AT THE FRONT.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 September 1917, Page 7

AT THE FRONT.

WHAT MEN CAN ENIMIR3, INTERESTING IMPRESSIONS. Writes an Eltham boy to his people:—. My first experience with the division was the Somme, and a great baptism it was. Our next sector was a little south of Armentiercs at a little place called Flour Baix. After nearly three months there from October until January w shifted south to the next sector, Lavantie. We only stopped there about a month and shifted to a new sector just across tho 'border in Belgium, namely Plougesterect. Eighteen days was the length of our actual stay on that sector, but 'wo only shifted about half a sector to the north, and this we did four times till we were right opposite Messines and that sector was the one wo were on when I left on tho 7th inst The idea of the shifting little by little iwas that every division was squeezing up a bit from Ypres down to let new* divisions iu for the stunt. We wero all anxious to '"'go over" or. the Sonime, and the boys who were kept back as baggage guard, etc., nearly cried, but never again! Within less than a .week we had seen that many dead and dying and seen the most terrible wounds , —boys absolutely chopped to pieces and wounded in every conceivable, way, and we had gone through tho hardest of hardships that everybody sick of the war for good. I enjoyed it till the evening after the advance, for the excitement was great, and we hadn't fcad •hardships, but from that evening I sobered down suddenly, and the rest of the •23 days were the worst I have experienced and ever want to. The 15th of September was great. We thought everything was so exciting. The tanks were •great: they were doing great ivork, and everybody was cheering them and they were cheering us. As far as we could see on both sides wo wero advancing, getting the host of it wholesale, and the prisoners 'were coming in good oh! We saw all the dead and wounded, of ■course, and the shells and bullets were thins thick, but we were too intoxicated to notice them much. In fact, everybody was laughing, joking and smoking, etc., as if it was great sport. I had the pleasure of bandaging three 'wounded and giving them smokes and water. It might seem funny to you that we enjoyed the 15th, hut absolutely were miserable after that day. It was when sve had time to look around and realist.' everything and the hardships that sickened" us. Had we heon relieved that night like the Guard Division were nnd most of the other divisions we would probably have been willing and even anxious to have another go at Fritz. Why we were kepfc in for 23 day.* instead was that a certain General wanted to mako a name for his division and by so doing make a name for himself, of course. He 'was miles back naturally. Such things as having' 10 hours* sleep in eight days and one wash in 23 days, and again no hot food, and a pint of water we got a day was 3lmost undrinkahlo with petroleum have a sobering effect. Then with that to work on, digging day after day, and nearly every nighfc having to go miles through a narrow trench with a load on one's back through mud well over one's knees. and the sort of mud that when you have managed to get one foot out of it yon •have to 3tart again to get the other one out and so on. We got pretty done up. I can teli you, and I have seen bojs who after going a few miles and who got into even the smallest shell holes they couldn't possibly have dragged themselves out but had to be pulled out by several of the other boys. A surprising thing, too, was that the smallest of tho boya lasted it quite as veil as the ihig men. It surprised me very much what we endured. I never thought human beings could endure quarter as much till I saw them and was myself put to the test, but what heats me was that the regulars at the beginning of the war must have had twice as bad conditions to contend with and had to last it for months. 1 know that had Fritz counter-attacked us we would have no more bjen able to repell him than lly. Everything was trusted to the artillery to put up an impassable barrage before he got to us. I have never 'been face to face with ■ Fritz and it's been him or rno for it, and I don't think there are many that can say they havo been. You see, when he counter-attacked on the loth he didn't gel) closer than 100 yards, and when wo wero attacking he always did a got back if possible or else put up lib hands and howled for mercy. He didn't always get it though. I have shot at them when Uioy have been running, and havo seen them fall, but I cannot say that I got any for a positivo fact, for hundreds of us were all ilring at the sam cthne at everybody ami anybody. While we were down there to keep our pecker up we were told after we got out we were going to England for a rest, hut nine days after getting out we were in tho trenches again at Fleur Baix. We enjoyed tho nine days out though, for wb got plenty of tucker, «nd some of us had a good bit of money, including myself, and we simply gorged. The first bath and change of clothes rao had was, wo thought, heavenly, for we were all as dirty as street arabs, had twentythree days' growth on us, and were as lousy as bandicoots. We stayed three days in a village near Abi>rvillc ; too, and had a good time in that city. There wa.i sneh a difference between the now sector and that which we had left that I almost thought that the war had come to an end, but we soon livened things up for ourselves, not that wc wanted, but because wo had to. It was done gradually though. A few shells a day first, then we siarttd to strafe (him (with trench mortars and then came raids, artillery strafes and heavier trench Vnortar stiafes til! the sector became quite lively. Of course, he gave it to us back as much as he was aide, and returned a raid now and again, but it was nothing to what we were giving him. The Rifle Brigade must have raided hi:n 12 times and hud luck every time, getting a few prisoners, at least, always -ind always doing damage to his dugouts or something similar. The training for the rait was a good tiling for us, for it was late in December and kept us out of the trenches for both Christmas and New ' Year. Fritz neve' 1 had any luck at all. for he always g >t whacked and never once got into our trench. He raided our company once and only one Hun got through the 'wire and he got whacked as he was scrambling over the parapet. The others got such a sally-up with machine gun and rilie lire that they ivent for their live., back into their own 'trench. Tho winter had come pretty »(ivt»r<> before wc left this place, and the front line duties told on us bit. We slept all day but we had to do sentry duty all night, and 13 hours in the open trench at night with the barometer be-.

