ON THE FRINGE OF THE GREAT BATTLE.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 October 1917, Page 2

ON THE FRINGE OF THE GREAT BATTLE.

SUMMER FIGHTING. NEW ZEALANDERS IN ACTION. ' (From Malcolm Rosa, correspondent with the N.Z. Forces in the Field). Divisional Headquarters, August 2. After tho Messines battle the New Zealanders came out of the line for a brief rest. They then took up position in another sector south of Messines. .Meantime the artillery on both sides 'remained active, our Field Artillery doing effective work on the German front, while our heavies fired on positions East of the River Lys. As the northern offensive began to develop so the enemy airmen 'became bolder, . In flights of varying numbers they frequently flew over our lines, firing their machine-guns into our trendies. On such occasions a man can only lie flat in the trench, imitating a sandbag, or shamming dead. There was also a good deal of night flying, the enemy endeavoring to bomb towns and villages in the rear. Once he hit a casualty clearing station, killing and wounding some of the personnel, and a few of the patients. The bombs burst with loud explosions, and the windows of billets rattled with the shock, while the houses themselves were shaken. Our 'planes returned the compliment. Further north we obtained the mastery, a;B>, though the enemy increased his aerodromes and got up largo numbers of his best fliers, he was 110 match for our intrepid pilots. Indeed, we 'brought down his 'planes and balloons in considerable, numbers. His balloons, Which are of three kinds, the largest holding a thousand cubic metres of gas, aided his observation on tile New Zealand sector. One balloon was always on the ground in reserve. They were worked by means of electric winding gear. Daily we were witnesses of thrilling lights in the air, and many thousands of rounds were fired by the anti-aircraft batteries of either side. Every now and then a shell that had not burst into fragments would come wailing down through the air. One i such shell from one of our own guns j fell on a house in a village in our area. It crashed through the roof, through the centre of a table around which a French family was gathered at breakfast; and after piercing a slate floor, ended its career in a cellar. The crockery and the table were smashed and an elderly woman was slightly wounded, but otherwise it did 110 damage

THE FLYING MEN. Often our anti-aircraft guns put across the sky a barrage that turned the German planes back to their own lines. Tho enemy aircraft were most active early I in the morning and between 0 p.m. (summer time) and dusk. Usualy on the approach of our machines they turned and flew back across their own lines, re. turning only after our machines had gone away. Sometimes they appeared in largo formations. Generally .they refused combat unless in superior force. At times we saw balloons on either side brought down in flames, and lhe occupants making their descents in parachutes, which, catching the light nirs of a slimmer afternoon, drifted very Slowly at an angle to the safety of firm earth. It was quite evident that the work of ballooning was becoming more arduous and a little more exciting. Or.ce some Boche planes got three of our balloonj in succession, and as Hie balloons blazed and fell, leaving a long trail of smoke in tile sky, we watched no fewer than ten observers gracefully descending by means of their parachutes. 'But always -as one balloon was brought down there was another readv to take its place. The Herman was never quite a match for the British. On occasions we would hear the scream and the burst of a fifteen centimetre, high-velocity shell in the air. and looking skyward, would see the amoko of the explosion 3000 ft lip near the balloon Tho Boche gun net's seemed .j amuse themsclvi a good deal with this sport, and they amused us too, but it vi 9 only on the rarest occasions that they scored a hit by this somewhat expensive method. A balloon in one locality was their particular bete noir. Time after time the balloon in that position was hunted down by the German, but, with true British persistence, it is still th<>ro or thereabouts to-day. By the look of things, if the war goes on long enough and if the line does not shift—which Heaven forbid—.that balloon wilL, be there till the end of | time! OTHER OBSERVERS.

