AT GRIPS.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 January 1918, Page 7

AT GRIPS.

IN THE WAR ZONS GHASTLY SCENES. Writes a Wellington boy to liis parents:— "As soon as we could see clearly round about, ghastly scenes presented themselves— wounded men were lying everywhere, some with body and leg wounds One quite near wo was killed by concussion—he was standing under a tree, and the shell hit it a lew feet above his head. Another had his face nearly blown joff, and one arm damaged badly. Poor wretches were lying all the way along the route we had come the night before, the 1000 or so yards from where the duck-walk ended to where we were; some had sunk in tie mud and were helpless, and fellows had to take spades and dig them out—they were not wounded, just bogged. I had to be helped out several times on the way up in the night, or I would have been bogged all night. The track or route from the duck-walks forward was marked by an inch-wide white tape Where this ran across shell hole* filled with water, it could be , seen, but where it traversed muddy ground It war, walked over and hidden from sight, so the track was (about anything from 100 to 400 yards wide, nearly everywhere up to the knees in sticky, clogging mud and water. It was very fatiguing advancing loaded up with gear through such conditions. At 5.25 sun. our artillery opened the barrage on Fritz's advanced lines, and the boy* hopped over. The sound of our shells flying overhead was deafening, and immediately Fritzs artillery replied, and shells roamed all round the pill-box near me. The fire had died down slightly at 8 a.m.. but was renewed with vigor at 8.5, and kept up till about 9 o'<' or thereabout*, all the time the Third Battalion and the First (all referring to the Hifle Brigade) kept advancing past ray shelter to go through the Second Battalion and take furtler objectives. It was pouring, and the poor fellows, laden with bombs, rifles, 170 rounds of ammunition, spades, picks, etc., etc., were toiling on with their oil-sheets over their shoulders. They must have been nearly ready to drop with fatigue before they reached the place to advance from. About noon we heard that the attack had secured 700 yards advanced ground; we expected to take 3000 odd yards, but failed to do so.

PILL BOXES GIVE TROUBLE. "It appears that there were three pill-boxes on the summit of the ridge to be taken. Our Second Battalion, advancing first, attacked the first Frits lines, and the Fritz's mostly surrendered. The next line of Fritz's didn't give in, and hand-to-hand fighting ensued. Then the Huns in the pill-box our battalion were to attack ran out over to two other pill-boxes on our right front. These were to be taken by other New Zealand troops (nob the Eifle Brigade}, hut the artillery barrage had lifted, and waß playing behind these two pill-boxes, so the Fritz occupying them were able to run out into a treneh in front and mow down our boys with machine-guns, etc., quite safe from our artillery, which was then playing behind the pill-boxes. Our men fell in dozens, and the German officer in charge of the pill-box on the left, seeing this, ordered our men back into it (the one they had left), so we were held up, being open to enfilading fire from [those on the right and direct from the reoceupied one immediately in front. By the time our artillery mistake was corrected it was too late to take the position, and our men dug in, advancing about (XX) or 700 yards altogether. The trpuble aibout the artillery barrage lifting too soon was that the troops on our right, other New s>aknd brigades, were timed to take the two right pill-boxes ten minutes before we reached ours, but owing to the frightful state of the ground they were unable to do so. The wetness of the weather prevented the usual eo-operation of the aeroplanes in the attack, and some misunderstanding of signals to the artillery further mitigated against success. Our losses were terrible. In my old company, 0 Company, we lost every officer. Only three officers remained of the whole battalion, and out of the 550 men in our battalion only about 140 or so could be accounted for. Of course, a lot were either wounded or shell-shock cases, blown up into the air. and lost grip of their aerves. Oth/r battalions suffered mbre or -less, and altogether the Wew Zealand Rifte Brigade had a hell of a, time of it.

HELD BY THE MOD "The heads ' had decided to attack again at 3 p.m., but Fritz opened up at 2.45 p.m., and our attack did not take place. What would have been left of us I don't know if we had. Our artillery were not what they usually were in a barrage, the wetness of the ground preventing enough guns being brought up, and those that were could not ibe used with the best of success, as the £rt>und holding them allowed them to move about when being fired, and thus their aim was not good. The Rifle Brigade held the new line for forty-eight hours, dug in 2000 yards behind the line one battalion going right in thc__first night, then advanced to the line the next night. In the morning the three other battalions advanced through the 4th, which were in the line, and hopped over and held the new line wrested from the Hun for forty-eight hours, till relieved by the 4th Bri«ade| New Zealand. (Don't mix' up battalions with brigades). So far I have (been referring to battalions nt the New Zealand Rifle Brigade. Thc 4t> Brigado, New Zealand, were in reBcrv« to us, the 3rd and took over when we went back.

BRAVE STRETCHOR-BEARBRS. "The stretcher-bearers did magnificent work. Fancy carrying wounded men out through the kind of ground I have doscribed, four to a stretcher, sometimes only two, through ground where a single man found it difficult to progress, and doing ever so many trips in a day without Ixml meals, perhaps only a cup of cocoa and n biscuit or two occasionally at a dressing station Men who could walk at all. however painful, dragged themtelvu out from the line for miles in preference to lying down at a pill-box and waiting for stretcher-bearers and thus risking being blown to pieces. I »aw four fellows who couldn't even walk or crawl through that, awful nmd arid jlnsh to the duck-4joard track a mile away and then down it another mile or so, probably in severe pain oven lying still, let alone moving along like that up to their armpits in slush. You can imagine the sight of seeing tiiein start off on taeir trudge, poor'wretches, yet they w.rr rocky w«ien one '.'onsiders those who couldn't wen craw), tying on stretclwrre waiting for the dawn which w&» ** $» *ham. for shell* during tie night