low zero and in snow storms and Wizards is no joke. I can toll you we looked forward to our rum issue in tlic morning. We weren't in tho trendies all the time though, for we have as a rule eight days in and eight days out in billet.-:. The other sectors were all practically the same, except that from riougestoi'oet round Messinos Fritz made it much hotter for us, for lie had more artillery there and held all tho dominating positions. Ho had two partially successful rahte against tho division's there, for he had enough artillery there to practically Mow the front line in before ho attempted to come over. t v'lougtsiereet Wood was rather interesting, for in pre-war days it was the King of tlie Belgians' shooting forest, and there was still a fair amount of game changing round, hut we were not allowed to touch it. Another thing was that when we were in billets we wore in France hut the trenches were in Belgium,' so that as we had to go up on fatigue every day we were in one country part of the day and in the other the rest of the day. During May and up to June 7 it was interesting to watch the preparations for the attack. Railways, light railways 'and train lines appeared in a few weeks that mould have. in civil life taken months to construct. Then the goods b gan to arrive, guns and ammunition. The country was quite changed; These were from the IS pounders tip to li-inch naval guns—guns in every paddock of all calibre, and most of them big guns about eight or nine-inch. It was quite a sight to sec the 15-inch gun fire, for she was mounted on railway wheels with an. armored engine and trucks attached. To lire the engine ''would push her up in position, then back away down the line. The 42ft muzzle would then slowly rise to tho required altitude. Then a deafening roar (something like the mines on Messines), preceded by a ilasb, and the gun and all would run down the line for about 50 yards with tho concussion. I had eight days in an American hospital in France and I have been in this one two days and they are feeding me on such things as chicken, strawberries and chocolate, etc., which things make me sick, of course, and I am longing to get back to the trenches, and bully beef naturally. I haven't been under the X-ray yet, and won't know exaotly how slight my wound is ill I do. However T am feeling as 'well as I ever did in my life and the wound itself is practically healed. Since the above letter was penned, the writer (Private Wilfred Hill, son of Mr. Len. Hill. Kltham) went through the Messin".-) battle where lie was wounded ■with a shot through the ehost. At present Private Hill is in Walton-on-Tharaes Hospital and latest reports state that he is making a first rate recovery.