LE QUESNOY.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16377, 23 November 1918, Page 7

LE QUESNOY.

FALLS TO NEW ZEALANDERS. SURRENDER OF GARRISON". (From Malcolm Ross, Correspondent with, the New Zealand Forces.) November 4. The New Zeainnders were again in action to-day, when the British armies resumed their advance. In the recent operations their trend had been northeast, but they now swung round due cast. In their pathway lay historic Le Quesnoy, with its moat and ramparts well garrisoned with German rifleand machine-gunncrs. A bombardment that heralded the advance of the New Zealanders came from several brigades of artillery, while the ramparts were screened by a smoke barrage as our men moved forward in an encicling movement. Ihe town itself we could neither bombard nor gas, as there were many civilians in it. For this reason a frontal attack was impossible -without heavy casualties. The troosp moved to the assemblies and ammunition was dumped in darkness. Night fell with drizzling rain, but the morning broke tine, save for a light fog which soon disappeared before a southern wind and bright sun. At five thirty our massed artillery broke out in a drumfire of creeping barrage, and tho troops advanced to encircle the town. _ By the time our troops had half encircled the village the barrage searched the ramparts of tffe west and north-west faces for a quarter of an hour, after which patrols pushed forward to ascertain the position. They were mot with determined opposition from machine-gun-ners and snipers, yet in face of this they scaled the outer ramparts with ladders, which they carried for that purpose, and so secured commanding positions at certain points. _ They also carried cork floats with which to cross tho moat should it be flooded. It was almost with regret that they found it dry, for some of these "diggers" would havo thoroughly enjoyed the novel experience of sucli Homeric warfare. Our troops on the right wore counter-at-tacked from the right flank of the divisional area by five officers and a hundred men, fifty of whom were shot down and the rest taken prisoners. T.he latter came in under command of a couple of our runners. DARING ATTACKERS. Thero wero some daring incidents. A sergeant who wears tho ribands or D.C.'M. and M.M. scaled the ramparts, shot down the crew of a machine-gun, and proceeded *o investigate the position inside the town when lie was shot at from some houses, wounded m tho arm, and forced to retire. One of the first, if not the first up the ramparts, was a -Maori from tho Pioneer Battalions, and his rifle was thrown. up after him by a salvage officer. Neither had any business in the tight, but no doubt the sporting instincts of the latter, and the feats of the ancestors of the former in storming similar slopes in tribal warfaro impelled them forward in this venture. Tho Maori was met with bombs, and the salvage officer might have been seen later ndmg back with a wounded arm in a sling and beaming with delight- ~ ,• During the morning a battalion headquarters captured a hundred pnsoners. One of our most daring battalion commanders received his third wound, a bullet through the shin bone. 1 saw him lator.stillconductmgopeiations with a leg, P ro PP® d f in a chair. His brother, wiio has four wound stripes on deeire.>, ad misfortune to be out of this.fight, ash is on leave m England. One of om men who was captured by tho early in the morning was recaptured later in the day by his own battalion. PREMATURE REJOICINGS. When tho inhabitants saw; the New Zealanders on tho ramparts they camo out of their houses and cheered and waved flags. Their rejoicings w«o somewhat premature, for the enemy continued to figbt oil. I tried to g into town at ten in tho morning, and n.d and sweat by machine-gun fiie. m aTternoon I tried another way, and reached the. outer ramparts to fand Boche machine-gunners and sta busv The Maoris-were sheltering u ?o surrender, and a large numbcr laid down their arms and proceeded to march out, but were fired on by their own machine-gunners and scattored Another officer crossed the raraparts at a different place with a the garrison to surrender, but the guide led him by such devious ways that for mans iought on. In the afternoon an other message was sent them. This had the desired effect. The garrison at last surrendered.

TOWN OCCUPIED. The Brigadier, with other of his officers, entered tho. town, and were received with manifestations of 3°v about 1500 civilians. The town is expected to yield a thousand prisoners, so that the captures by the for the day should amount to 2000. One brigade ostimates that it alone has captured about fifty guns. One of the unique sights of the war was a German gun with six horses and enemy riders up being taken back through our lines. A doctor and his wholo staff were among the prisoners captured. But this is not all. While Le Quesnoy was holding out, a brigade supported by all the available artillery that could get up, 'was rapidly advancing to objectives far ahead, anil beforo the day had passed had got beyond the range of their artillery. An Auckland battalion took Rainponoau with prisoners, machinoguns, and civilians, and two Wellington battalions passing through them captured Villomau and Potelle, where more prisoners and civilians were found, and to-night our men are well into the farther end of the great Forest of Mormal. Altogether it has been a glorious day for what the Germans have been pleased to call "a tired and worn-out division."

