ARMY REINFORCEMENTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 307, 27 December 1915, Page 6

ARMY REINFORCEMENTS.

SIR JOHN FRENCH'S DISPATCH. "The army has received strong reinforcements," says a dispatch by Sir John French, "and every reinforcement has had its quota of field artillery. In addition, numerous batteries of heavy guns and howitzers have been added to the strength of the heavy artillery. The arrival of these reinforcements in the field 'has tested the capacity of the artillery as a whole to expand to meet the requirements of the Army, and to maintain the high level of efficiency that has characterised this arm throughout the.campaign. Our enemy may have hoped, not perhaps without reason, that it would be impossible for us, starting from such small beginnings, to build up an efficient artillery to provide for the very 'aTge expansion of the Army. If he entertained such hopes, he ha. now good reason to know that they have not been justified by the result. "It was necessary to move a gun of the 135 th Battery, Royal Field Artillery, into the front line to destroy an enemy sap-heat!. To reach its position the gun had to be taken over a high canal embankment, rafted over the canal under fire, pulled up a bank with a slope of nearly 45 degrees, and then dragged over three trenches and a skyline to its position 70 yard 3 from the German lines. This was carried out without loss. This incident is of minor importance in itself, but I quote it as an example of the daily difficulties which officers and men in the j trenches are constantly called upon to overcome, and of the spirit of initiative and resource which is so marked a feature amongst them."