MILITARY IMPRESSIONS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 218, 22 February 1915, Page 6

MILITARY IMPRESSIONS.

MAJOR CORRIGAN AT THE FRONT OPERATION!" DESCRIBED IN DKTAIT HOW THE GERMANS ".MISSED THE •BUS." Major A, A. Corrigan, of the Fifth 'Regiment, Wellington, who lias just arrived from tin.' front, gave an interestin),' narrative of his experiences from a purely military point of view to a representative of the New Zealand Times 'the other day. Major Corrigan was at Montreal when war was declared, and he took the earliest opportunity of getting to London to report himself to the High Commissioner and the War Office. He was placed in communication with the .Admiralty, ami lils services were requisitioned in the organisation of the Royal Naval Division. organising tiii-: naval DIVISION. A Naval Brigade hud already brought together approximating 5000. but it was decided to increase it to a Division of about 24,000 He was gazetted a major in the Royal at-tsJ- the Crystal Pa'acj depot, one cf tlte four that,had boon fixed lor the orgar-isatlon and training of the division.

The r.UcliiCiV for recruiting the array ''ad become swamped. There were thousands cf men who had hee'i s*.*orn in, and tir re was tiO Vrtc&Jin of handling them, and this was a large factor in bringing ilio Royal Naval Division into existence. Immediately 3000 men were handed over bv the army authorities to the Crystal Palace depot. end 2000 more followed. For four nights thc«e men had no proper sl-eping neeommo'lation, but the hardiness of Hi- naval men soon asserted itself bv the manufacture of linmmocVr. which were swung in '~arion« buildings allot*'-'! to New Z"nlnnil Canada and .Australia. A start in the way of discipline was made with th'rtv Royal Naval Reserve officers, and this number was soon ircre-sed to 130. Th* first opera 4 ien was to the men into nominal battalions Then a. soW-mi vps 'TIP' I -' of rrn-eo'"nii ; - -"''l offnnrs. a "'I V-.-"- W r "-'' for-"l f> I>t-> had n-nerienee i- th-. V-. rie*"i war. Others at •—tim-s T>->.l ho'd rar-'->)i';sioTis i" different regime-ts, n r" of v-hem ws (he son of an admiral. Thus it ws fou"d that en ex+raordin-e-v co-minfliro; of all snMs of eompe'njlt "1™ 1'"'! r"qW'l f--m th" oil to defend the Empire. "One snmrUe '•-hi'-h fiv—itod Corriir" l . "was when f rra» to appoint an indi-idml as t-1 major. Idealise of his b""ri>"* and apnnrent. fitm<r-, to eom-""nd. Tlire" 'lavs Mer V v—e presented W i letter from i U"> W'r Or l -", i- wh'eli. 1>" r"-a.p-rn:nte<l to lii* oh l rank of Major in a rc"'"ient rf the line" The work at the Oryst*' P o 'ace ,v *s erceed'ngl" interesting. Parades commenced at 0.45 am. and as the new officers f»me in, squads were formed. Tlio-e vim had had exnorienee were mo=tl'- naval men. and thee li»d to be { trained for m'litarv d"tv. In the evening all the officers n"d non-commission-ed officers assembled i-> the Art Gallon-, •wher- lectures were delivered. AVhen i:li e organisations had been completed ''n 1 thine* were working fairlv smoothlv, Major Corrigan,. was granted leave to attend to some mercantile business, but he was instructed to hold himself in [ readiness to proceed to France ar.d Bel- | gium on special duty. [ AT THE FRONT. I This call was made on him shortly afterwards, and he had expected to proceed to Antwerp, but the rollapse of the defences there causer r. chang of plan", and bo was detailed to Belgium on a special mission as acting staff officer. In this capacity he had exceptional opportunities of witnessing a fairly large sphere of operations. A motor-car was placed at his disposal, with a transport captain, a Belgian sergeant as interproi ter. and a Belgian driver. His dul l ,' ' took him from Boulogne round through Calais, then into Dunkirk and out to Furnes, the headquarters of the Belgian army operating on this section from the vicinity of the town to the sen. The Belgian armv had consisted of about 120.000 men, but at this time the number had been depleted by exhaustion to about half. They held the line from the mouth of the Yser and the trenches

'•! front of Niouport, above the line of tho loft bank of the rivor. whore they wore stiffened by the Froneh, who then hold the lino until they functioned with the British at Dixmude. The first line of tronclies would bo, roughly 300 yds south of the rivor bank, whilst the German line would be from 300 to 400 yards on the right bank. The Belgian artili lery was very largely reinforced by the ] French artillery and a fair number of I French cavalry. I A POINT OF VANTAGE.