In this flat Flanders country, where the war is now raging most furiously, the 'planes and the balloons are the eyes of the armies. On {he 'planes, in particular, we depend. And it is satisfactory to be able to state that in all our great offensives now, before the actual attack, the British have succeeded to a marked degree in blinding the eyes of the enemy. While making these statements, one 1 should not overlook the fact that our gallant infantry have eyes and ears, and that they use them to some purpose, too. The proverbial cat watching a mouse is not in it with a New Zealand infantryman watching the Hun! With periscope and telescope and binocular, our men keep constant watch by day. By night the .patrols in No Man's Land strain their eyes to see and .their ears to hear what the enemy may be doing. A man is seen going out from a farm nt . The incident is duly noted and recorded. Working parties are seen going along a certain trench, transport along u certain road. A sniper's head is shot at, and lie is "seen to fall." The hammering in of stakes; the sound of metal upon metal; the rattle of moving bricks is heard. These, the little sounds of war, are noted while the thunder of tho guns is taken as a matter of course. They may mean little, but often they may mean much. In such a war as tliis you must take note of everything. THE GUNS. The shooting of pur artillery, both in regard to volume and accnraey, continues to excite the admiration of our 'infantry, while for many a long day now it has been the envy of the German armies in the field. In the titanic contest up here in the north the enemy has improved upon what he did on the Somme and at Arras and Messinus, but the weight of metal and the palm in shooting slill rest with .the British and tiie French. On the .particular sector of the. battlefield in which the New Zealand Force is operating, however, the German gunners have not been idle. Throughout July he has continuously shelled our front line and supports, while at the same time he l»s devoted tforc than usual attention to our back area, ateilipling to slop the traffic on our roads, end to knock out our guns. ■Mixed with his ordinary'high explosives and shr. n .'jaei he has used thousands of

gas shells, but we know now jjrptty well Slow to deal with these. In the shelling of towns, both near the lines and far behind, lie occasionally claims a considerable number of civilian victims. At ■Poperinghe, a, mm in the hospital there had both legs blown oil' and died. In a little village near where I now ain the ipriest and several of his congregation were killed. 'But the most pitiable exploit was the gas shelling gf Armentiers, during which civilians —men, women, and little children —were killed. Many of them died in our military hospitals, to which they had to be taken for treatment. From a military point of view the encniv may be justified in such shelling. Ho has taken the war into other countries, where the innocent must suffer. His own villages are free from such diabolical experiences. The sight of 'women and little boys and girls, some of them almost babies, suffering from shell wounds, is pitiable in the extreme. - Of tho results of our own shelling we hear a good deal from German .prisoners, and we ourselves see a great deal of its effect. On July '26, in the course of op.c afternoon's shelling, three of the enemy's ammunition dumps behind the Warn'eton line, were blown up. From day to day others went up in the same manner. On that line our shelling drove him out of his comfortable billets in the 'Belgian farmhouses and he has since then had to live, uncomfortably in shell hole's. Over these holes lie has made rough shelter with corrugated iron from the roofs of some of his own hutments destroyed by our shelling. On top of the iron he has put earth and grass and thistles, and green boughs, so that the eyes of our army might not note his habitation. The only entrance is an apeture at the back just big enough for a man to crawl through. Existence in these shell holes day and night is said to be very trying, and inhabitants always run the risk of being buried in their own homes. In his back areas tho enemy has to endure a much more galling fire than he treats us to. In one village in three days a single German company had eight men killed and 16 wounded. Prisoners still speak of the terrific effect of our shelling in the Battle of Messines. So many of their batteries were knocked out that the Bavarians blamed the Saxons for betraying their positions. At the same time the German infantry complain bitterly of their own artillery shooting short. This has caused many casualties in their ranks. We cannot claim entire immunity from this aperture at the back just big enough for a one hears from our own men only unbounded praise of our own artillery, however much they may curse that of the enemy. Tn the Battle of Messines ■the German infantry declared that their own artillery was inadequate, owing to the destructive nature of our counterbattery work, and certainly the enemy's reply on the morning of the battle, and for a day or two afterwards, left much to be desired. Either he was somewhat short of guns or of ammunition. In the present battle he lias made a. much better showing with his artillery; though it is still not nearly the equal of that of the Allies. Finally, a word must be said in praise of our trench-mortar batteries. Tho personnel and tho moral of the Xew Zealand trench-mortar batteries from their inception has been, splendid. and officers and men have dons ! magnificent work.