ON THE EDGE OF THE GREAT BATTLE.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 October 1917, Page 7

ON THE EDGE OF THE GREAT BATTLE.

NEW ZEALANDERS STORM LA BASSE VILLE. HAND-TO-FIGHTING. (From Malcolm Ross, War Correspondent with the N.Z. Forces in the Field.) sth August. The story of the capture of La Basse Ville by the New Zealanders is worth telling in detail, for though the forces engaged were not very numerous there was some bitter fighting, and deeds of heroism that rebound to the credit of the junior officers, n.c.o.'a, and men were performed with the same disregard of great danger that, has been a characteristic of the majority of our men in all the battles and trench fighting in which they have taken part. In front of the new position taken up by the Force, to the south of Mesines, on low land, only some sixty or seventy ' feet above sea level, lay the ruins of the little village. It had probably, three years ago, housed the workers and their families who mainly employed at the sugar refinery that had become a strong point in the German defences. In front of the village, going northwards. ran the old Armentieres-Menin single line railway, and just in front of that again the Quesnov-Wervicq-road, which cut through the town of Warneton. Not many yards beyond that the winding Lys meandered through the fertile Flanders lands, with their avenues and clumps of beautiful trees.

A NEW WARFARE. It seemed as if we were at last getting away from the stalemate of absolute trench warfare. On this front neither army had now any continuous line oi trenches in their forward positions Posts were established in shell-holes, broken buildings, hedgerows. The men holding the front lived uncomfortably lin the open. There were affairs between patrols, mostly in the fields. There was scope for initiative and daring. Day and night the positions were heavily shelled by guns of various calibres. Gas shells were r.iiml with high explosive shells. The machine-guns in the night watches searched for victims in the Any-Man's-T.and that, for the time being, had taken the place of No-Man's-Land. The fertile fields were pitted with shell holes and cumbered with broken wire. The first real defences of the Germans were behind the railway. Behind that again was the barrier of the Lys, with its broken bridge? purposely destroyed by the enemy to bar our further progress, When the enemy wished to come our way lie came in the night, crossing in boats. In one or two places he had precarious floating bridges, built of timbers lashed to barrels with rope. In the southern end of our sector we had driven the enemy rieht across the Lys. Farther to the north he still held positions on our side of the river.

By day. in his camouflaged shell-, hole's, lie' lay dogsro. "No man may show himself by day." So. ran a German order. By night the plucky patrols crept out. shooting at each other in the moonlight on occasions when they met. There was always danger that they might, be cut off and captured by a superior force, that they might be wiped out altogether. Flares that lit the landscape blazed in the sky at uncertain intervals, making the men lie motionless. wishing that they could shrivel to the size of mice, feeling that they were size of elephants! At times the enemy would send up his red rocket/5 that burst into two red balls of light, or fire a rocjfet that showered a golden rftin— evidently signs for his artillery to Are. Shells of various calibres, gas shells, and gas bombs came screeching and whistling into our front, support, and subsidiary lines. On occasions our own S.O.S. would climb the void, anil our own artillery would reply vigorously, staving off counter attack, and silencing, or at least modifying, the ehemv barrage. The enemy had other pyrotechnics at hand, amongst them yellow flares that burst in yellow stars. His planes (lew as low as 100 ft. Often, however, they came to grief. Sometimes they flew over our lines and dropped a long streamer of the German colours to the end of which was sewn a weighted clotli envelope. And in the envelope would be a list of our air casualties and prisoners, neatly printed, within a black border. Our airmen did the like by him. for the airir.cn on both sides arc sports., They are out to kill or capture, but, not to hate. This sporting spirit of the air services is one of the pleasant features of the war. Once some prisoners told us that Baron Richthofert. one of their famous fliers, had been shot down with two bullet wound? in his head, by an English aviator, but that he had landed in a field and hail been taken to a hospital. In this Anv-Man's-Land there was, naturally much sniping. THE FLAME THROWERS.

In one local attack the enemy useA his flammenwerfer. manned by men from the Divisional Sturmtrupp. Some men in one of our poets suddenly saw a brilliant light flashing in front of them. A stream of Are shot out. They just had time to get away before the burning liquid fell. Thoy were dazzled by the flame, which appeared to be sprayed along the trench, and they could not spe anything behind it. But just before the flame wa9 directed at them they saw two Germans, who threw bombs at them. They retaliated with grenades. Then the Germans threw smoke bombs, and immediately the flame burst forth from a distance of twelve or fourteen, yards. But our men came back and rcoccupied the post. Tliev found it blackened on the sides and bottom for a distance of about forty yards by a tarry substance. LA BASSE VILLK—THE FIRST FTGHT. The first attack on La Basso Ville was made 011 the nialit of 27th .Tilly b» men of a Wellington Regiment. Not roanv men were employed. The attack was made at ?. a.m.. under cover of an artillery barrage. There had been several previous bombardments, so tlu.t when this one commenced the enemy did not anticipate an attack, and was taken by surprise. Once roused, the Herman? fought stubbornly, but thev Were drives from the villnare. and the Xew Zealand - ers established four advanced posts on the outskirts »f the broken houses. The enemv. however, suddenly coun-ter-attacked with reserves that had been in hiding in the Wanieton cellars, and niir men were driven hack fighting gallantly all the time. The enelny was enabled to advance under cover of hedge 1 rows, .dumps of tre?s. and scattered I building , the low visibility that pve- ' vailed at the time preventing our s,o,s | being seen by the observers. Thou."! l I our own men did not eet back without

