NEW ZEALANDERS' HEROIC DEEDS

Taranaki Daily News, 12 April 1918, Page 5

NEW ZEALANDERS' HEROIC DEEDS

SPLENDID LEADERSHIP OF A YVAIKATO CAPTAIN

A RAIN OF MACHINE-GUN BULLETS IGNORED BY OFFICERS AND MEN.

(From Captain Malcolm Ross, Official War Correspondent with the New Zealand Forces. I •y Cable, April 7.

The enemy made another attempt to attack the New Zealanders last evening, but were promptly stopped, mainly by artillery barrage.' During the recent fighting there have been some splendid individual deeds of gallantry by officers and men. Perhaps the finest of these was performed by a captain in the Waikato Company. When his commander, a young Aucklander, was wounded in the attack opposite the Serre road, lie took command. The company was hung up by. severe machine-gun fire. An advance of forty yards was made into a depression, where the company again got into attacking formation. The machine-gun fire at this time was terrific. Just before the moment of attack the captain climbed out of the depression and walked along the top, calling on his men to take lio notice of "those damned things," meaning- the machinegun bullets, which were thudding into the ground all about him. His puttees were cut by some of the bullets. The men, inspired by his splendid leadership, went forward With great dash, and gained their objective. He himself rushed forward to one machine-gun position, and killed a German officer who was escaping. This officer and his men had been travelling for'about five days with only two nights' sleep, ,and had marched thirty miles, ten miles of which immediately preceded the attack. On the following day he ascertained that some of his men were wounded, whereupon he crossed the railway linue, which was swept by ma-chine-gun fire and bombed by trench mortars, and, taking one of the wounded men on his shoulders, carried him by relay to a place of safety in the support line. Fifteen minutes later he came back and carried oft' another man.

On the third day several of his men were buried by a burst of a minenwerfer. A sergeant who had extricated himself found his officer digging out other men with his hands. He had already dug out one private, and was working away to get out a second man, which be succeeded in doing. He then superintended the evacuation of these, after which he returned to the front line to see that his company was all right. All this time the locality was being swept by machine-gun fire, and bombs were bursting quite close.

EVIDENCE OF THE FAILURE OF THE GERMAN PLANS. ■

Some illuminating evidence of the failure of the German plans has just been obtained from the diary of an officer killed by the New Zealandera. This diary begins in joyful strain about the prospects of a great drive, the objective of which was due west towards the coast at Abbeville, the plan being to separ-' ate England and France. The chief blows were to be against the English, because it was thought that if England and France were separated the war would end quickly. "Everything," continued the diary, "has been planned, and it is impossible to fail. All possibilities are thought out and met, and if the attack fails in one place it is immediately to be broken oil', and another place tried." The attack was to be in three places. As the days passed the diary begins to assume a pessimistic tone. Bombs damaged the German transport, and an attack in this sector without artillery preparation failed. Then every moment came a different order, indicating want of organisation of the enemy plans. English shrapnel was searching the ground. New orders arrived, and the unit parched southward twenty kilometres in spite of heavy rain. The Bapaume Road was blocked with transport. Here was awful mud; the roads were bottomless. The division had extra artillery, but was held up by clev-erly-hidden machine-gunners. There were many casualties. Here and there is a significant entry. "We have to start trench warfare again, since the English are very strong." On the 30th they had made little progress, with fairly heavy losses, and the diarist hoped to join a inoi'q :i successful group further south, because "here the resistance is too strong for us." Then the division was to be relieved, and there was to be no more offensive there at present. On April 1, they learnt that they were to take part in the next big attack and force a passage of the Ancre, The division was in the Hebuterne sugar factory sector to. attack Colincamps. There was a tremendous traffic on the Bapaume-; Cambrai Road. The roads were bottom* less and often blocked by traffic.

The diary continues: ''At 2 a.m. we got away. It is pitch dark and raining. There are numberless holes and old trenches. We got into a burst of fire. One shell landed between two platoons, causing several killed and wounded. We arrived, at 7 a.m. The battalion had lost itself during the night, and we are not iu the right place, but it is too late to change now. It is an awful mix-up. We are about two kilometres south of Hebuternc. In front of us we have inhabited country. The weather is horrible. By day we are in an old English trench. It is very different, owing to live or six battalions being mixed up." It was at this stage the diarist and his men bumped up against the New Zealanders. there was a further mix-up, and one more German diary came to ail abrupt end.