"When I arrived at Fumes at the end of October," remarked Major Corrigan, "the day had opened dull and misty. The drone of the aeroplanes overhead had already become familiar, and word passed along that the Germans were pressing forward a n artillery attack. A number of infantry had succeeded during the night in crossing the Ysor at its mouth and had taken up a position on the sand dunes to attack Niouport, -in the left. A wood intersposing between the town and sand dunes was strongly held by the Belgians. There an infantry engagement was developing. "I was fortunate on reporting at Nieuport to be taken in hand by the officer commanding the front line of trenches and later I was taken bv him to a point of vantaso—the too of an old fort known as the Templar Tower. There we had a panoramic -view of the whole operations. It was from this point that the various movements of the Germans were noted and reported. Nieunort had been battered into a heap of ruins, but strangely enomrh, though four siege guns were sending shells all round this tower was left untouched. Tile only explanation could lie that the Germans made sure of taking this section of tincoast,, and they wanted the tower themselves for observation purposes. Later on. however, shrapnel commenced to fly around, and it was considered wise to vacate the tower. FRENCH ARTILLERY WORK. "The artillery action developed quickly. and alTord 'd evidence of the extraordinary facility and deadly certainty of the 75 centimetre guns in the hands of the French artillerists. The ranging was usuallv done bv the smaller piece?. As the German batteries came into view from Zeebriiggo or Ramseapeile the 7.Ts got to work. Tliev seemed to belch to gotlier a series of shells the effect of which could onlv be seen through the glasses. At the finish nothing remained: batteries and men were wined clean out. The distance w-'i< about eOOO vards.'' The inundations completely hold _ up the (JriTian left, where could he plainlv SCO), the pieces abandoned in the awful debacle which resulted in 4000 being killed ami wounded and 700 prisoners taken.'' THE FRENCH CAVALRY. '■To the lnilltarv observer," continued Major Corrifsin. "it was verv interesting to see the handling of the reserve troops, which, owing to the continual reeonnnaisanee of the aeroplanes, were now required to be removed under cover of the davtaime. The reserve infantry lay under hedges; long lines of artillery wero drawn under trees close by the road. The one piece of color in a drab

scene was afforded by the French caval.-v —a splendid lot of men magnificent!* mounted and gloriously attired. The*', men had their light blue tunics witl. white cross-belt, red epaulets, and re'; and blue caps, so that they funned ver,. distinct targets. "As thev rode up to take a positio' on the left of the infantry engagement probably the lastoccasion was presented on which they would be seep, on a battlefield. All thy French and. Belgian troops are now being put in khaki." FIELD FORTIFICATIONS. "Tile whole of the country in this region was placed, in a thorough state of defence in the way of field fortifications and entanglements, with ready made gun emplacements, for which thousands of tons of barbed wire, plain wire, and expanded metal had been used. One fresh from military examinations would be surprised at the short field of fire allowed in many of these. This is one of the changes brought about by the pre sent war. After visiting the field of battle, the old style of fortifications at Dunkirk and Calais seemed, like tov boxes." A MARVELLOUS OVERSIGHT.

