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Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 55, 5 March 1917, Page 6

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AFTER THE GREAT ADVENTURE HOSPITAL SHIP ARRIVES. WITH BATCH OF SOMME HEROES. STORIES OF GALLANT WORK. Somewhat unexpectedly, the hospital ship that had been expected to-day, arrived in the Waitemata last nfgbt, and took up an anchorage in the stream. She was brought to a berth at the Queen's wharf early this morning, and the great amount of preliminary work incidental to the return of 538 officers and men was at once tackled by a special staff from the Defence Office, assisted by voluntary workers. Generally fine weather was experienced on tlie outward trip. ' Patients embarked at Bombay and Alexandria. All the patients were disembarked immediately on arrival at Southampton. On January 13 some 538 patients embarked, and departure from Southampton was made the same day for New Zealand. Fine weather prevailed most of the time, except for three or four'days from Durban, when a moderate gale was experienced. On February 13 a patient named Frederick Thomas Bowel I, private, N.Z.M.C., died, and was buried later. Captain Edwin has the following officers associated with him: —Chief officer, Mr. A. H. Winsloe; second officer, Mr. S. O. Batt; third officer, Mr. G. Herbert; fourth officer, Mr. G. Paterson; purser, Mr. E. •L. C'oinmin; wireless operator, Mr. J. 11. Bennett; chief en-

gineer, Mr. R. A. Ward; second engineer, Mr. Jas. Anderson; chief steward, Mr. J. O'Brien. The medical personnel is as follows:— Colonel W. Collins, C.M.G., senior medical officer, assisted by Lieutenant-Colonel R. Tracy Inglis, Chaplain-Major W. Gillam, Chaplain-Major D. Button, Chap-lain-Captain T. B. Scgrief, Captains A. M. Tolhurst, G. Russell, M. Earle, L. A. Spedding, Adjutant-Captain A. Dunbar Sloanc, Matron E. Brooke, and 20 nurses and 72 orderlies. WELCOMED BACK. The men were gi\en an official reception on the wharf at eleven o'clock. The Acting-Prime Minister and Minister for Defence, Sir James Allen, welcomed the soldiers on behalf of the Dominion. He referred in glowing terms to the work that thej- had done, and said that he was proud to welcome men whose conduct in the field had been distinguished by endurance, bravery, devotion to duty, and last, but not least, loyalty to comi rades and loyalty to country. The Mayor. Mr. J. H. Gunson, addressing the men, said he was proud to . greet so many of New Zealand's soldiers who had done their share in worthily sustaining the best traditions of British arms in the field. Four medals won by New Zealandcrs in the field were then presented by Sir James Allen. Three of the heroes who had gained tangible acknowledgment of their work had not lived to receive the medals, and in these cases the decora-, tions were presented to the fathers. Lieutenant Gavin D. Alexander,' who was ' killed in action, gained the D.C.M. while a sergeant in the Divisional Signalling Company. He was ' represented hy his father, Mr. E. H. Alexander, of Epsom, the medal for him. Mr. E. A. Bedggood, of Kaihu, was given the Military Medal won by his son, the late Lance-Corporal W. W. C. Bedggood; [ while Mr. S. L- P. Rimmer, of Mount Eden, received the Military Medal on behalf of his son, the late Sergeant W. C. Rimmer. Gunner R. I. Fleming, of Devonport, was the only one of the four to personally receive his decoration, 1 the Military Medal.

After the welcoming ceremony the soldiers were then treated to light refreshments provided by the Women's Branch of the Auckland Patriotic League. BRUSH WITH A SUBMARINE. " The voyage of the hospital ship to New Zealand was an uneventful one. Some excitement was raised when the vessel was in the Bay of Biscay, on. January 15, when a lifeboat was picked up containing twelve men and the body of another, who proved to be part of the crew of the steamer Brookwood, which had been sunk five days previously by fire from a ■ German submarine. The rescued' men had been in the lifeboat for five days, and had been without water for many hours. Their only food was a few water biscuits. They stated that another lifeboat was afloat containing survivors from the Brookwood. _ Not long afterwards a submarine was sighted, but the hospital ship was not interfered with. The second lifeboat was

mot discovered, although a sharp lookout was kept.) THE ROLL. The names, occupations, and addresses of the men for the Auckland district are:— Commissioned Officers.—Captain P. McNab, Lieut. W. Scott-Higginson, Second-Lieut. S. Bongard, Second-Lieut. J. G. Gasparich, Second-Lieut. A. R. H. Turner. N.C.O.'s and Men.—John Anderson, Corporal M. Anthony, Chas. Arns, A. J. Blaikie, A. Boler, F. T. A. Bowell, L. B. Boyd, W. Buchanan, A. Byers, W. Campbell, A. A. F. Condy. Lance-Corporal P. W. S. Catchpole, W. T. Chiplin, W. C. N. Codlin, A. F. Cockhead, F. W. J. Collins,

