NEW ZEALANDERS ON THE SOMME.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 219, 13 January 1917, Page 2

NEW ZEALANDERS ON THE SOMME.

(By Malcolm Ross, Correspondent with, the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in France). (Continued from yesterday.) FURTHER PROGRESS Still swinging towards the left, the New Zealanders were now called upon to capture a road nortli-west of Grove Alley and Factory Corner, beyond the Flers support line, and. that accomplished, to attack portion of a line known as Goose Alley, and a section of a road crossing it at an acute angle. After nightfall posts were pushed on to the rising ground on our front, and a line consolidated there. The attack was fixed for 12.35 p.m., and all who witnessed it were agreed that it "was a thrilling sight to see the battalion going steadily forward to their objective. Again they wero in luck's way, the opposition was not great, and the positions wero seized with little difficulty, and with but few casualties. A lieutenant of the Otagos did fine work in the fighting for Goose Alley. He was in command of the leading company in the attack, and when the position was taken it was found that the unit on the left was being bombed back, with the danger of exposing his own left flank. He at once organised a strong party with bombs, and after a stiff fight succeeded in driving off the enemy. He followed this up with the construction of a strong point, and afterwards there was no more trouble from that quarter. STIFF FIGHTING OX THE GIRD LINE. Ahead of all these captured positions was the Gird line, already referred to. It consisted of a front trench, well wired, and" a support trench, in front and to the right and left of the village of Guciulecourt The New Zealanders had to storm about a thousand yards of this lino away to the left of the village, between the Ligny Tiloy-road and Goose Alley, the untaken bit of which was also* included in the operation.

lii tlie front line were Canterbury and Otago Battalions, the Aueklanders being iu reserve. The movement was a somewhat complicated one, there being a bend in the line, so that the infantry could not start parallel with their, objective. Again our gallant follows went forward a s if on parade, slowly, and with heads erect, behind the barage. Not a single man in all the lines flinched. An officer told me afterwards that even the men whom one thought mi'dit be wanting in courage in such a great trial went calmly forward like the bravest. Whatever one says about artillery winning the war, one cannot shut one'; eyes to the fact that it is the infantryman that bears the real heat and burden of the fight. To clamber over the parapet in broad daylight and move slowly across the open, hugging the somewhat uncertain creeping barrage; to go through the enemy's barrage of high explosive and shrapnel; and then to dive into a trench where the ±oc may be waiting for you with rifle, machine-gun, bomb, and bayonet,, re- j quires coolness and superb courage. These qualities the New Zealand infantry displayed in a markid degr.ee on the Homme. In this particular instance their gallant bearing was so Croat that they even straightened up . their line as if they were really on the 'parade ground, with the result hat some actually got into their own barrage. But, still undaunted, they marched ' gallantly forward. & The Canterbury* got up without difficulty, and dug in ou a new hue just in front of Gird Support. Less foitunate, the Aueklanders came up aga.nst barbed wire that, in a skelteicd JO sition. had escaped the fire of our aitillerv "Here an Auckland infantryman up by the barbed wire and the German rushed right up in the began throwing bombs into the enemy trench. His action helped to save a critical situation. A Z Scant of the same battalion went through fire both ways to bring grenades up to the trench, grimly sticlung t 0 his work until the trouble was over. It Leant of the Canterbury -though too buried by earth from shel explosions, stuck to his work manfully. Se was another Canterbury sergeant 3ho gathered about him the only men eft from his- Lewis gun sec, rem. and gaUantly pushed forward righ up to the Gorman wire, where he brought his gun into action, and was chiefly instrumental in breaking the enemy's resistance at tlmt^nt I am purposely staxiu o in a cofd matter-of-fact way because no language of mine could do justice io such gallant acts. The reader can exercise his own imagination m filling in the details. And it must not be forgotten that it is quite impossible to mention one hair of the brave deeds that are performed in such actions. To give more than a few instances would simply be monotonous repetition. ; 'At the risk of this, however, I may be permitted to mention just one or two other exploits. There is the stirring story of a corporal in the Otagos. When they were being badly cut v.v by the heavy artillery and machine-gun fire, he volunteered to go f° to ' get- information. He want a kail of bullets to v/j*hin sixty Jtt'ijffc of

the enemy‘s front line, and returlled with the necessary ill.t'ornl-ation. Later ,he went out again. Finding one of our. Lewis guns near the enemy linse, he returned with this information, then went back once more, tool: <_-harge of the party, and held on for thitry-eight hours until relief came. There was :1 corporal in the Cunterburys who, when high enough ground could not be found to fire his Lewis gun, knelt down and allowed it to be fired from his own back until his company was able to advance. The team had both its guns put out of action. This man then picked up a German rifle and bayonet: and went on with the first wave of our advancing troops. After the enemy

position had been captured he voluntarily went through the German barirage for picks and shovels and also‘ }to carry messages. He made several daring t.rip,'s bac;lm'al'd and f_ol-ward and crowlled his daring work by helping an exhausted linesman into safety. When the .»Tulcklanders were held up in front of this wire, oflicers and men began to i'all,i but, through the lines of dead and wounded, other waves went unfalteringly forward. Eventually they gained their. object and dug in on the left. of the Canterburys. A company of the Otagos bombed up Goose Alley, and succeeded in driving the Germans back to its junction with the Gird trench. There they hoped to meet. men of their own battalion, but these had not succeeded in getting up, so the Otagos put: a “block” in the trench and held on. A company of the Wellington.s' was , then sent‘ up in support, and the position consolidated. I

Meanwlmile the other companies of this battalion had moved across the open, but here again officers and men had fallen ip confiderable numbers under heavy nl'tillel'y and nlaehine-gun fire, and so had been unable to reach the Uird line. For some time the situation at the junction of Goose Alley and Gird Trench remained ob.~:cul'e. Fighting continued on rather unsatisfactory lines, so far as we were concerned, and the second and fourth battalions werc placed with the Brigadier, under whose orders this attack was being c:n'rie(l out. Finally the situation was cleared up, fresh communication trenches were cut to counteract an advantage still held by the enemy, and on the night of the 28th—29tl1 the Brigade, in which the casualties had been considc-rably increased, were relieved. Some time was now spent. in consolidating the positions gained, and here, for {L time, operations remained stationary, preparatory to another attack on the German lines.