NEW ZEALANDERS IN FLANDERS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 81, 29 December 1917, Page 7

NEW ZEALANDERS IN FLANDERS

. A GALLANT ATTACK BITTER FIGHTING IN MUD ■ AND RAIN (From Malcolm Boss, War Correspondent with tho Now Zealand Porces : ; in the Field.) ; Belgium, October 20. The battle for tho Flanders Ridges was maintained by the British notwithstanding continued bad weather, : but the task became more, and moro difficult. Tho capturo of the ridges , beyond Ypres salient was the natural 1 corollary to 'the taking of- the Mes'sines Riijgo. As you already know, ■ '. from the telegrams, after a consider- .. ablo advance nad been made in the Battle of < tho Ridges by troops from the Motherland, the Now Zealandors, on October 4, entered the.fight, with troops from.-the. Motherland on their, left and Australian.troops on their right. You also know that tho New Zealanders wore successful in capturing the Gravenstafel Ridge, Abraham Heights, and positions immediately beyond. ■ The- "pill-box" problem hadbeen grappled .with and.found not to be insolvablo. 'The' dead that lay just behind our front showed how hard the fighting had been in the storming of these strong 'points. But stormed .they were, and the line moved upward and onward. The new battle of the .4th bit another slice out of the German position; and the Ypres salient "was no longer a-salient. It was a wedse being driven in further and furtner with irresistible v sledge-ham-mer ; blows. "' ■■■ _. ' . ■ ' ' 'From time immemorial almost the weather and the" mud have , had a very material effect in the wars in •' Flanders. " Now ■ more than ever. ■ Now the weather seemed to go from bad to worse. Frequently the.whole battlefield became shrouded in mist and '"■ rain. It became more and more difficult to feed the guns,.moro difficult •• ;• still •to get them up to advanced posi■•tions. : The New Zealanders and those ■fighting side by. jjide with them came out of the line. ' Other British Divi- ■ ■ sions took their places, and the battle went on, or rather was renewed. But the weather got worse still, so that but a small advance emild be made. ' In a few days the New Zealanders were .back again in full force. The fighting in such battles for strong positions has now developed into :what the Germans call the super-material hattie, and vast supplies could be the various railheads and dumps. Tho German observers themselvps undoubtedly saw all this, and published thefact that-m-uch of the ground behind our'new front in the low-lying la-'!/ about Ypres and Poperinghe had be- , , come one vast camp. They saw trains running over our new strategic vr.-.y ■ ways, and,a vast.traffic.creeping along . our'network of roads. Everywhere there was activity thnt seemed feverish, but was in reality well ordrr-i and purposeful. In clear glimpses in between the rainstorms and the fogs, ... tlie enemy shelled'and bombed from aeroplanes. There- was so much to '..hit that, he could not always miss altogether, but the <»reat waT manhipp rolled on UnperEurfied nnd irresistible. The artillery struggled with their pieces, large and small, further forward, overcoming almost superhuman '■.. difficulties, and storms of gunfire sweoj; . -the' German positions, plouehed thi lands' and Toads, and, hit railways still >' further back.' If it-was purrmtory for * us. it certainly was hell itself for the Germans, even though, in these .battle's, Jupiter Pluvius was fighting on ' the side of the arch-enemy.. . ... ..

'■!■■'■■■<■> .-..■: :..'The..start.-7-,_; ;... .." '•: On-the. night of October 11 the New Zealanders were ready once more at the starting-place for the new attack. Australians again on their right, British, as before, on their left. A c< Id rain fell in the night, and on the morning of the 12th dawn carao through mist and a drizzle of rain. In the interval between their- first and treir second attack little ground had been made, for the,troops that they relieved had had all the odds of wet and mud against them. Our jumping-off ph-ce •was, therefore, only a little way in front of our former outposts. It ran from a point near Adler House, past Peter Pan, and on through Marsh Bottom to the Ravebeeg—a front of about 1600' yards. Away on" the right ficnt the ruined buildings of Passchendaele, a little less than 2000 yards off, loomed on the crest of- the.ridge. '

Though we did not know it at the time, we were up against a stiffer proposition than we had tackled at Messiiies, stiffer even than that which confronted us. on the Somme. • The remains of tho old Staden'Zonnebeke wired line was on the left, with the Cemetery, Wolf Farm, "Wolf Copse, eiid Bellevue first to be attacked with their nests of "pill-boxes" and mnohine-guns nnlyfour and five hundred yards ahead. There was also;uncut wire. Our men. came \ip against it unexpectedly. .It was thick across the whole Bellevue Spur, which sloped up to fifty metro contour. It was of the low picket pattern,, 2ft. 6in. high, and varying from 20 to 40 yards in depth. It was really , damaged wire of the old Staden-Zoii-nebeke line that had hcen blown.about by shell-fire, but had been repaired and was still formidable. ground between Wolf Farmland Wolf Copse, and ationt Marsh • Bottom ■ further on ' the right, was very marshy. All or nearly nil of these names can be found on tho maps given from time to time in the London nowspaners, and whie.lv. will no floubt he republished in the New Zealand Press. .' . ■ .