, November sth, 10 a.m. When tales of fiercer fights have almost been forgotten, the storming and capture of Le Quesnoy by the New Zealand Rifle Brigade will bo remembered as »>no of the most picturesque and romantic incidents of this war. Tho old fortress, which has stood many sieges, _ is still wonderfully strong, with precipitous ramparts of well-preserved brick crowned with tall trees and a dry moat fronting the inner rampart. <Many besiegers nave had a tilt at it in olden times. In 1793 the Austrian 3 stormed it after ten days' bombardment that laid the town m ruins. In 1918 troops from the farthest British Dominion have captured it from what was the world's greatest military power in as many hours. ultimately it fell to one battalion, the Fourth, the credit of its capture belongs almost equally to the other battalions of the brigade, and those of the First Brigade that fought so gallantly and gradually enveloped the town in face of determined opposition. The German orders wcro to liold tho town to the last. Dawn was just breaking as our troops, who had assembled overnight in rain, advanced to the attack behind a magnificent barrage. Mingled with the bursting of ordinary shells were shells of. Metium and Stokes trench mortars, while from still others descended a smoke curtain that screened the main advance and protected the flanks from a possiblo deadlv hail of machine-gun bullets. The fire" at zero hour was truly terrific, small wonder that in tho track of this cyclonic battle-storm were found afterwards -the bodies of dead

