NEW ZEALAND TROOPS.
. THEIR SPLENDID WORK, (From Captain Malcolm Ross, Official Corerspondcnt with the New Zealand 'Forces). Sommo Battlefield, Oct. 4. On t.lie authority of competent -judges outside our own force, it may now lie stated that no troops have done better in the Soiume fighting than the New Zealanders. Their valor, dash, initiative and endurance have m.t been excelled. Under depressing weather conditions, in critical situations, they more than fulfilled expectations. Much was asked of them; they did more. As one watched them, tired and sleepy, with torn and mud-caked clothing, coming out of the trenches into sodden bivouacs, one could not but 'wonder at their undaunted spirit.
Acknowledgment by the High Command of their undoubted achievements has given the greatest satisfaction in all ranks. A volume might be written about their great deeds, bravely done. There are scores of such that must for ever remain unrecorded —deeds unexcelled in any previous fighting. There are instances of men cheerfully giving their lives to save others—of sergeants and even privates taking command and leading their men with initiative and devotion to duty when every other officer in their company or platoon was killed or wounded. Some though wounded and wounded again, continued to lead their men under furious shelling, machine-gun and rifle fire. One with his hand almost shot away stayed with his men till killed in a charge. His body was found in a shell crater. The work of the supply and other sections, including the Pioneers, who are mostly Maoris, has earned the greatest commendation from the fighting units. The slopes leading (loiwn from the crest of the ridge between Del'ville Wood and High (Foureaux) Wood into and beyond Flers are strewn with the graves of heroes. These hillsides will for ever "be sacred to the memory of the great and successful. It is a bit of France to which present and future generations may make pilgrimage to pay homage at the shrine of New Zealand's honored dead. The New Zealanders on their part are marvelling more than ever at the spirit and organisation of the British armies. «
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Taranaki Daily News, 12 October 1916, Page 8
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350NEW ZEALAND TROOPS. Taranaki Daily News, 12 October 1916, Page 8
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