THE SOMME BATTLE.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 January 1917, Page 8

THE SOMME BATTLE.

A RETURNED SOLDIERS' lUPRE-S SIOXS. (From Our Wellington Correspondent.) "Yes, I took part in the big push! But 1 don't think I can tell you anything about it that you have not read already in the newspapers. We saw our little bit of the 'scrap,' and that ivas all. We did not know much about what was going on even half a mile away, and personally I had no clear i<ic-.i of what we were about until I read the papers after my arrival in hospital. I knew that we had been in the thick of a mighty bis fight, and that our boys had done well." This was the answer of one of the returned soldiers who reached Wellington on, Tuesday, when ho was ■asked for his impressions of the Somma abttle.

This soldier, like most of his companions, proved unwilling to elaborate his story to any extent. He mentioned that his company had been in billets in a quiet French village shortly before (he big attack. Then they were moved forward and saw something of the stupendous bombardment that preceded their advance on the enemy trenches. "The guns had been thundering for days, and their final effort was beyond anything that I can describe. The earth seeined to rock with the continuous con cussion, and one's mind was numbed in a curious way. There seemed to be. quns of all sorts behind us, and the size of the shells they were sending- against the Germans could be gauged by the noise they made overhead. But we were not taking much interest in that, or in anything else except our own particular job. Our objective had been explained to us, and we waited in the trenches for the word to start forward,

"Frankly. 1 have no very clear recollection of what happened after Ave went over the top and made for the enemy lines. There was nothing of the traditional charge about it. We did not dash impetuously forward, as one of the correspondents said; we plodded along with our heavy packs over ground inconceivably broken by our guns. There was death all around, and a sort of mad :x----citement, too. Suddenly we. were in a German trench, where a few poor devils who had been under our bombardment put up a feeble fight. We were there a few minutes, I suppose, ajid then we were, off again. I found myself on the ground and realised that I was a casualty. And that is really all I saw of the big push, for pretty soon I was moving to the rear with (he other wounded, and presently I was in hospital, feeling very restful and wondering what luck my pals had experienced." Some of the other returned men had seen more of the actual fighting, and they all spoke very confidently of the future prospects of the British army, which had "fairly got the measure" of the Germans. "Our chaps—that is British and colonials,—-will never be worried about having a go at the Geiinans now," said one man. "We know that wc. can beat them, man to man. We are better trained and we hav< got better guns, and more of them Then our side can do pretty well what it likes in the air, and that makes all the difference in the artillery fighting. We used to watch our aeroplanes moving up and down over the German lines and spotting for our guns, while if a German flyer "anie our way it was chased off at once. There may be lots of ffyhUng yet, but our fellows know they me going to win, and the Germans know it too."