THE NEW ZEALANDERS.

Taihape Daily Times, 8 October 1918, Page 6

THE NEW ZEALANDERS.

GAINS AT ROSSIGNOL WOOD. ENEMY PRESSED OUT OF THE POSITION. (From Malcolm Ross, War Correspondent with the N.Z. Forces.) New Zealand Headquarters, 30th July, RHB. About the well known Rossignol Wood, in our present sector, there has in the earlier stages of the war been /fierce fighting, in which the French, and, later, the British, took a hand. When the Germans in their recent thrust pressed back the British line across the Somme battlefield one of the positions they re-occupied on the northern corner of the old ground was this wood. Towards the end of this month Otago troops were fronting the enemy here. They had posts out in the corner of a square that made rather an uncomfortable salient. Farr ther along, the line bent round the wood in a salient that was just as unsatisfactory to the Germans. They did ont feel at all happy there. One day the redoubtable Otago patrols found that the enemy were no longer in the wood. The scouts kept working ahead all the time, occasionally killing a few Germans, and generally bringing back valuable information. It was in this fighting that Travis, the famous raiding scout, did such excellent work, and/ was eventually killed. I have dealt with his exploits in another article, so there is no need to repeat them here. The work of the Rifles on 15th July bad made the position of the enemy still more uncertain. On Saturday, the 20th July, our patrols reported that the enemy had been blowing up his pill boxes, and was evidently retreating from the wood. The Otagos pushed forward to keep in touch with the. retreating Germans. 'Auckland and Wellington also pushed out patrols. It was then decided to attack the enemy trenches in front of the wood. For this purpose some Otago men were specially trained, and had made themselves thoroughly acquainted with the ground. After a trench morfar bombardment, the men advanced in daylight at 5 o’clock on the Tuesday afternoon. There had been heavy, almost tropical, rtfn the day before, and the attack had, at the last minute almost, been'postponed from that day. The the Otagos went gaily forward, and got their first objective right away. In ten minutes they were in the trenches that were their second objective. These parties pushed on on the right, where the enemy seemed to be massing in a trench. They pushed down to the junction of a second trench. Here ; they ran out of bombs, and after using all the enemy bombs they could lay their hands on, they retired allotted positions and established a block in the trench. They brought back with them tw r o machine guns after having killed the crew’s. About sixty dead Germans, half of whom were killed by the artillery, were counted in the trenches. In this little attack we had, half an hour after the start, only ten casualties. Four prisoners and five machine guns were captured. Ration parties, small arms ammunition and bomb-carrying parties, moved up with great bravery under shell fire. Stretcher-bearers stuck closely and indefatigably to their work.

The following day was quiet, but on the Thursday the enemy put down a ieavy artillery barrage in the morning. As he was seen massing in his trenches for counter attack in the

evening, the s.o.s went up, and our artillery put down a very fine barrage. About forty of the enemy got over into a part of our trench on the right, owing to our bombs there having been blown up by a shell. Subsequently our men counter attacked, and won hack the position, after killing and wounding several of the enemy and capturing thirty prisoners. Of those about half were killed by their own retaliatory artillery fire as they were going back to the rear. A padre, with four prisoners, did fine work getting in the wounded. Some 'Americans who were with us in the line, were keenly interested, and very pleased with the result. •‘This will do us ?; they said. In this fighting sOme of the enemy storm troops fought well, and others bravely pulled their dead and wounded, but still others turned tail and fled. One ■German a regular Goliath. 6ft Tin. gave a lot of trouble but when he was eventually laid low his party faded away. The work of other Otago troops engaged on 20th July was equally satisfactory. They had a post before the fight within sixty yards of the enemy and from the 18th until the day of the fight the opposing parties used to look -at each other across the intervening strip of No Mail's Land. The Otago men at the right moment stole round this enemy position and pinched the Germans who were holding it. It was after this,that the Germans cleared out the wood. -The Otagos then moved through the wood and some Aucklanders co-operated with the Otagos in clearing the Germans out of

a trench on the south. It was decided to push on down a set of trenches that ran due south from the cast of the wood and a trench that ran southeast from the middle to the eastern edge of the wood. After going some distance the men found their path blocked by a mass of old and new wire that filled the trench. The men got out of the trench to continue their advance but were mot 'with the fire of machineguns -well placed. They hopped back into the trench and had to cut the wdre and pull it out under fire. This was a difficult and tedious process but it was successfully accomplished land - the'-advance continued. Meantime another party was proceeding down the trench that joined on to a sunken road almost at right angles. This trench also was found to be blocked with wire but not to the same extent as the other one. They got to. the sunken road with some casualties | It was about 1000yds in front of the wood. There was fighting in several of these saps and one machine-gun position with four Germans, was captured two of the enemy being killed and the -other two-taken as prisoners. In one place where a solid mass of wire was found in a trench, the men climbed out of the trench and doubled •in the open past the block till they could hop into the trench again. Others of--the enemy were bombed along their trenches. Most of these ran 1 back and our men pushed on but generally the enemy ran too fast to enable these Otagos to get at close grips wih him. Finally our men established themselves on their objectives. At one stage five Germans ■ were seen advancing from a sap in 1 front and a young Highland lieutenant ■ with two or three of his braves climbed out of the trench and fired on them with rifles. One was shot dead and the others then beat a hurried retreat up the sap.

In the counter attack already referred to, the particular Otagos at one stage saw a German officer and about twenty-five men coming towards them down another sap. The officer was shot through the head and dropped. The man next to him met the same fate. The others crawled into a depression, and commenced to bomb the New Zealanders. They also managed to get a machine-gun into action, and, under cover of this fire, commenced to move forward again. The Otagos,

however, got concentrated Lewis gun and rifle fire on to them. Six men were seen to fall. The rest turned tail, and ran into our s.o.s barrage, which at that moment came down, with disastrous results to these Germans. These Otagos had stood their ground throughout the operations without any demand for artillery support. In reply to queries, they always cheerfully reported that they were all right, and quite ready to ward off any attack with their rifles and bombs. The repelling of the German counter attack was remarkable for the prom, initiative" displayed by the platoon commanders, who had thought out th probabilities, and had made excellent dispositions to meet it. The Lewis gunners did some most effecting, and accounted for many of the attackers. A corporal with two men cleared a trench, and drove twelve of the enemy with a machine gun into the fire of our troops, he himself capturing the gun. A sergeant from a Northern battalion also did fine work in reorganising a post, on the Otago sector and. with six men. kept twenty of, the enemy at bay and prevented them from reaching our line. ; Altogether the New Zealanders had reason to be well pleased with their successes in this fighting and before it-had been brought to this final and successful stage the G.O.C. had already received from the Army Commander a letter —the substance of which I cabled at the time —eulogising the dash and initiative displayed by the New Zealand troops.