FIGHT FOR PASSCHENDAELE HEIGHTS.

Taihape Daily Times, 7 October 1918, Page 6

FIGHT FOR PASSCHENDAELE HEIGHTS.

anniversary OF GRAVENStaper. The first anniversary of the battle of Abraham Heights and Gravenstafel fell on Thursday last. This was one of the great victories of the third Ypres campaign, a victory for British soldiership and British generalship alike. It was known after the success of September 20 and 26 that the enemy was preparing a counter stroke. The British command determined to forestall him, and did so by a few minutes. In fact.the Australians met the Prussian Guard in full career in No Man’s Land, and after breaking it, swept on to the assault. The New Zealanders and Australians formed a single solid phalanx in Hie centre of, the battle line from GravenstaY&l Spur and Abraham Heights to Broodseinde and Molenarelsthoek. Together they were the greatest overseas force which has ever attacked the enemy. To the north were Scottish and English regirdents; to the south an English force. The New Zealanders attacked to the north of the Roulers railway, ' They started under a handicap similar to that at MessfmSs. As their line bulged they could not set out in waves of assault. Some of them ran backward when their barrage opened, and then rushed forward, carrying out both movements at the double, and coming into line with their comraces on either side. The' swamp of the Hannebek stretched between the New Zealanders and the heights they were set to take. Continuous British gunfire had lifted the brook out of its bed and turned it inti*- nfhilmerabre fTidkles through the mud. On the level ground men stuck up to their knees; in the shell holes they went up to their belts. While they were strugling over nearly half a mile of bog in the river valley their barrage went ahead of Them and was amost lost. As the hostile blockhouses were strongly manned, the loss of the barrage would have meant practical disaster. But the men struggled against the ?|-.ud, and by a magnificent combination of strength and agility caught up with their barrage, and under its protection won a complete and rapid victory. Yet the resistance they met was very strong;. The enemy commander had packed this part of the line with

troops, either with a view to developing his expected victory round Polygon Wood, or to breaking a counter thrust against his assaulting divisions. Otto Farm, close to the jumping-off place, was full of hostile machine guns, as the flames through The loopholer" quickly showed. The New Zealanders carried the redoubt, taking 50 prisoners, and went on to the stronger concrete work of Van Meulen, midway between Abraham Heights and Gravenstafel. For half an hour this stronghold held out. Then there was a lively fight at Berlin Farm about. Grayenstafel, * 'until the New Zealanders brought up Stokes’ guns and, flinging more than 30 rounds at the fortress in less than two minutes, killed every German in the work. About Gravenstafel were a number of “pill boxes,” but. these were gradually reduced, and the New Zealanders captured the spur, going beyond their objectives and crushing a counter attack in double force. Men from all parts of the dominion Wore engaged and the New Zealanders took over 1000 prisoners. Gravenstafel is one of the proudest names in the record o? the New Zealand Army. It was a set battle, for which the enemy was as prepared as he could be. His barrage was the worst the New Zealanders ever encountered, and th mud was an appalling obstacle. Had the New Zealanders failed there would have been every excuse for them, but there was no failure. Indomitable spirit overcame all difficulties7and snatched a victory comparable with any of the hardfought strugges in which the Dominion’s troops have been engaged.