. Here, then,' were the most adverse conditions nossible.; for an attack— greasy mud, waterlogged shell-holes, •concrete redoubts fronted with wire and crammed full with machine-guns and their crews. But. in addition to all this, the artillery had had the (greatest' difficult in getting up their guns. Some of them could not be got up at all. Others that did get up had difficulty in 'carrying on. for after a shot or two hnd been fired their trails slipped in the mud, so that accurate shooting hecame extremely difficult. The cum total of this was that the infantry had not all the-splendid ■protective and destructive barrage that they hnd become accustomed to in other fights, uhe wire remained partly .uncut, and most of tho "pill-boxes" romaiued unshocked. Following the thin barrage, the advancing waves of infnntrv found fclipmsolves rnk«d with lnachine-irun fire, sniped with rifles, and even shot at by machine-giinndrs perched on little platforms in the almost branchless trees nhpad. Early in the morning I walked to a forward Position on Hill 37,-i'nsf. nnbind tho old German Langomarck-Gheluvelt lino, where there were numbers of Head still unburied from former phase'* of the battle. The guns were st.ill pounding away, htit there whs not the usual intensity of fire, and it was finite clear that our progress was slow. Tlip country was_ so ■ shrouded in mist that it was 1 impossible to see tho fighting in- detail pven from such a vantage points as Hill 37, Later in the morninir the mists hpiran to lift, and the Passchendaele Ridce revealed itself above tho shell and lnillelBwept slope. In one hollow ■ away on the loft there was an inferno of shellfiro, and the black smoke < of the Gorman- crumps rose at intervals.along tho line and farther back. German shells whistled overhead towards our. real, or supposed, battorv positions,-behind the hill on which. I stood, and, looking hack, one saw the geysers and: mud

flying skyward after the explosion. For, tho most part these shells fell harmlessly." Sometimes a shell fell close to a group of men or near a line marching along tho open on the duck-boan! track, but the men took little notice and seldom expedited their paco abov'i a walk. Sonio of them, out of sheer curiosity, went up and looked at the great craters the shells had left. Heroism of New Zealand. For somo hours now on tho slopes below the Bellovuo Ridge, deeds of the most glorious heroism wero being enactod. Ono could seo that not only tho New Zealanders, hut the troops to right and left of tliem wore also being hold up. They had come up against masses of barbed wire, and a withering machine-gun fire from the German troops in the many "pill-boxes' , scattered over tho ground. ,Thoy fired on the mon marching on Wolf Farm and the Cemetery, and indeed all along tho line. Tho conditions were such that it was a physical impossibility for infantry to bite deen into such a. system of defence until it had been further reduced by more intenso artillery fire.

But with a grim determination piul an absolute disregard of danger they stuck to thoir work. Wave after wave went forward. Numbers were, shot, down, but still they persevered. Of individual heroism there were many examplps, but dozens and scores- of brave deeds must have passed unre-, corded, and even unnoticed. Two of our colonels wore. killed early in the attack, and now, when further progress became slow and almost impossible, other colonels and officers came out from what little shelter them was i." the wet shell-holes to .reconnoitre and reorganise, and urge',their men forward. Non-commissioned officers ar.d privates displayed equal'bravery, mid, often, great initiative. • Otago, and Canterbury troops woro .concerned in. the .attack pn the Believe Ridsce. Just at tho commencement of the -attack a- colonel of the Canterburvs was killed outright by. a bursting shell. A signalling sergeant', then went forward, xinder heavy shell and mach-ine-gun fire, to find a certain captain, and bring >him back to command the battalion. When he sot forward he found this captain had been wqunclecL The sergeant then wejit across the l : ne —still under firo—to find the next sen'ior officer. When he rpache.d the f.fficer's coroosmy he found that he *Iso was wounded. The sergeant then returned to headquarters to report, only to find that the officers he had 'eft at the headquarters had become, casualties. Thereupon he established communication with a. divisional station,' and again, went forward to find a lieutenant to take command,nf t.he battalion. At this time nearly sveryone was under cover, as both machine-gun and rid? firn were sweeping the position: .hut this gallant/n.c.o. moved about across the open eincouTncring ant?, helping the men. Aftnr aboiit an hour's swb. he found the liViitonant he-wns looking for, and gnitiod him hank to headquarters. wlkts the lientenant took command. The wr.T'wrt now returned to take command rf his signallers, and remained with them until relieved.

