FROM THE FRONT

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2953, 13 December 1916, Page 6

FROM THE FRONT

NEff ZEALANDERS ON THE SOMME

IN THE THICK OP BATTLE

Another interesting letter, dated October 12, descriptive of the part taken by- New'Zealanders, particularly the Wellington Infantry, in the Somine battle has been received from Lieut. A. B. Sievwright, of the Wellington West Coast Regiment, who has been seconded; to the Light Trench Mortar Battery'cittached to the Ist Battalion. This regiment entered the "push" on September 15, and was under General Sir H. S. Eawlinson, C.V.0., who had command of the Fourth Army. ' The New ZealalTders engaged in this fight were not withdrawn till about October 6. Lieut. Sievwright writes: "This indeed/ has been a month full to the overflow with strenuous work and arduous endeavour. Hie papers will have told you how well the New- Zealanders did oil the Somine.. . . .It was magnificent. Nothing.could hold our lads, and they went forward as if on parade. It was great to see them, wave after wave, extended in straight line's, moving forward under our 'barrage,' which lifted as they moved on. The Germans all the time pelted awliy with their storm of lead and iron. That so few were easualtiod in the-attack sneaks volumes for our system of attack, where the weight of artillery prepares the _ way, and is a shield in the attack itself. The'lines moved forward at a- steady wall.-, and amid the flashes and smoke of German 5.9 shells, I actually saw one cool fellow light a- cigarette, am' the chap next him li".ht up also from the on« first lit. The j>oisc was so great that .you couldn't hear yourself sneak: but our chaps were magnificent. Over the last twenty yards in front of tho German trench they broke into a double, and went for it with the bayonet. The Boslie—the allegedly greatest 'virrior th" world has seen—diwvned his gun, his equipment, everything, nnd ran for dear life, or crawled into a handy "dug-out. ■ I migbt say our fellows didn't take manv prisoners. A hefty bomb or two settled the opposition in their own dug-out traps. 7 "This' is the way by successive Ip«.hs our lads drov" the Hun from the around on which lie bad held up tho British advance for so long. Tho high ground between High' Wood and B Delville was a strong position, bot" by reason.of its nature and its earl.' works. Our lads walked over it or September 15 and drove tho yellinBoslie down the long slope past Flers on our right.

"The whole of the land_ re-won seems little on the map, and it is in actuality little more than 100 square miles. But this- is the point. Our casunltiuwere not as heavy as the Hun suflrFew escaped, and our lads shot to a finish. It was indeed a bloody afKK But we know we can beat the Boshe. His morale is fast going. The war will go to next autumn cert-ainly—uer-haps longer, but next, summer will he the time. In the meantime every yard we take we hold.

"The whole show on the Somme wr a marvel of organisation': We hope our people can keep on shoving away a little-at a time during the months which separate us from the springThen the Allies ought to manage the job; but you can conjecture as well a I. However, the war cannot be woin the winter. We have experienced the mud on the Somme. • Even beforthe advance of September 15 not a blade of ir-tss was to be seen on the ■ridge. The heavy and continuous shell fire had olonghed and reploughed the whole hill-side, and not a. tree in the wide acres of High and Delvillo Woodn was left unscathed. On wet days mud was up to your knees. Battlefield Experiences. "We had some great experiences of liyjhg on, the battlefield. I have slept, in shell-holes, in bits of trenches two feet deep and about 18 inches wide. Of course the villages taken had not a brick left standing upon generally in the advance there was no protection from the weather. We were glad of a German overcoat and a niche < in the side of the trench. Of course the trenches were full of stuff left behind, and in some of the elaborate dugouts our chaps had quite good hauls. But it would take a wagon to bring back all the souvenirs available. We all had first-class cigars to smoke, and those without revolvers have now been fitted out. The coal scuttle steel helmet was everywhere. A good number of our chaps are now wearing the brass pointed golden eagle helmet, and I saw one chap with an Iron Cross! I enclose two of the little things I picked up—one a German mark note and the other a piece of German newspaper mentioning Haig and Churchill.' "We have been under every sort of fire, with tho exception of flame-throw-ers. Lachrymatory and asphyxiating gas- shells are by no meansjpleasant, but on the occasions when we had to sit under them our gas helmets were quite safe. general is well pleased with the work of the Light Trench Mortar Battery. Our duty was to go forward with the infantry and blow out any machine-guns holding up the advance. Four recommendations for good work have gone—2nd Lieut. W. Widdowson ft one. . • Getting Knocked Out. "We had a good many casualties in the battery. Curiously not an officer was hit of the four of us except myself. I was scratched slightly on the thigh with a piece of shell. 1 was waiting near an open road with a number of men within a few hundred yards of the German lines. A shell came and killed three of us, wounded two (one died from wounds), and dropped mo into a shell-hole five yards away. It was early morning and quite dark. I said to myself, -'This is the end of you,-my lad.' However, after the shock I pulled myself together, and tho only thing troubling me was a stinging sensation in my thigh. I don't think another shell in a thousand could havo burst in the same place and left me. Another experience was to be buried in a trench. The ground came down on me while sitting in a tiny hole in a trench. The ground was loosened by the explosion of a shell above.' My head was left above the debris. However, a couple of willing shovelcrs fixed up the matter. ' | How Major Ross Fell. "Many good chaps, of course, are gone. . . . Poor old Ross died game. A whole shell struck him as he was cheering his men on while they were digging in. He was going along the parapet singing' to them "Keep the Camp Fires Gleaming" when a large shell burst practically on him. Since coming out of the line a week ago wo havo beon transported, however, up the lines again, and we expect to tako up a portion of the front line and continue the trench warfare."