WALKS OF DEATH.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 December 1916, Page 3

WALKS OF DEATH.

GALLANT NEW ZEALANDEKS. Sergeant W. J. Hill, son of Mr. Sam Hill, formerly of New Plymouth and now on active service in Flanders, writes interestingly to his parents in Auckland concerning the recent Somme offensive. Referring to the strenuous twenty-three days in the trenches, he says:— "One thing I want to tell you is thai our boys were magnificent. Death had absolutely no terror for them, and their behaviour throughout was wonderful. Everything the division was asked to do was done without any hesitation, and the name New Zealand now ranks with the most famous regiments in the British Army. Oh! If only you could have seen the boys in their advances. Undeterred by shells and bullets, they walked up to the German trenches as if on parade, and although these, walks were always walks of death there was never any faltering, and at the end of those walks, too, there was never any mercy. The job was done thoroughly, and for once Fritz found that the pastime of hanging on to his machine-gun till the last minute and then surrenderingwas decidedly unhealthy. "Mercy, Kamerad" fell absolutely on deaf ears, and the carnage in those trenches was indescribable.

"Fritz proved himself an arrant coward, too, and at times the fighting developed into sheer butchery. The curs simply wouldn't fight, btrt-Wfih" many memories of atrocities still fresh in our minds it was not to be wondered ■ at that appeals for mercy were brushed aside. Details I'm not going to give yoti. They arc too ghastly. Suffice it to say that the New Zealandeis made lighters, and the reputation gained is a name for themselves as merciless going to stand us in good stead later on. "The boys stood up to the trials like heroes, and I didn't think I heard a single complaint. Our losses have no doubt made everybody feel sad; but the bereaved one? have the consolation of Knowing that for everj fallon New Zealandcr at least five Huns bit the dust." ..