Bravo Deeds by Subalterns ant! Captains.. Some lieutenants led their_platoons with great dash and gallantry againit strongly-wired and defended positions. They even crawled through the first , entanglements in their efforts to find a way through for their men. Captains led in determined rushes against onemy strong points. Some fell severely wounded, others fell to rise no more. They from to shellhole, always under observation , and tho fire of the enemy, trying to find a gap or a way round. An Otago sergeant showed great bravery and determination after 'all' the officers of his company had become casualties. _ Ho took over. the- : command at a critical mor .ment, captured a "pill-box" near Wolf Copse, and held it tenaciously all t'ay in spito of machine-gun fire. A second lieutenant of an Otago battalion, who was acting-captain and adjutant, did famous work when men got mixed up in their endeavours to find a way through the impenetrable wire. "When it was seen that further advance was impossible .they dug in on the spot, and remained there under 'the nearest commanders. It was de* cided to reorganise after dusk and to occupy a line not quite so close to the enemy wire. This young officer went up after dusk to assist in the reorganisation. There>3'as then,.to far as he could ascertain, only one company officer ■unwounded. Meanwhile, the enemy had put down.a barrage, yet he went from one end of the line to the.other through the barrage, collecting men of his own -unite and telling them where to go_. All this occupied several hours, during which the enemy r.ever ceased his shelling nor his machine-gun fire. The resiilt was that in the end he had the battalion reorganised and ready to meet any enemy counter-attack that might eventuate. The enemy himself had, however, got such a gruelling that he had not the strength or the determination to counter-attack. .

There were two nasty "pill-boxes" close to the little Eavebeek Streanv and an CHago platoon swinging round to fill a gap found itself under their fire. It also suffered from rifle fire that came from a trench near the "pillboxes." The officer in charge immediately led his men forward, and tie enemy in 'the trench surrendered to them and were i<ent to the rear. The "pill-boxes" continued to hold out, for the Germans were i-ow fighting well. The New Zealand officer, however, was determined to settle tho fate of these two< Holding the garrison with a frontal attack by a Lewis gun and working round the flanks, he and spmo of, his men eventually, succeeded in capturing both.pill-boxes and in all about I eighty prisoners. By this time the platoon was reduced to two—the officer referred to and his bntman. The young officer constituted himself the garrison of the pill-boxes, and remained in cne while his batman was sent to report to battalion headquarters. Lc.t'lnng out from the pill-box he saw his batman killed before he had gone far. Some Australians then appeared on the scene, and the New Zealauder trek them into the pill-box as an addition to the garrison of one. During the operations ho repeatedly endeavoured to get messages 'back, and had no fewer than five ninners shot in the attempt. He held on till evening, and then, in compliance with instructions, rejoined his company, of which hn was by this time the commander. Ho reorganised his nifiii under heavy shcllfire, consolidated the position chosen,mid established part of a new line. During the attack he himsolf killed sevoral of tho enemy with his bayonet. I Such consummate coolness) gnfTantry, and splendid leadership help greatly to make- the New Zealand force the fine fighting unit it undoubtedly is. One could , go on mentioning deeds of the. greatest gallantry, but they are really so manv that, without name's and units, which it is not permissible to give, the mere r epetition of them •would hecomo monotonous. In the afternoon I went back to tlic battlefield to find that the' attack had been broken off. Tho walking woutule/ wore struggling back. Mud-stained <ud blood-stained, some smiling and cheerful, others thoughtful and with wau faces, often leaning on a comrade's shoulder or arm, the little stream enmc trickling down. After some hot food and a hot drink they bucket! up wonderfully. And then the inevitable cigarette! Who is it that has ever scon a wounded man march down without a cigarette in his mouth? This weed must indeed be soothing on the battlefield. '• All da? and all night tho medical of-

ficers and their orderlies and the stret-cher-bearers toiled in. the interests of our wounded. They did heroic work. Tlie Y.M.C.A. also helped, and received the blessings of many a wounded and tired man. Mr. Hay, the New Zealand representative at the front, was, as ever, indefatigable in tho good work.

If many of tho infantrymen fought till they were exhausted, so also did the stretcher-bearers toil ceaselessly until they .were ready to drop from very fatigue. They saved many lives. For two days and two nights they wero carrying under firo through' sodden shell-torn ground, and often in vicious weather. Some of them carried for thirty-six hours to regimental aid posts. Ono saw them ploughing through the mud—six men to the stretcher—and admired. Tor them there is no thrill of the actual fight. The only thrills they get arq from the whiz or the thud of a. machine-gun or rifle bullet, the shriek and crash of a. shell. There was mud on that battlefield in places four feet deep, and stretcher-bearers became bogged, and had to help ono another out. By night the ground wns almost impassable, but the- bearers toiled at their work. By day they were under observation by the enemy, still on the ridge, by night they trusted to their luck in the darkness. It took six men six hours to carry one wounded man from near tho front to a place nt , a distance of 3700 yards, t From thero it was. another carry of 2400 yards to a point where the wounded could be put on trollies and trains. Infantry, artillerymen, and Army Service Corps men ass!sle3 in this good work, so that by 10.30 a.m. of the 14th tho whole battlefront on the New Zealand sector was clear of wounded. This, considering all , tho circumstances, was a really romarkable feat;

A. word should bo said in conclusion about the runners, for they went through great dangers with the same bravery as they have ehown on all previous occasions. Bullets and shells took their toll in dead and wounded from amongst these brave.fellows.