NEW ZEALAND ATTACK EAST OF CAMBRAI.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 245, 14 October 1918, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND ATTACK EAST OF CAMBRAI.

VILLAGES CAPTURED WITH SPLENDID ELAN. PRISONERS ADMIT THAT ENEMY IS DONE. (Received 1-30 pjn.) LONDON, October 8. An unusual quiet reigned on our front last night. At intervals a Bochc shell whistled overhead, and crashed in an adjacent village. The night was cold and wet, but with the first glimmer of dawn in the leaden east the whole scene changed, and the front for miles became suddenly ablaze with flashing guns, while drumfire of our barrage rolled across the valleys and hills. It was 4.30 when the New Zealandcrs moved forward beyond the St. Quentin Canal to the attack on l-esdain and Esnea, two villages beyond Crevecoenr which had already fallen to them. Otago aud Canterbury troops were on the right, and Rifles on the left. Early in the advance, opposition, mostly machine-gun and rifle fire, was met in front of Lcsdain at a beet-crushing factory, and from the village itself, but this was soon overcome, and our troops were killing the Boche in the street and on either Bide of the village. Several prisoners wero taken here. Pressing on with their usual determination our men crossed a tramway, and ahead met with more, opposition in a sunken road, where there were scveiral deep German dugoute. As the morning wore on the weather improved, and the battlefield presented a most wonderful sight. Along the crest of the ridge ahead stoke shells, mingling with the darker bursts of high explosives, rose in columns straight in the air, and at intervals the play of sunlight on this smoking line was most picturesque. Our men could Ive seen about Seranvillers on the left, and ahead of Lesdain, making towards the lines. ART—__£RY BREAKS TJF COU3TT—R-ATTACK. A 'plane signalled the oncoming of the enemy on our left, but the artillery opened on them, and the attack faded away. Presently we could see the black bursts of Boche shells in Seranvillers, indicating that it had fallen to the division on our left. Prisoners began to come down in droves, and the New Zealand cage was crowded with men and officers of the Thirty-eighth, Two Hundred and First, and Fifth Bavarian Divisions. Non-commissioned officers and men admitted defeat, and added that Germany was done. At 9.30 explosions of a great German dump behind Seranvillers added to the picturesquencss of the scene.

In Lesdain some men of the Rifles had the stifTcst fighting, but the honours of the fight were entirely with them. They killed several and captured many, incltiuing a battalion commander. Our Lewis gunners shot from their hips, and •there was a lot of ride work. Two hundred aud fifty prisoners were counted.

At 9.30 our artillery put a barrage on Esnes. We watched the smoking town, and saw our men go gallantly forward to the attack. After a time the shelling died down, and they had won their second objective. These were South Islanders. Some mines were discovered in Esnes.

PRISONERS THREE TIMES CASUALTIES. A squadron of cavalry attached to us was now sent from Esnes. and exploited towards Caudry. a, town of considerable size, which quite recently boused French civilians. We could plainly discern its undamaged church and houses and chimney stacks, and up the slope in front of it were many retreating Germans. Between nine and ten there were signs of a counter-attack from the direction of Awoingt, on our left, with tanks, both German and some British converted ones, but the German infantry had not the courage tc come on, and two of their tanks were left in our hands. The men of the Rifle Brigade were now seen away beyond Seranvillers, and the South Inlanders were beyond Esnes. All their objectives had been taken in splendid style. They were now exploiting still farther ahead. During these operations our artillery got on to the enemy massing for a counterattack, aud did some splendid shooting. They must have killed and wounded many Bosches. :\t a rough estimate our prisoners must be about three times our casualties. We captured several guns. I saw our own artillery teams bringing in three high velocity seventy-sevens, and there were several others. I walked across the battlefield through Lesdain, and into Esnes, and saw myself many enemy dead, but few of our own. The. story of the battle could be read as one walked along. Withdrawing the cloak from the face of one of our men near Lesdain, I found he was a greatly esteemed major, who has been with us from the very start. Near him was a lieutenant, who, by a shell, had met a painless death, and farther on a Cantcrbiyy corporal. These had been killed while advancing gallantly over quite open ground in attack. There were a few privates dead here and there about Lesdain, while there were many German dead On a piece of fiat land to the left of the Esnes road the enemy dead were thickly strewn, all killed by one New Zealand platoon, but the grimmest sight of all was in the sunken road beyond Lesdain, where lay a New Zealand private nnd twelve dead prisoners whom he was taking back, all killed by the one German shell. He at least was "faithful until death." As I left two Ores were burning in German territory north of Caudry, one was the biggest fire I have, yet seen on a battlefield.