' Major Corrigan went o n to refer to I a gross tactical blunder on the part I of the Germans. "Taking the lino Calais! to h-t. Omer, the headquarters of the I Third' A™.;; Cor?" in tins aidi'a cf Oct- ] ober, the distance is enly al).v.ii llrirlj j miles, and to Boulogne twenty miles. Why the Germans had not long ago occupied Dunkirk, Calais, and Boulogne is a matter which caused me great surprise. The little army made up by the British expeditionary foree could have been easily kept engaged, and thera was nothing to prevent the German legions from sweeping round! by the coast.: That. i n the circumstances., the British] h"lil the situation was a marvellous piece of good luck. It must be remembered that the whole country is beautifully roaded, and there was every facility for tile rapid transport of troops. GOOD WORK BY THE NAVY. "An interesting feature of the operations in this quarter was the work of the navy from the North Sea in assailI im; the" German positions round about Middlekerke. The monitors, with sixinch guns, kept up a continual fire from the sea over the san dunes. The Germans were able to find positions for the big guns close to the coast, and to retaliate. and they did some remarkably accurate shooting. One shot aimed at a monitor decapitated the commander of the bridge. "At. this time the handiness of tee naval men was demonstrated. A number of Admiralty tugs of very lig'ii draught were fitted up with Oin guns, anil thev were able to sail close into the coast, where the German guns could not range them. Their fire was directed by wireless from aeror'"-"'s overhead, Each time a, gun was the tu^ was awash. The moaning of these guns —from the tugs by da" and the monitors by night—never ceased." AEROPLANES AND MOTOR CARS. '"1 he work of the aeroplanes eonsiitv.ted, as we all know, the greate-l departure in tactics. The daily reconnaisssance is done chiefly from above, and it was'an interesting sight to sen the British and French aeroplanes quicklv circling round below the Oerjnan Taubes to interfere as much as possible with the latter's observations. Of course, the allies' airships never got right underneath those of the Germans, as bombs woetd have been dropped on to them.'' •'Notwithstanding the great successes along the line, the Germans, a little above Dixmude, had temporarily broken through one section, which was pushed back in I'lacs as much as eight miles. At this juncture the armed motor-cars came into play. At a speed from 40 t..i 00 miles they would dish along a road, locate a n ambush either of infantry o: Uhlans, and after putting in some quickfiring, would so rapidly manoeuvre that they were rarely hit in return. The motor men seemed to enjoy themselves just as much as if they were at a picnic.

HORRORS OF THE BATTLEFIELD.

'•You ask about casualties. During the I firstJialf hour on<> has a fascination to j observe those who ar-; being liit, and i the sights presented ore not pretty, rne ; worst were afforded by those slightly i wounded—men limping back with the Ik lp of the ambulance corps, with the passion of hate imprinted on their countenance from the injury which had been inflicted. But one quickly learns to dis-1 regard that kind of thing as being un- ) conducive to steady heroes. One loses J th e curiosity just about the same timo j us the habit of ducking at the sound of shot and shell is dropped. The extraordinary coolness of the men at work is contagious. At no time did I see an ambulance h-tarer or an ammunition carrier take any cover whatever. The most direct course is always chosen irrespective of the danger run going to and from the trenches. If I was asked which was the greatest boon to the soldier, I would say it is the cigarette. The soldiers smoke cigarettes incessantly. Tt gives them an air of i-onchalence and seems to be a marvellous source of comfort." GERMANS NOW ATTACK IX TURK LINKS. Major Corrigau, on being interrogated as to the. German method of attack in close formation, said: "thanks to tlie constant attention which Ims been giv. 11 to that matter in the English press, the Germans no longer come, aloiur in one mass. They have learnt the futility of that mode'of attack and now come up to the trenches in three lines of two ranks, with a fair interval between each. But the British met this departure by saving ammunition for the last line. Tli-> first and second are allowed to conic forward near enough to be dealt with by the bayonet. The musket arid milchin" guns do their deadly work right at the end." LORD KITCHENER'S FORESIGHT. IMerrin" to Lord Kitchener's adiuinis- * ration. Major C'orrigan said that his inflexible rule was that not man should be sent to the front who had not passed' th ( . proper standard of training. .Apart from the tremendous difficulty of suplilving troops with arms and equipment, it is understood that the reinforcements could have been carried out much mere ouicklv but for this hard-and-fast rule. If was the hieli standard of training of every man of the expeditionary force that saved France by the masterly retreat which was made from Mods.