R. B. Cooper, R. M. B. Crowfchcr, W. H. Davidson, E. Davies, Lance-Corporal H. H. Davison, 11. C Davy, E. H. Decry, Lance-Corporal R. S. Dcnvers, R. M. Donaldson, Lance-Corporal C. Doyle, E. Dunn, »W. E. Dwyer, E. J. Edwards, J. Flynn, W. J. Forsyth, G. H. R. Funnell, W. Gamble. C. F. Gibbins, R. Godley, Corporal E. Griffiths, F. T. Hampshire. T. Harris, A. Harris, P. Harrison, J. A. Ashley, E. Heap. A. Heskett, W. H. Hewett, T. Hokai, S. T. Hollington, Corooral K. A. Hooten, T. S. Humphrey, W. A. Innes, S. Isaacs, A. H. Jack. Lance-Corporal H. Johnston, E. Jones. L. I. Keat. C. S. Kelly, W. S. Kelly. E: W. Kent, A. A. King, P. Kinita. H. Lomas, J. H. Lang, R. McDermott, W. J. McDowell. Lance-Corporal G. E. McEvoy. P. L. McGrath, A. McMillan, P. Maku. V. Masson. P. A. Mayes, Sergeant J. E. Mays, J. Morgan. H. C. Morton, J. O'Brien, G. E. Oldbury. J. V. Oliver. W. Ormsby, T. Paora, J. L. Petersen, J. R. Plummer, L. Presland, H. A. Rapson, Lance-Sergeant W. Rankin, H. Redfearn, Lance-Corporal E. Reeve, R. Rere, B. Rogers, H. A. Rogers, V. E. V. Roscoe. H. Royal, F. Saies,. A. Saies, P. Soloman, Lance-Corporal A. Stanley, Lance-Cor-poral J. A. Stanton. Corporal Jr A. Stewart, H. A. Stowell, C. Stuekey. P. Tairua, K. Tamou, D. N. Taylor. —. Timms, C. M. Turner, Lance- ; Corporal J. ('. Verner, G. E. Whaktrom, Sergeant S. Ward. A. -E. Warner, Lance-Corporal T. S. Webb, A. C. Wells, J. S. Wilson, W. F. G. Wilson, W. H. Worth, J. V. Wrenn, R. G. Young.

A FIGHTER FROM THE SOMME. Some interesting details of the fighting at Armentieres and the Somine are described by Private L. B. Scott, of the Canterbury Infantry Battalion, Eleventh Reinforcements, His first impression of the gigantic scale upon which the Allies are carrying out their plans for victory •was gained at a village called Etaples, near Boulogne, where he saw a huge concentration camp, containing British, French, Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand troops. "It was an eye-opener, I can tell you," said Private Scott, "to sec such overwhelming amounts of both men and munitions, but it only prepared us for what was to come. We went in for training in the advanced forms of trench fighting here, practising bombthrowing "and the new bayonet exercises. When we Actually moved up to the firing-line at Armentieres nobody appeared to 'be particularly excited or disturbed, but we soon learned to respect such things as "minnewerfcre" and some other forms of "strafing." "The German spies are cheeky enough for anything," continued the private. "They dive right through our lines in motor-cars, and although a. great number of them are caught, they never cease to come across looking for information. Three of them were caught right in our trenches. It was a morning practice in our portion of the trenches to send across greetings, such as 'Good morning, Fritz,' and we always got back the answer 'Good morning, Tommy.' Sometimes they played music for us on their gramaphone, but one day they played the German national anthem, and that was the end of the gramophone. "Afterwards we moved up fronv Armentieres to the Somme, and as we got nearer our objective we began to mix with a continuous stream of motor vehicles, coming and going with supplies and wounded. German prisoners, by the way, ■who worked on the roads and at odd jobs, looked exceedingly well-fed and happy. Some of them were taken to their daily work in motor lorries. We

