and moved forward to t lie attack on 12th October. Gallantly they struggled forward through the mud. Owing to the mud it had been impossible to bring up guns to send over even an ordinary bombardment, and there was practically no opposition to the German machine-gunners, who swept the front with a terrible machine-gun barrage. The density of this fire, coupled with the uncut wire, proved an insuperable obstacle to the attack, which eventually was off. Very heavy casualties were by the New Zealanders, particularly by s the Canterbury and Otago battalions. In view of the weather' and its consequences, the task was an impossible one, and the failure did not. tarnish the reputation of the division.