casualties, they also inflicted severe casualties on the enemy.: and tool: isoni# J prisoners from the 29th Regiment of the l(ith Bavarian Division. ■ ' - Some brave deeds were done in this fight. A private belonging to one of Ihe machine-gun sections, when all with liim were knocked out, fought his Lewis gun against a party of between forty and fifty oncoming Germans until they got within bombing distance of him. By this time his gun was disabled, but lie managed to retire and brought the disabled gun back with him. Another man fought his Lewis gun till the last drum was emptied. The Germans in the ruins of the sugar refinery were firing a machine gun on our men, and a private, ivlien all the men ill the machine-gun crew with him were killed, attacked, single-handed, the enemy machine-gun crew, killing them all with his gun and the bombs he had available. In the cellars of the ruined buildings in the little village some Germans sought shelter. but a New Zealand corporal led several bombinf attacks against them,, and, with sheer dash and bravery, managed to capture. fourteen prisoners. Some of our men, though wounded, carried on as long as possible. On the night of 28th July, at 0.40 p.m., a heavy barrage fell on and behind one oi our posts, which Was attacked by about sixty of the enemy, who were, however, dispersed by rifle and machine-gun fire. •At about iialfpast ten a patrol of fifteen were seen coming down a track, and on being fired on by the New Zealanders they fled, leaving eight killed. These men belonged to a Bavarian regiment, and were of a fine type. They carried neither bayonets nor equipment, but each man bad a.rifle, and in his pockets twenty rounds of small arms ammunition. The two front men carried stick bombs.

The German main defences against this attack were behind the railway. We learnt subsequently that our barrage had struck the enemy very heavily at one point. One company had no fewer than forty casualties, mostly killed by their own artillery shooting short. Their counter-attack wa9 launched with two companies from the reserve battalion. Their attack on the night of the 28th was made by regir mental sturm-trupp. with the object of improving the main position by pushing their outposfs farther forward. It did not succeed, and the casualties were severe. Generally, their orders were to hold the front position, and to coun-ter-attack if they were driven back. This they did. and for a time succeeded, but the New Zealanders came at them again, won the village, and held it against all further attacks. How this was accomplished must be told in another article.

BURIAL OF BRIGADIER-GENERAL JOHNSTON

Another of our Brigadiers has been laid to rest in the soldiers' burial ground at Bailleul. Many rows of wooden crosses front the more solid stone monuments of the dead of that old city. Here, practically in the one cemetery, lie civilian dead of France, and heroes from many parts of the British Empire, who have given their lives in defence of this fair land. At a rough count there are at least one thousand five hundred graves there now. As . the days pa.'-s new graves are dug., and the brown earth is heaped up again over the mortal remains of other brave men. In the days to come this bit of hallowed ground will be a place of Pilgrimage to men and women from many a far-distant home. Into the town itself the German shells still drop from a long rang*, and the night raiders harry it with their bombs from the sky. But the life of the town goes on much as if nothing unusual had happened. Around an open grave in the Soldiers' Burial Ground this morning was gathered a group of New Zealand officers to pay the last tribute to a dead comrade —Brigadier-General F. E. Johnston. On the preceding day, in the course of his duty at the front, he was killed by a German sniper's bullet. The little group included Generals Birdwood, Godley, ano Russell. His body, in a plain coffin, was borne from the motor ambulance van to the grave on the shoulders of brother officers. At the conclusion of the burial service the chaplain said that no panegyric was needed in the case of a brave soldier who was shot throuah the heart while doing his duty at the front. All they could do now was to show their respect for his virtues, and for those who were, near and dear to | him. In peace ho had shown the virtues of modesty and humility, and in war he had shown by the manner of his death the great virtue of courage.^ As the padres intoned the service their voices mingled with some of the sounds 0 f war—the firing of a machine-gun being trieu by an aviator, the droning of the planes that flew overhead. A few villagers in an adjoining field looked up curiously from their work as the bugles blew the melancholy notes of the Last PMt.

There we leffc him, three graves away from the last resting place of our othe> dead brigadier. It is a fair spot in which to'lie—oil the lower slones, green field in which the wild flowers were blossoming, and in the background the quaint towers and spire l - of the old fourteenth century Flemish town.