SOMME OFFENSIVE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 218, 15 September 1930, Page 8

SOMME OFFENSIVE.

WEW ZEALAND SOLDIERS. VICTORY OVER GERMANS. FOURTEENTH ANNIVERSARY.' To-day is the fourteenth anniversary of the big offensive on in which the New Zealanders covered themselves with glory. They waged battle for 23 days with the best of the. German troops, awl made gains of great ance.The Germans knew the significance of the struggle. They were under orders' to /hold every ..foot of ground and not to abandon commanding ' points except by express order of "the Supreme Command, but even that was of no avail. Tanks played an important part in the first attack on September 15, and the

days of fighting-which, followed. Autumn was declining and, with the approach of winter, the battlefield was heavy mud. Beyond Fleurs was the line of the Rifle Brigade, which played.lhavoc with the Germans as they appeared in massed formation. So deadly was the fire of the Vickers and Lewis guns,' 18-pounders and small howitzers, that' the forces of the enemy were virtually annihilated. , The victory had far-reaching effects. The moral of the New Zealanders re-; vealed,itself in the "will to win?; and; there was founded a confidence between; the units t,liat had its influence upon" subsequent battles. Sergeant D. F.! Brown, of the 2nd Battalion, Otago Regi-1 ment, won the first; Victoria Cross awarded to . a New, Zealander, during the Sommc offensive. . With, the assistance; of a comrade he. wiped out machine-gun' postsi on .two-occasions on September, 15,! when they were holding up the attack;! and some days later • repeated his' per-' forinance single-handed. While sniping the retreating • "Germans, Brown : waS killed, - and the award was made after, his death. ;■ ■ .-; ■ f