THE NAVAL BRIGADE.
HOW SAILORS CAPTURED BEAUCOURT I El) BY HEROIC NEW ZBALAXDER London. Nov. :li) The officer of the Royal Naval Division who gallantly led tlie force which' captured Beaueourt in uid-November, turns out to bp Lieutenant-Colonel Horn aril Cecil Freybcrg. D.S.O. This officer. \vi\o is now Iviiifr seriously ill in London villi four wounds, is only tw entv-sev'M years of age. He i a New Zeala.ider by birth. He joined a battalion of the R.N.D. in August, 1014, and went >vith it to Antwerp, where his hand was badly damaged by live wires m the Belgian entanglements. Later he went to Gallipoli with his battalion, and was award ed the D.S.O. for swimming ashore 011 .April 21 in tlie Gulf of Saros and lighting fires, which made the Turks believe that a landing was contemplated at this point. He. received minierou l wounds in llallipoli, and .vas mentioned in the evacuation despatches. He hn* commanded his battalion for nearly eighteen months,, In Jiia narrative of the Beiiuconr„ fight Mr. Percival Phillips, of the s|-oalcß of the I'.N.D. ar. v.- battle fot 1 lie first time.' Some of Hit men concerned in the Ancre battle m.y\ have iv ccivid" their baptism of fire there, but many of them, like Lientenant-Colonc Freybcrg, tasted the bitters of war tu Antwerp, and supped them io the fnf. at Gallipoli. There, 1 believe. Lieuten-an'c-Colonel Freybcrg received no less thp.n fourteen wounds in two doses. Some of tlie R.N.D. men who were at Beaueourt have, 1 understand, been right through, the Gallipoli campaign from start i? finish, and have actually had nc
leave since they loft the Old Country > Naturally those hardened veterans takjj J exception to Mr. Phillip's ignoring thell! }' pre-Beauconrt record and d«B?riblnjj ■ £ them as boing in baiUo for the first time* This is the story of the* fightinfc «t< November 13 and 14. which ended M i the Germans being swept from their linct J beyond Beaucourt, Beaucourt Hatnel ans .* St Pierre Divion, as told by ft Chronic]# j-' correspondent:— "The narrative of those 1 days and of that fighting can nevei be told in fnlf, | so'jjrfat is the mnltitnde' of single "her*Hw isms and obscure devotions. .Brit jplV account of it, however partial and pW* % '} iimctorv. enn omit the attack of thd Naval Division. ... SS "The line they hold, and from whicltt X fho\ attacked, extended from the Anrro V northwards to just below Beaucourt, anA,4:| tlieii oil jective included that sprawling t l , ma-.e of trenches and "ommunieatioHJf--'J and' machine gun redoubts which ftft Germans had constructed in this se<H lion, and (lie village of Beaucourt-SUM Ancre itself.' ... , * THE ATTACK BEGINS. N The moment of attack came shortly! *■ before dawn on the Monday mornlny.' ■ , . The barrage went screimmg , over, erupting 111 the dimness as it.tortf :«'S dov.n the great harrier of wire beford the German positions. Eight feet hlgK it stood, .forty to fifty feet wide,' madff of finger-thick strands of wire; and t!ui . \ barrage mowed it like grass... , ThMf „ came the, foment when the fire curtail' ' dragged ?oniprd. It was. the time ap< pointed, and over went the first wave. '/J;! "Before them, the ground over whictt y and towards which they had to adyaaecf lifted in the .middle to a ridge, with iW v.'hale-nose lying towards them, steeped ? 011 tlie river side than upon the north; Upon the slope of this there was a Ge» man redoubt, a little fortress . . arip' ed "with a battery of machine-guns which' •" commanded tlie forward and aorth.cn < ' slopes of the ridge. It was tyrtnaljT \ behind the German first line, firing over it, and while tlie men of the f\rat two' ' 1* battalioijj upon the right were able to $ ao forward and thrust into the German 1 ne and occupy their portion of it their comrades of the two battalions upon their left found themselves under a driv* 11 ing sleet of bullets against which B<f 1 advance was possible. ' , ATTACK HIJNG UP. r\. v "The attack was hung up on the left, ; • Piompt and eager, over came tlie re 1 1 , serves, to be met likewise by th&atorMi • of bullets, while upon the. right tha other battalions found themselves d!hea4»j)i of their comrades thrusting on with S!