WESTERN ATTACK.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 December 1917, Page 5

WESTERN ATTACK.

VIGOROUS AIR FIGHTING. MANNHEIM ATTACKED. Received Dee. 20. 5.5 p.m. London, Dec. 25. f>ir Douglas Haig, reporting on the , 24th, states: We drove oil raiders southeastward of Ypres. There was hostile artillery activity at Epehy, southward of Poelcapelle. Vigorous bombing and air fighting are proceeding. Despite the haze the enemy artillery and machines are active. We j brought down seven, including one large ' twin-engine machine Our night fliers bombed several aerodromes with good effect. One of our squadrons in daylight dropped a ton of bombs on Mannheim. Bursts were observed at main station works and fires , in the town. Enemy scouts repeatedly | but unsuccessfully attacked. , In to-day's report Sir Douglas Haig states: We took a few prisoners in patrol encounters southward of i'ambrai. There was mutual artillery activity westward of La Bassee and eastward of Ypres AERODROMES BOMBED. ALSO BRUGES -D^CKS. Aus. and N.Z. Cable Assoc. and Reuter. Received Dec. 26, 7 p.m. London, Dec. 25. The Admiralty reports that on the night of December 23-24 aircraft heavily bombed Bruges docks and St. Denis Westrem and Ghistelles aerodromes. HAIG'S MESSAGE TO THE \ ARMIES, i EFFECT OF RUSSIA'S COLLAPSE. CONFIDENCE FOR COMING YEAR, Aub. and N.Z. Cable Assoc. and Reuter. Received Dec. 20, 7 p.m. London, Dec. 25. Sir Douglas Haig, in a special order to the armies in Franco, says: "Our victories and successes have been very considerable and might have led to an early and complete victory but for the Russian collapse. It behoves us to harden our hearts and steel ourselves to further efforts. I have every confidence that the same courage as in the past will be forthcoming to meet the further demands for the safety of your hearths and homes in the coming year." A French communique states that two German aeroplanes were brought down. The enemy bontfbed Dunkirk, there being several victims. THE PASSCHENDAELE VICTORY. NEW ZEALAND CONTRIBUTION. "A 1 DEVIL OF A TIME." Condon, October 8. According to the war correspondents fit the front we must reckon the battle for the Passchendaele ridges as one of the greatest British victories of the war on the western front, and, if .the weather will only be anyways decent for a spell —a very great "if" —at this season of the year—an achievement that will prove of supreme strategic importance. Much <hae been written concerning the contributions to victory made by the various units of the Empire Army, and where all did so well it would fee unfair to single out aoy particular countries' soldiers for praise. It is a fact, however, that most of the correspondents give greater space to the doings of the Australian and New Zealand troops which took part in the tattle than to their comrades in arms from other quarters of the Empire. In the course of a couple of columns written on the Sunday following the victory, Mr. Philip Gihlbs, for example, gives much ■prominence to the Niew Zeatouders. From this article I quote a few passages -which 'will toe of interest to'your readers. He Sa " S " AN ANXIOUS HALF HOUR. The New Zealanders had many fights on their way up to the Gravenstafel and Abraham Heights, and one tiling that surprised them was the number of pillboxes and ,blockhouses inhabited by the enemy close to their own lines. They believad that the foremost ones had been deserted. But it must not be forgotten that running all through the narrative of this battleJs- the thwarted plan of the enemy to attack us in strength the same morning and at nearly the same hour. For that reason he had thrust little groups of men into advanced posts, and into these most forward 'blockhouses with orders to hold them at all costs until the attacking divisions should reach and pass them. And for that reason, as we know, the enemy's guns laid down a heavy barrage over our lines half an

hour before our attack started. The New Zealanders did not escape-this shelling, and their brigadiers were under the .strain of intense anxiety, not knowing In tHeir dugouts, over wliidv the enemy's fire passed, whether their boys were so -Wit' up that a successful assault would

