WITH THE NEW ZEALANDERS.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 15752, 20 November 1916, Page 11

WITH THE NEW ZEALANDERS.

GERMAN PRISONERS. SOME SUBSIDIARY SERVICES. (From Captain Malcolm Ross, War Correspondent with N.Z. Forces.) Somme Battlefield, September 29. For a full day and night now the guns have been beating the air .with that unceasing pulsation that was our constant wonder early in July, and that in mid-September we heard again with renewed wonder akin to awe. It must hare been a very long day and night for the enemy. What it is all about we do not exactly know. We are too near the front. The nearer you are to the front, .the less news you get, and the later yon are in getting it. But you se« more and hear more, though what you see cannot altogether be re- 1 corded for enemy information, aJid what you hear is largely inarticulate. We can tell from the direction of the sound that this bombardment is not on our sector —"up Thiepval way" is the nearest we can get to it. The German prisoners marching down on the roads hear it, and seem to pause in their march, pondering. When we are really ready and the guns begin to hum instead of pulsate, they will become very thoughtful. There is one other thing that should give them food for reflection. It is being marched down by a few Tommies with fixed bayonets along the roads they know so well and through country in which for two years they have lived almost undisturbed. Along the roads over which their guns and ammunition and food used to. come anx aananaiooin. -food are

now "oing. They are able to see "with their"own eyes the great, wax machine of the British Empire movin E slowly but irresistibly onward. But a e davs ago I inarched beside a smart voting officer begloved and wearing a wellrcut overcoat of horizon on through Mametz and I'J l courts This was country every inch of which ho knew, country that with its trenches and forts and clug-outs and wire he thought impregnable. ® .f™ weeks he had been pushed hack mi' e bevond it all. It was no wonder that he" looked neither to the right nor to the left, but marched straight on, busy with, his own thoughts.

CAPTURED BY XBW ZEAIiAKDERS Amongst these are prisoners captured by the Now Zealanders. An very ready they were to put away the rifle and the grenade. In Flers and vicinity in one day the Rifle Brigade captured over four hundred prisoners. These men were all very much shaken by our shell fire, and they were glad to surrender. They seemed to hare been fairly well rationed, and they had. •rood cigars and cigarettes. There is apparently a "ration" cigar for tne German troops. Many of the German soldiers carried in 'their packs two bottles of eodawater. For a day or two the' victorious New Zealanders naa more than enough to eat and drink and smoke. There were, of course, plenty of souvenirs to bo had for the pickingup; bayonets, expensive automatic revolvers and a few very excellent periscopes that must have cost anything from £20 to £30Often a prisoner would offer a medal or a watch or ring to a man to propitiate him. One German offered nis Iron Cross" Generally, the German soldiers seemed surprised that _ they should be- so well treated by British troops. They were Bavarian regiments that were opposed to us here, and though these troops are said to he among the best fighters in the German Armv, our men who made the victorious onrush from the crest of the ridge across lines of German trenches into and beyond Flers had the utmost contempt for them as opponents when came to close combat. As a rule they either held up their hands or ran. Many of our men who took part in the fighting afterwards said to me that it was like shoo tin ft rabbits. In later stages of the fighting, however, _ the Germans fought gamply, and positions were only won and held at considerable cost. But on no occasion was the valour of the Tsew Zealanders unequal to the task that had been set them.

MACHINE-GUNS CAPTURED. During the first few days of the fighting wo caotured a number of ma-chine-guns, rifles, bombs, and ammunition. Amongst the machine-guns our men brought in was one that had been, captured by the Germans from the French in the earlier stages oT"the war. This gun the Germans had converted, and were using against us. We shall now be able to hand it backjx> its original owners, or perhaps if trie authorities permit, take it back with us as an interesting souvenir to New Zealand.

STRETCHER-BEARERS AND RUNNERS. I have already referred to the excellent work done by our doctors. Three of the latter were wounded, and two, including a well-known North Island surgeon, were killed. This surgeon had gono out to an advanced position where there were a considerable number of wounded belonging to the Rifles. Practically all these had been got in, and the doctor was having a look around to see what more could bo done, when he was severely wounded by a bursting 6hell. He received every possible attention, and was conveyed to the N.Z. Stationary Hospital at Amiens, where ho died —a loss to tho Force and to New Zealand. His brother-doctor fell at the same place where ho was hit. Our stretcner-bearers, as they always do worked heroically. They were the first out, and they had to carry their wounded a long distance uphill through a shell-swept zone. They never for one moment spared themselves, and quite a number were killed and wounded in their gallant efforts to save tho liveg of their suffering comrades. As a rule, one hears little praiso of the runners, and the work is a _ little apt to be overlooked. The intensity of the shell-fire in these later-day battles makes it quite impossible at the start to obtain communication by wire with the front and often the lines already in existence up to the forward position before an attack are shot away by the enemy's shelling. Under such circumstances communication can be obtained only by runners. There is never any lack of men for this dangerous work. Wearing shorts, and with yellow bands on their tunic sleeves, they hop out of a trench and sprint from shell-crater to shell-crater, bearing back news to bafc- ! talion or brigade headquarters as to how the fight is going, or what the position is- They are killed and wounded, but often the wounded persevere, and in some instances they have struggled on and delivered their messages, and then dropped from exhaustion or loss of blood or both. As in the case of the 6tretcher-bearcrs, their work is hard and their bravery -unexcelled. Men of the Rifles have assured me that on one occasion the Germans deliberately fired on our stretcher-bearers with a machinegun. One stretcher-bearer made six journeys-.. goinrr twelve times through the German shell-fire, and then collapsed at tho end of his last journey. It needs a man with iron-nerve to stand, such a severe strain.

CANTEENS AN3> Y.M.C.A. In a previous article I referred to the excellent work done by tie officer who is running the canteens for the New Zeal antlers, and also by tie This excellent work has been continued on the Somme battlefield, and is greatlv appreciated. There are two canteens here, one established well forward under shell -fire. Our own and the enemy's shells scream over it day and ni"ht, and on almost every occasion on which I have passed it there has generallv been a queue of waiting purchasers there. The New Zealanders get preference, but when their wants are supplied the British Tommies also get a chance of which they are only too glad to avail themselves. It is. I believe, the nearest canteen to the front. The Y.M.C.A. tent is also popular. Here the men get tea» cocoa, and coffee, and very excellent English which comes enclosed in tins. fceveral of the New Zealanders who were lightly wounded in the Somme fighting soon made their way back from the Convalescent Camp to the more comfortable quarters and generous treatment of the Y.M.C.A. tent a few miles nearer the front from which they had been sent. THE TRANSPOKT. The splendid work done by our first line transDort under tremendous difficulties was the admiration of all who were privileged to witness it. When it was at its worst owing to weather and shelling, X watched for a time a voung "Wairarapa sheep-farmer, who now wears the D.C.M. ribbon, straightening it out. One night the road at one 'place looked something like pictures of the retreat from Moscow, only that there was no retreat, and everything that could move was still going forward. I have reason to know myself what the shelline in that particular corner was like. Tho scene was one for the Dainter with the brush rather than with the pen, though the former, like the latter, would have to put. a restraint upon his efforts at realism. The vile weather that we experienced about that time made the straightening out of the trouble all the more difficult, but the young sheep-farmer was asked if he would do it again another night. And he did it. At the moment of writing the difficulties have been largely overcome, and in a little while others will be taking up the work at a more satisfactory stage.