HELD UP BY MACHXIfE-GTrN FIRE. Touch was obtained with the retreating enemy by tbe New Zealanders this morning at Fontaine-au-Pcre, where they were held up by machine-gun fire from the villape. .Some gunners were firing from the church steeple. 1 went again through Esnes to Gonghart, where I could see the Rifle Brigade on the left, and Otago troops on the right of the village. Our supports had dng themselves in in small oblong pits behind the forward rise. An enemy balloon was up, and German guns were firing at our men on the left, but the fire was not heavy, and the men were sheltered from anything but direct hits. PYom this vaiitage point there was a magnificent view of the country ahead We had come well eiwt of Cambrai, which was still burning. Camdry, to the right, was also smoking, but the fields were green with root crops where French civilians had but recently been cultivating. One had come at last into a pleasant land, where villages were undestroyed and roads were good except whero the bridges were blown up. In the houses there were evidences of the hasty flight of the French inhabitants. Women and children's clothing, crockery, and glassware, remnants of food—all were littered about the rooms. In one house stood a sewing machine with a garment a woman had (been making still under the thread. One wondered what had happened to the late occupants of these pleasant village, homes now. Their belongings were strewn to the four winds of heaven.

On the way back I saw one of the meet comical sights of the. war. A New Zealand ammunition column swung round a village street corner in strange guise The riders and men on the limb—-s had discarded their sterl helmets and were wearing bclltoppers, bowlers, and felt hate. They were the cynosure of all eyes, and the roads they passed along became gay "with smiley as the Ion" columns of infantry moved forward.

This morning everyone was moving forward; the guns, transport, and infantry of two armies streamed along the roaeis in endless line. The Bosclie had gone in the nighttime. There wa6 an idea that he would go after yesterday's Brittah advance, and all night long the guns thundered, harassing his positions in and about Cambrai.

H_f__NBTJ3IG I—NX GONE FOR EVER This morning our barrage came down on no one, and the New Zealanders advancing behind it occupied Longsart at 10 o'clock. We were not yet in touch •with the enemy. South Island troops with rifles, a 6Cfuadron of cavalry, and extra machine-gun companies continued to advance, and headquarters moved forward. Though the enemy ie retiring to the Solievc-le-Cateau line, in front of which is the Selle River and railway, the Hindenburg line is gone for ever. A, great fire is burning in Cambrai. An enormous volume of smote is rising two thousand feet in the still air. On our right other fires have been burning since yesterday afternoon. The whole eastward horizon is grey with smoke. Hindcnburg and Ludendorff, the destroying angels, arc busy with their firebrands, aware of the disaster that has overtaken them.

It has Ibeen an <_traexrdinary day, headquarters divisions and all the services streaming forward into new territory, with villages from which French civilians as well as the enemy had hurriedly withdrawn. The New Zealand headquarters, which had been split in two for some days, now moved .well feu-ward beyond the St. Quentin Canal, occupying houses in which there was a litter of rubbish, and dugouts still smelling of the Boche occupation. We had weird meals at odd hours, and strange things happened. The advanced dressing stations got ahead. of the regimental aud poste, and the ammunition refilling point was almost at our front line. It was wonderful how a rtmiuiution and supplies arrived well forward. One saw Maori Pioneers eating raw carrots from garden plots, and our infantry digging potatoes or cutting cabbages that either the Germans or French farmers had grown. The day waa fine, and our men, in high »spirits, were thoroughly enjoying themselves. They were again in touch with the enemy, who did not seem in great force, and apparently was fighting a rearguard action in the villages. One had to be careful of booby traps. Bits of wire pulled by the unwary might explode a concealed shell or mine. We were warned not to light a fire in any stove in case it would melt some connection that would fire a mine. Darkness fell upon ns still looking for somewhere to sleep, and with a strange ejuiet, for there was no sound of gun nor bursting shell. Gradual! y, however things straightened themselves out, and we dined at an ultra-fashionable hour. Along the roads lay dead horees and dead Bochea that there had as yet not been time to bury. To-morrow we may move again. It is all strangely interesting, and good to be in the midst of auch moving scenes.—(From the Official War Correspondent.^