< 1 naked flank Aelow the partial shelter 0: the steeper slope towards Beaucourfa Their leader, a colonel commanding on< \ of tlie battalions, had been wounded ono4 1 already in the first minutes of tie at«t " tack, while crossing No Man's Land; ImU ' was wounded again shortly 'after, reach* ing the first objective. » FOUR TJJMES WOUNDED. "So Was wounded , twice more n.orning; but it was lie who held ttl<l. . attack upon the right together and car'!"', ried it on till tlie remnants' of it 'werq . close before Beaucourt flamel ' , , "Here, where the German line beford the village confronted liim, he collect' cd the t forces within reach. Of tyeso i still living ana unwounded (or not serl« : (Hisly wounded) he gathered together ' a stot'iniiig force of 2">o of ion, 11") of another, fifteen of'a thirds aiul some fifty men from the brigade on . tlie left, who had inexplicably got round or through t)ic machine-gun fire knJ joined him. ' ' « '■Note that they had eot 4i rough? thev were separated from +>*'* own unit; they were alone and without dN rection; but they hail gone forwarl to'> wards the village still. With this forca f lie pushed on into the Semap posl-t 1 tion, meeting with only slight oppjll* , tion, and occupied it for the night. . TANKS TO THE RESCUE. "Meanwhile, the forces held up OB tlif slopes of the ridge saw night com- ,, i inj» down 011 them, and tlie German re«. doubt still unsubdued and mowing down every attempt to go forward. ThMO 'tanks' started the same night—or, it* llicr, at three on the following nuhmltgi ; The olHcer who had gone for them guided them hack to the ground, walking in front of them, for a 'tank' is a sloW ■ blast "One of the machines moved laborW . ; onsly forward towards the redoubt, still, with its walking gride, eaterplllaring • its way ;ip the slope. There was'not a yard of the ground that ltnd not been ilug up' by sliells; a dozen times the 'tank' slowed up and nvjvcd on again with its guide uhead, till he brought it , v.ithin one hundred yards if the redoubt "The Germans in tlie redoubt swnej! (heir guns on it, and w,itched it still ■ come 011 j they saw it pause. They had no notion of what the next item * its j,ro«cdir«- of exterminating them • might be "The crew threw ipon. its door, and emerged w'tli their machine-gun 'Thl.ir battleship lay beside them The Germans in the redoubt waited 110 longey, 'Tlicv could see men where; before thev " had only seen steel plates full of .hell :ii,d mysterv. and they seined the.!l ocmsion. The poked a hole through fl . ■ inaehine-giin loonhope with a A'hite mg on the end of it and waved, it frantlco ullv, iii token of surrender. "But -while this was going, on, tin . men who had lain out through the niaht . l.cfore Beaucourt had not been idle. During the dark, itimill detachments pushed up 011 (lie right hand and had reachNl them, mid three machine>auns had com* Ito their aid. F.ven 90, they -were no' , Utrong; they represented nothing inor# than is left of an attack that has forced ~ its way across nearlv 2(WO yards of fire* ' swept ground barred by enemy, trenehos. - Many of them wero wounded; but at daybreak their commander, carrying, hia; four wounds took them forward to thtt ' village. / "\Vhile the. 'tank' was threatening th®' vi (iiiniii these men' were tinhtin;! hand-to- . I'i.iid action with the bayonet among th# 1 oapi'd ruins of Beaueour!. The G,rlMiiw who l;eld tin- villaae stood to it 'well; the fighting was intense, But the •sailor;-.' and their comrades had not, ■ cc'iiu; tlmt far, and in that lei denied now; and just about jHjjjin' l ) .wliPti 'he garrison of 1111 M'fflßMpil trying it> whitest shirt to the po^i'Mjby-■ bioUe. I'.eaucouvt was 0111s." I.i"iitemint-Colonel l'reyherg, who took it, had four wounds as hi* reward. was hit as he went nvei the parapet t\< enty-fnur hours before, and during the srbsei|V.ent fighting shell splinters antl bullets marked him thrice again, hut. as llr. Phillip put its, he "carried on" with his men, leading them over -ho broken bricks and huddled Gorman corpses, a atiange (lying figure -wrapped in soilel ;v !vjndages--"the liveliest casualty, l ' <»» one of Ills peltv offlcM'S puts m«r boaidMljtiSirwau
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Taranaki Daily News, 17 January 1917, Page 5
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1,420THE NAVAL BRIGADE. Taranaki Daily News, 17 January 1917, Page 5
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