A SOLDIER’S LETTER.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 219, 31 January 1917, Page 2

A SOLDIER’S LETTER.

(Continued from Yesterday). “When the weather was favourable —which was seldom the case—we carried on with our training. In the second week in May we received marching orders, and went to a town called Estaircs. The billets were better hero and there were many things of interest in the town. Here it was that we were introduced to the wierdcst thing

imaginable in the way of musical instruments. The proprietors of the estamincts called them pianos. We were struck with the novelty of the atrocities for a day only, and then we called them all the bad names we could think of. It was really amusing at times to hear a New Zealander fluently cursing the instruments and to note that the proprietress, in her ignorance of English, accepted his remarks as praise for the instrument, and kept it going vigorously. These machines arc bigger than a piano, and are worked on the musical-box system. When one is set in motion the clanging of a piano (loud pedal) a drum, a triangle, and the crash of brass cymbals cause a riot of sound. Other noises, probably caused by the working of the ponderous innards of the contraption, join promiscuously in the medley of sound. If you took an extra bad circus band, a piano with sledge-hammers for strikers, and a badly worn barrel organ, and set them going in direct opposition, you would produce a similarity of sound. It may heighten the effect if you were to throw in two fighting dogs at just about the middle of the disturbance. The French women love these machines, and it was rather a common experience to enter an estamiuet where a noise riot was in full swing, and be grasped about the waist by a French woman and swung round in the giddy intricacies or a dance of some weird kind. These women seemed such refined creatures until that infernal machine was started, and then they rioted. Oh, those machines! To forget them is impossible. Our stay at Estaircs was very short, but long enough under the circumstances. On the night of May 12 wo marched to Armentier.es, which is situated less than two miles behind the firing line, and is consequently veil within range of the German artillery. Next day we went into the firing line, and heard the whizz of the first hostile shells to come our way in our. new operations. Tlic -Australians wore on oui right, having arrived some days before we did. We relieved the Staffordshire and Lincolnshire regiments, and the 50th. and 51st Machine Gun Companies. Afmentieres was alleged to be a very quiet part of the line, and we were encouraged by the fact that one Machine gun company had been three months in the line without having sustained a ca- ' sualty. Onn company was in the line only a few hours when one man was xilled and one wounded by the same bullet. Five of us were in a gun pit, and a sniper got in a succession of rapid shots, with the stated result. He must have been shooting from a tree on the left of the salient. That night our artillery introduced itself to the Huns, and there was a lively bombardment, recriminations being mutual, as it were. On the following night there were further noisy expressions of mutual hatred, and nineteen six-inch shells dropped behind onr gnu pit. Two bombardments and no casualties on onr side. We thought war was not so bad after all, and thereupon built up a false disrespect of German artillery. "Then came the raiding period. The Australians had made one or two successful raids on the enemy trenches, and one night the first New Zealand party went out, and the raid was most successful. These raids were carried out at various times, and were nearly always preceded by artillery activity. Sometimes the enemy trenches would toe blown to pieces by shell fire, and when tire raiders entered them they would find no living Germans, and the only things the raiding party would brunf back would be various kinds of trench material The Australians and New Zealanders made frequent raids, only one of which was unsuccessful in fact it was disastrous. About 150 men of the Otago Battalion went out, and the Germans seemed to be expecting them. The ground between the trenches was swept by artillery and machine-guns, and only about ten of that party escaped injury. Over 100 were killed in the leaden storm, and the disaster must have been due to German foreknowledge of the raid. < ‘ Gradually the Armenticres front became livelier, until events in that locality actualy began to figure in the official war news. If liveliness wag reported on that front you can rely on it that there was liveliness. Bombardments were numerous, and some were very severe and prolonged; and before the overseas troops had been in the line a month Armntieres had lost its claim to the title of “the quietest part of the line. ’ ’ Previously this front was regarded as a kind of rest camp for troops of both armies, and it was here that the Saxons and the Tommies arranged that Christmas armistice in 191-4. Overtures were also made to the Australians and New Zealanders, and the Huns promised not to shoot if wc refrained from doing so. On June 1 Lie Saxons gave us tiro first news of i Continued on Page 3.

the Jutland battle, by posting the details on a big placard. The battle was particularised in bad English, one item being: "You vas lose 14 battleships. ’ ’ Two days later the correct report of the engagement was written in German on a big placard, and posted above our parapet. Hostilities were temporarily suspended and during the interval New I Zealanders and Saxons wore talking to each other across the narrow space between tlu> trenches. This business was soon dropped, however, and the only conversation that was subsequently heard in this region was highly coloured • —in fact it was so crimson as to be almost visible. I must say that some of those Saxons were most proficient in the art of using English swear words. They knew a good many of the Australian ones, too. I have drifted from the subject of bombardments to that of picturesque language, but as both seem essential to warfare I cannot plead guilty to a real digression. “Of course, the line was not always lively, and there wore many periods of comparative quiet. The numerous raids aggravated the Germans, and they straffed us often. Sometimes an armoured train would bring up heavy ,guns near Lille, and we would be aware i t of the fact when contemplating our | ruined trenches next morning. Armentieres had not been so badly wrecked as the other towns, and when we arrived there the churches were all intact; but the Huns commenced to shell the town at intervals, and then they wrecked two fine churches. One morning I heard a heavy shell go over, and looked towards the town to find out what the target was. That first shell knocked a portion of the steeple off the church tower, and two succeeding shots hit the tower, setting it on fire. Next morning three more shells were put 'into the lower pant of the tower, destroying it completely. Later a dead set was made against another church, and the heavy shells did a groat deal of damage. Other parts of the town were shelled, and a good many civilians —mostly women and children —were killed. The town was being gradually destroyed, and many fine buildings were wrecked. The Germans adopted the policy of shelling the town every time our bombardments were effective, hoping, perhaps, that their ruthless methods would have the effect of stopping or lessening the severity of our bombardments.

“ There were two incidents worthy of special mention during our three months’ tenancy of the trenches at Armentieres. One night a number of Germans occupied one of our advanced ‘trenches, and a machine-gun officer (Lieut Kibblewhitc) led a party into the occupied trench and drove the Huns out. He was awarded the Military Cross not long before we reached the Somme, whore he was, unfortunately, killed. He was one of our best and most popular officers. The second incident was connected with the disastrous Otago raid. A private went out into the bullet-swept zone sixteen times, bringing in dead and wounded each time. He was one of those independent beings whose spirit no amount of military discipline will curb, and he was always in trouble; but he proved his worth on that occasion at least. I believe he was also recommended for some distinction. Other individual honours were also won while we were in this part of the line, but I am not sufficiently well acquainted with the details to supply an accurate description. “Of course, there were reliefs from the stress of the firing line, and we were able to spend a fair amount of time in the town. There arc a great many civilians in Armenticres, and some of the factories are still working, operations being suspended only when the employees find it necessary to seek the shelter of the cellars during bombardments. There are many very good shops, numerous estamiuets, and a divisional bath. Business is carried on as usual, and the people seem to havetaken the fact of war with an amazing amount of callous indifference. Children have been killed by German shells while they were playing in the streets, and old men and women have been buried in the shell-wrecked houses, but even these things elicit nothing more than a shrug of the shoulders, and a mixture of French and English to the effect that “Allemand no bon.’’ I cannot say if the story is true, but I have frequently heard it stated that in the days before great strictness was exercised in keeping civilians from the ' trenches, the French boys used to go night into the front line to sell chocolate and newspapers. In peaceful New Zealand such a statement may seem outrageous, but it would be in strict accordance with the peculiar nature of the French people. (To be continued).