A SOLDIER'S LETTER.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 219, 1 February 1917, Page 2

A SOLDIER'S LETTER.

(Kg M (Continued from Yesterday). a K "On August 15th we were relieved * by a Highland Division, and next day $ we entrained for Abbeville. We then K commenced our long march to Frieourt, M and were billetted in numerous towns H and villages on the way. We passed j£j through some very interesting country £ en route, and by mid-September we * were ready for the attack on Flers 8 and the ridges beyond. We were eamp--5 ed near Frieourt, and were given many M opportunities to visit the old German $ front line, with its numerous subterJjJ ranean chambers. The old front has H been badly battered, and many' of the H dug-outs have been wrecked. Villages % were reduced to piles of broken bricks, * and the woods in the vicinity were * blasted and splintered by the devastating! ing guns of war. The damage done in M the vicinity of Frieourt and to the old ►< trench line on what is now called King a George's Hill was enormous. Guns of jj|j all calibres were thundering along an * extended front for days while we were !p approaching the Sonnne battlefields, and we were now in front of our heavily er guns. Day after day thousands of M light and heavy guns were screeching in their flight towards the German posiK tions, and the bombardment was at •£• times so intense that one was almost i » inclined to pitv the poor wretches who , were in the shell-stricken area. I On September 15 two of our brigades j commenced a series of advances against j the German positions, one brigade be- j ing held in reserve till next day. Two j \m tanks accompanied the New Zealand- | W ei's and others were used in the vicinity i j| for the first time that day. I did not ! m sec the two brigades in action, as I I jjg was with the reserve brigade; but we i M saw sonic of their work next day, when i m we were moved up to the line, as Ger- j B man dead were everywhere. If the l| Frdcourt area could be described as belt ing devastated it would be difficult to m find a word to describe the position ' p;j in which we were now situated. Acres H of ground were riddled witb shell holes, H and there appeared to be more holes | than solid ground. We moved across p the shell-torn open ground under shell J| fire until w 0 were ordered to take W cover until nightfall. Shells were drop- [•',. ping very close to us and at this stage § I became a useless member of the ExJ| peditionary Forces. Two pieces of shell W got me in the left leg, and about an M hour later I severed my connection y with my company and mr.de the acI quaintance of the Medical Corps. Next g day I was no longer a unit of the Now II Zealand Division on field service, as |J I was on my way to hospital. HowIf ever, wounded men who came in later told me that the Division was in the line fon twenty-three days and made five advances during that period, which ' is claimed to be a record for the Somme district. "Just a word or two about the tanks, j They represent th e limit of ugliness, and were probably suggested to the designer by something awful in the way of nightmares. They are each grotesquely painted by a variety of colours splashed on indiscriminately, and to an art critic they may or may not i resemble a Cubist impression of a piebald ship in a pink sea. These atrocities are credited with peculiar powers, and are able to cross a ditch eight feet in width, knock down big trees, and climb steep banks (some say precipices). One of the beasts certainly performed an astonishing feat at Flers. It butted into a partly-destroyed brick building, the walls of which gave way. The beast kept on its course, but was lost to sight beneath the wreckage un- | til it emerged like a huge mole from the pile of bricks on the other side of what used to be the building. Of course, a house is not worth living in after a tank has passed through it. I suppose pictures of the tanks have reached New Zealand, and you already know the shape of the beast, but if you tried for a week you could not even imagine the colour design. >'