Germans and many wounded, who cou.d neither walk nor crawl away. The high embankment of tho railway fronting the outer ramparts was our first objective. This was strongly hold, and gained only after stubborn fighting, during which several Germans were killed and wounded, and others taken prisoner. Approaching -the outer ramparts cnotho:- battalion, the sooonu, found a 77mm. gun firing at it oyer open sights, making an advance m the face ot casualties exceedingly difficult. Meantime other battalions were gradually encircling tho town to the , and south-west, and the lourth B«i - ration, whose advance lot us now lollow, pushed patrols under cover of the barrage and smoke screen right up the foot of the outer ramparts and in places on to their bastion heights. When the smoke screen had gradually drifted awav. there camo the stuwiing noise of machine-guns, and belt after belt of German bullets whistled through the treos at the advancing New Zealanders. Ouo platoon found itself cut off. Its commander was . killed; while endeavouring to extricate his men, and in tho hollow between two brick walls a daring sergeant remained with his men for six hours. SYSTEMATIC WORK. As tho sun rose and the bombardment slackened, civilians saw our men on the outer ramparts, and greeted them with distant cheers and waving of flags, inspiring'them to renowed efforts. But it was not- till after midday that the patrols, like wary door-stalkers, began to mark down the Boche machinegunners and snipers, and systematically shift them from the cover of their bastions. These enemy positions were bombarded with the only available Stokes s mortar, and ono after another occupied. A narrow thirty-foot ladder was hauled along, and on this officers and men climbed to the top of the precipitous W-shaped bastions dominating the line of advance. Messages sent in to the garrison were, so far, without avail. One dropped by aeroplane told them they were entirely surrounded. Later on."an ultimatum demanding surrender within two hours mado the commander think that surrender was better than annihilation, and the opposition _ Perceptibly slackened, but on some of the rampart positions men had apparently not received the news, and maintained a defensive attitude. This was the situation -when the Fourth Battalion decided to scale the inner wall. In front, through the trees, they could see a great moat and formidable rampart of brick, crowned with machine-guns scill in action. Only m one place was it possible to reach tho bastion bv means of their thirty-foot ladder. This was a spot at which the low wall abutted on to the main rampart. In single file the officers led their men to the final assault. _ The track beaten by their feet can still be seen leading between trees and along the top of this narrow wall. With a Stokes mortar, and machine-guns the New Zealanders drove the enemy on to the reverse slope from the summit of the bastion. Then a ladder was placed against the wall. It barely reached the top. Two second-lieutenants with three men ascended. It was a thrilling moment. Leaving the last, rung of the ladder, these men found themselves confronted by a few Germans, who finding our bullets whistling about (them, sought safety in flight down the slope and into an underground cavern where other Boches were sheltering. Following upon this initial success, practically the whole battalion streamed quickly in single file along the , lower wall and up the ladder. Headquarters, which throughout the day consisted of ono signaller with a telephone, and the battalion commander, and was being advanced by slow stages from point to point, now mounted the parapet, men paying out the telephone wiro as they climbed. Patrois were pushed down the reverse slope, and the Boches sheltering underground began to surrender freely. Within a few minutes the wholo battalion engaged in the vicinity had swarmed up the ladder and were gashing into the beleaguered town through the Ruo Caillon, .which was first swept with our machine-gun firo. A MEMORABLE SCENE. Then a memorable scene occurred. The inhabitants, •realising that at . last deliverance had come, rushed from cellars .and houses, and soon from every building the tricolour was flying in tho breeze. Along a street lined with an excited, cheering throngs tho "diggers" marched, embraced and kissed andi showered with autumn flowers. The enthusiasm knew no bounds. Here and there a rifle still cracked, our men taking no chances when they saw a Boche ■who had not surrendered. The Battalion Commander marched with revolver in one hand and garlands in the other. Tho excited civilians stuck flowers in the men's tunics, and even in their gas respirators, and followed cheering to the main square, where the German commander, with a hundred men, alieady drawn up, surrendered to a young New Zealand captain, whom he formally saluted, and to whom he handed his revolver. Meantimo other Germans had deliberately fired some of the houses, and dense columns of black smoke rose and drifted across to the northern ramparts. Two New Zealand officers were sent with a hundred prisoners to fight the flames. Other prisoners were rounded up and gathered in tho main square. Close at band was a great barbed wire enclosure where these French men and women said our prisoners had been left in the rain without food or clothing, till some of them died of hunger and exposure. They seemed surprised that we should treat the Germans so humanely. The battalion got its steaming cookers into town, Mid the men, after their strenuous fighting, enjoyed a hot meal. The inhabitants had given them hot coffee and food from thieir own scanty stores, and pressed upon them the best accommodation their homo 3 could afford. Many a "digger" used to damp clav slept that night in a warm bed. j SHOWERED WITH FLOWERS. This morning the Divisional General and Brigadier formally visited the town, j The .former, after a brief stay, ro{le> off to the Forest of MQrmal to see how his , still advancing troops were getting on. Beyond Lo Quesnoy he established head- J quarters in his motor-car. The Brig~ adier remained to receive a civic welcome and congratulations. The band ! of the Second Battalion played the "Marseillaise" and our National Anthem amid renewed jubilation. Then j the battalioh, now somewhat roduced in numbers, because of its dead and wounded, formed up in the square, and, headed by a band playing inspiriting music, marched past the Brigadier, who, sitting on his charger, hand to rim of steel casque, took the salute of his warworn heroes. Swinging proudly down the main street the little column was showered with flowers and flags. Whitehaired old men doffed their hats as the battalion passed, but the younger people, less sedate, followed cheering and waving their tricolours. Thus in a cold drizzle of rain, but still in great heart, with band playing and flags flying, and a solitary English gun shooting at a far distant target, tho New Zealanders maiched off from the old town they had delivered from the ruthless enemy.

A RED LETTER DAY. November sth, 11.10 p.m. Yesterday and to-day will remain for ever red letter days i*n tho history of the New Zealand division. Apart from tho capture of Le Quesnoy by the Pdfle Brigade, the splendid advanco of the other brigades must be regarded as an almost unique achievement. In two days tho division "had advanced between eight and nine miles, fighting all the way. From west of Lo Quesnoy it has passed through the great Forest of Mormal to within a short distance of the canalised Sombre. Yesterday the Auckland and Wellington troops, under cover of a smoke _ barrage, broke through the German lines to the north of Lo Quesnoy, and stormed Ramponeau, Villereau, and Horbinges, through difficult country, largely covered with orchards and hedges, and dotted with farms. Penetrating right ia-

to tho enemy battery positions, they captured many guns, aiul by nightfall had established themselves half a mile inside the Forest of Morraal, on its western side. Many German dead in tho track of these troops and horse teams lie prostrate beside abandoned guns. The advance was continued to-day by the Otapo and Canterbury troops, who pained the objective east of tho ferestseven thousand yards ahead, and within about half a mile of tho Sambre. A feature of this fighting was that they had Io go the whole way through the forest without artillery support. It was an advanced guard action almost all the way. with only machine-gun support, for the artillery could move along only outside roa<ls.and could not see what was doing in the forest-, where the tnemy had posted machine-guns at stars formed by the cross-roads. Progress was by no means easy. To-dny about 150; prisoners wero captured.