"be impossible. As it happened, the New Zealanders were not seriously hurt, nor thrown into disorder. When the moment came they went away in waves, with the spirit of a pack of hounds on a good hunting morning. As fierce as that, and as wild as that. < They had not gone more than a few yards I>efore they had fifty prisoners. This was at a blockhouse just outside the New Zealand assembly line.' There was no fight there, but the garrison surrendered as soon as our men were round their shelter The Hannebeke stream

flows this way, but it was no longer within its bounds. Our gunfire had smashed up its track, and all about \jfas a swamp made deeper by the rains. The Niew Zealand lads had a devil of a time in getting across and through. Some of them stuck ap to the knees, and others fell into nhel jholes deep in mud as far as their belts. "Give me a hand, .Jack," came a shout from one man. and the answer was "Hang on to my rifle, Tom." Men with the solid ground und?r i heir feet hauled o>:t others in thf slouch, and all that was a great risk of time while

the barrage was travelling slowly on with its protecting screen of shells. WHEN THE BAIUiAUE "SAT DOWN." The only safety in these battles is to keep close to the barrage, risking the shorts, for, if it once passes and leavos any enemy there with a machine gun, there is certain death for many men. The New Zealand boys nearly lost that wall of shells because of the mud, but somehow or other managed to scramble on over SQO yards in time enough to catch it up. Many blockhouses yielded up their batches of prisoners, who were told to get back and givp no trouble. The first fight for a blockhouse took place at, Van Meulen Farm, just outside the New Zealanders' first objective. The barrage went ahead and sat down, as one of the officers puts it, though the sitting down of a barrage is a queer simile for that monstrous eruption of explosive force—for a space. From Van Meulen Farm came the swish of machine-gun bullets, and New Zealand boys began to drop. They were held up for half an hour until the "leap-frog" battalions—that is to say, the men who were to pass through the first waves to the next objective, came up to help. It was a New Zealand captain, beloved by all his men for his gallantry and generous-hearted ways, who led the rush of Lewis gunners and bombers and riflemen.. He fell dead with a machine-gun 'bullet in his heart, but with a cry of rage because of this great' losb, the other men ran on each side of tihe blockhouse and stormed it. On the left of the New Zealanders' line one of their battalions could see German firing conorete houses on the slopis of the Gravenstafel, and, although they had to lose the barrage, which was sweeping ahead again, they covered that ground and went straight (for those places under sharp fire. Some of them worked round the concrete walls and hauled out more, prisoners. "Get back there," they shouted, but tliar? was hardly a New Zealander who would go back willh them to act as escort. So it happened t!hat a brigadier, getting out of his dugout to see what was happening to his men away there over the slopes, received the first news of success from bat ehes of Germans who came marching in company formation, under the command of their own officers, and without escort.

THE TAKING OF "BERLIN." From the Abraham Heights there was a steady stream of machine-gun fire until the New Zealanders had climbed them and routed out the' enemy from tlieir dug-outs, which were not screened by our barrage, so that they were able to fire. Only the great gallantry of high-spirited young men could have done that, and it is an episode which proved t'he quality of the New Zealand troops on the morning of the battle, so keen to do well, so reckless of the cost.; On Abraham Heights a lot of prisoners were taken, and joined 'the long trail that hurried back through miles of scattered shell-fire from their own guns. The next resistance was at Berlin, and the New Zcalanders are. proud of having taken that place, because of its name, which they will write on their scroll of honor. It is not an Imperial place; it is a row of dirty concrete pill-boxes a'bove a deep cave, on the pattern of the old type of dug-outs: But it is a strong fortress for German machine-gunners, and they defended it stuWbornly. It 'ivas a five minutes' job. iStokes mtfrtars were brought up, and fired thirty rounds in two minutes, and then, with a yell, the .New Zcalanders rushed the position on both sides, and flung pea-bombs through the back door until part of the garrison streamed out shouting their word of surrender. The other men were dead inside.