iwere soon in the territory that had pre-1 viously been in German hands, and were able to examine some of the German j trenches, which were exceedingly deep '■ and well built. The dug-outs used by the Germans were commonly about 30ft deep, divided into compartments. It is a marvel to think that they were ever shifted out of their holdings. The num-| ber and size of the big guns that are distributed over the country from about five miles 'behind the trenches is simply unbelievable. The batteries are firing endlessly, pounding away day and night, directed" by aeroplanes and telegraph. In two days I saw 28 observation balloons and 21 aeroplanes, and of five German aeroplanes that were up on that occasion two were brought to earth. It is a common sight to see halt a dozen aeroplanes in a 'scrap,' but the enemy machines never get over our lines." WALKING ACROSS. Speaking of the actual fighting, Private Scott said that the discipline of our; men was something to marvel at. In the strain of the few minutes preceding an attack they invariably appeared to be cool and steady, but they never waited for the barrage to cease before they were over the parapet. In the new system of attack, there i 6 no helterskelter rush. The men walk across to the enemy line under the shelter of the barrage, but when they get near the German trenches, the machine guns open up a murderous fire—and I may tell you the German is an artist with a machine-gun. "We seldom had hand-to-hand fighting to do though," he said.i "for when we reached Fritz's diggings

they were generally not at home. A curious thing I noticed is that the retreating Germans always leave their rifles. In fact, when I was hit I handed my rifle to a mate and picked up a German gun and used it. - Private Scott was wounded in the legs by fragments from a bomb. "I went poking around," he said, "and got too , far down a branch trench, and came on the Germans and they registered a hit." A BOMBING RAID. WITH ARTILLERY PREPARATION. "I was raiding at the time when I was wounded," was Lieutenant H. J..D. Sheldon's explanation, when approached on the subject. He was in charge of 95 men and three 'officers. It was at Armentieres. The raid was made with wonderful artillery preparation. When the artillery had taken the objective, he said, the tanks pushed on immediately, absolutely demoralising the Germans'. There's nothing like them for taking a strong point. The whole thing was over in about a quarter of an hour. Our casualties were fairly light. He was wounded in the hip, and in that condition he crawled and walked, back to the trenches, some 180_.yards. Twenty-four hours after he had been temporarily attended to at the dressing station, he was in hospital in England. The system, in this respect, he said, was perfect. Lieut. Sheldon underwent two operations, the first at the Northumberland J War Hospital, a magnificent institution, and the other, on board the hospital ship while she lay at Albany. Tbe "boys," • he said, had made tvonderful headway » on the trip home. PRIVATE McKEHDRY, . ; WINS MILITARY MEDAL. [ In an 'unconcerned manner. Private J.

McKendry, of the Otago Infantry Battalion, Bth, Reinforcements, related, as he lay in his cot, the circumstances that led up to him being recommended for the Military Medal. The incident took place during the heavy fighting at Armentieres. An Otago boy, Sniper Benson, was out on " No Man's Land," within 60 ' yards of the German trenches, when he was struck down, severely wounded in the thigh. Private McKendry noticed that his comrade was in trouble, and rescued him from Ms perilous position, gaining safety without injury, amid a hail of bullets. Prior to the Somme offensive, in which he was wounded in the chest and leg with shrapnel, Private McKendry was presented with the medal ribbon by Brigadier-Genl. Braithwaite. He has yet to receive the medal. Private McKendry'underwent six operations, and was carried on the hospital ship, but he ' is now able, as a result of the trip, to hobble about on crutches. THE WOODS BROTHERS. > A GOOD RECORD. Amongst the serious cot cases is Rifle- , man E. G. Woods, who is returning to ,' Christchurch {where he enlisted), to ' enter the public hospital for further treatment. Rifleman Woods went out | with the 3rd Rifle Brigade of the 7th Re- | inforcements. During the fighting at Armentiere* he had his thigh fractured. His brother, Sergeant AYoods, came i ,' out to the Dominion six months ago,'| having taken his massage certificate j j after being blinded in both eyes on Galli- j ' poli. Another brother is at the front. j