THE NEW ZEALANDERS.

Taihape Daily Times, 7 September 1918, Page 6

THE NEW ZEALANDERS.

TINE WORK AT REINOOTJBT. RAPID PROGRESS AGAINST STERN OPPOSITION. August 31. Yesterday ended with two more villages in our hands—Bancourt and Fremicourt. As you already know they fell to North Islanders and the Rifle Brigade. Through the day the New Zealanders fought extremely well; indeed, the more one sees of their work and of the battlefield they had to fight over the greater one's admiration becomes. Their dash, determination,' and

initiative are simply superb. They advanced over a wide front, and penetrated deeply, killing many Germans, making many prisoners, and capturing

enumerable machine-guns and some artillery. They did all this in the face of stern opposition, for there is 210 denying the fact that the enemy in this sector has all along been fighting a rearguard action remarkably well. His machine-gunners are stout fellows, who fight till we are on top of them, but the German Higher Command is mthlessly sacrificing them in order to save his artillery. Yesterday the New Zealanders on the right had very hard fighting, as •Reincourt, to the south of them, wias still held by the enemy. They went gallantly forward to their objective in spite of the difficulties that confronted them. It was typically open •warfare; men worked as though on a field day, sections rushing forward under fire, then firing on hostile machinegunners and allowing other sections on their flianks to nucve forwand. On their left the Rifles were counter-at-tacked and their posts driven slightly iback, but the troops on the left conformed to the line and the enemy made Ho great progress. Casualties were caused by machine-gun fire from Reincourt from huts to the north-east of "Villers au Floss and sunken roads in the same locality, one of our best offisers being killed and another wounded carlu in the morning, but the latter carried on all day. In two days we ihad made an advance of 6000 yards in spite of strong opposition. Notwithstanding this speedy advance all the battalions had managed to get their food right up to the front line posts, and the men had their meals except some on the extreme left flank. Our artillery, taking great risks have also pushed forward to the extreme limits. To-day I saw both cookers and artillery side by side, and one officer laughingly remarked that the enemy was being chased home by 18-pounders and cookers The Rifles also did splendid work yesterday, Late at night orders came for an attack at 5 a.m. For this, troops were told off who had /done the two

attacks at Puisieux. The order was Jo take Fremicourt, These- troops, who had been bivouacing away north of Bapaume, moved forward at 3 a.m. for a two miles' march at a hurried pace,

and arrived at the assembly point just at the time the barrage was due to commence. They waited ten minutes, as if to get their second wind, and advanced to attack practically without ihalt. They then fought their way for 2500 yards. The enemy was taken by surprise and many were killed or cap-

tured in and about their billets on the

•B'apaume-Cambrai road. During the day some 250 prisoners were taken. Late in the day our Eiflemen, going into dugouts to look for resting places for the night, came upon sheltering Germans and captured them in twos and threes. One man found six German officers in one of the dugouts. In a hour and a half our men were on a portion of the ridge 500 yards beyond Fremicourt. The troops on the left had meantime been held up in the trench system near Beugny, across

the Cambrai road, and our Eiflemen

at close of the day found themselves on a ridge with the enemy on the same xidge to the right and left of them. 'The company commander sat there til! nearly two i n the afternoon with the. enemy on both flanks. "When the enemy came at him again he fell Lack reluctantly but only for a short distance. Owing to the * precautions adopted by our troops and their skill in taking advantage of the ground, the total casualties for the day were only about fifty. Against this was the toll of German dead and wounded and a big haul of prisoners. Some of these troops had to force their way through a big railway siding in which there were ton lines and stacks of timber, ammunition, engineers' stores and huts. Here the enemy had made a stand with one company, many of ■whom had been put out of action, but ie still held the position obstinately all day and remained there at night. "We had no barrage, on this part of the front, so one small party of Kifles "was told to rush the place at dawn without a barrage. This they did, surprising the enemy, killing 18, and taking the rest prisoners. They were greatly delighted with their adventure. . Ahead the enemy' still held high ground, and he was sniping from there during the whole afternoon and our men dare not rise a finger. We did

not shell the village, but shelled the area indiscriminately. By this time, however, our men had dug in, and were scattered, so casualties were not heavy.

This morning, before dawn, the enemy, commenced a heavy bombardment of our newly-acquired positions, and about six o'clock his infantry, cpunter-attacked with the assistance of tanks. Some of these tanks got through our line of posts in the drizzling grey of early morn and the infantry followed in their wake in the semi-dark-I ness. Several of these Germans were not noticed. As the light improved our men saw them, but mistook them for Tommies, They, however, did not an--1 swer to name, so our men took alarm, the moment they found they were Bosches they began to shoot. In all between 50 and 60 prisoners remained in our hands as a result of this counter attack. The tanks seem to have made a semi-circular sweep and got back to their own lines. About midday I came across some of our artillery cleaning up the breach of a, captured German 77 which they were going to use on any other German tanks that might have the courage to come over the rise. I asked them what they were going to do about sights for the gun, and they smilingly replied that they had some that they had taken from other guns in previous fighting souvenirs. Yesterday, Maori pioneers had had a god with this same gun. They knew more about the pick and shovel than about sights and range-finding, but they got some tips from a passing gunner and fired Bochc ammunition back at the ridge he was holding. At battalion headquarters, where we had to keep out of sight for fear of enemy observation, we found ' our Riflemen cleaning up two of the great anti-tank German rifles which take two men to fire them and kick Mke' ! .an army \m|ul : e. There rwas a good supply of the big cartridges with their armour-piercing bullets ready at hand. |

Troops on the right had also had the experience of a German counter-at-tack, and six tanks penetrated their lie about 500 yards, causing their posts to fall back a short distance. At a later ■ hour I hear they re-established their line and had taken some prisoners.

Among the prisoners captured recently -was a very swagger cavalry officer and his servant. This officer was presumably on a visit to friends at the front, not knowing how insecure it was. He was disconsolate but still haughty under strange circumstances. One of our gunners who was wounded was sent back with a verbal message, but missing his way .arrived in Boche lines and was taken prisoner. Next day to Ms surprise, two of our tanks appeared out of the blue, so he promptly took his own captors prisoners, and wounded as he was, proudly marched them back to our own lines.

This morning from the high ground in front of Fremicourt we got a close view of the enemy positions, and watched the shelling on both armies along the front line. A battery of artilelry was trotting into* action within sight of the enemy, who immediately began pouring shells on to the road, but the .battery got safely down into a little valley, unlimbcred, and a few minutes later we saw the drivers trotting back by another road, while the Germans were still shelling the road they had come, but the guns were in position very close up for a further infantry advance. Going back we passed through the cemetery where stands the monument in honour of those who fell here in IS7O. The Germans had buried French soldiers whom they killed her in 1914 as well as their own men. At each grave there was a headstone giving the names and regiments of both French and Germans. In this same French cemetery the Germans had, since their recent occupa-

tion, erected a white stone monument, to the memory of their own dead in this war. Both monuments were chipped by sheilfire, and at the foot of the German one almost touching it, lay with blackened face and outstretched limbs still in his field grey a dead German soldier.