ELEVEN YEARS AGO

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 34, 4 November 1929, Page 10

ELEVEN YEARS AGO

THE TAKING OF LE QUESNOY NEW ZEALANDERS’ GREAT FEAT ' Eleven years ago to-day—on November 4, 1918 —the New Zealand Division crowned its victorious career with the most brilliant and completely successful of all its actions in the Great War —the capture of the fortress town of Le Quesnoy. The end of the war was very near. By this time the rapid succession of heavy blows dealt by the Allied forces had had a cumulative effect, both moral and material, upon the German armies. The capitulation of Turkey and Bulgaria, and the collapse of Austria — consequent upon Allied successes which the desperate position of her own armies on the Western front had rendered her powerless to prevent—had made Germany’s military situation ultimately impossible. Six Great Battles. The victorious advance of the Australian Army Corps on August 8 marked the beginning of the end. On August 21 the New Zealand Division, in the Fourth Corps of the Third Army, entered the final series of great battles that brought about the collapse of German military power. Moving ever eastward with but brief and broken intervals of rest, the New Zealanders had fought brilliantly through the five great battles of Bapaume (August 21September 1), Havrincourt-Epehy (September 12-18), Cambral-Hinden-burg Line (September 27-October 5), Le Gateau (October 8-12), and the Battle of the River Selle (October 1725). Now, on November 4, 1918, they were called upon for their last great effort by taking part in the Battle of the Sambre. . ’ Ancient Le Quesnoy. Between the courses of the great rivers Sambre and. Scheldt is a wide expanse of country where no great natural obstacles bars an invasion of France from the north-east. Here, on high ground between the smaller rivers Ecaillon and Rhonelle stands Le Quesnoy, founded in the eleventh century. It was surrounded in the middle of the twelfth century by extensive ramparts which had not prevented its capture by Louis XI (1447), Henry II of France (1552), the Spaniards (1568;, Turenne (1654), Eugene (1712). In 1793 it had been captured by the Austrians,' and with its recovery in the following year is connected one of the earliest recorded uses of telegraphy. Before Le Quesnoy, the English soldier had, in the year of Crecy (1336) been for the first time exposed to the fire of cannon. Some three miles to the south-east of the town lie the western extremities of the great M.ormal Forest, which eastward falls to the River Sambre. Through the forest on August 26, 1914, the German invaders had pressed hard on the British columns retreating from Mons. It was fitting, therefore, that the' delivery of this ancient town and the clearing of the enemy from the vast forest should fall to the task of the soldiers of the youngest country,Jn the Great War. New Zealanders’ Task. The general plan laid down for the British Armies was to continue their advance in Aulnoye railway junction and other centres- of communication about Maubeuge vital to the enemy, and if possible, cut the main avenue of escape for his forces opposite the French and Americans. The New Zealand Division held a line west and north-west of Le Quesnoy, roughly from the junction of the CambraiValenciennes railway lines, southward to Ghissignies,- and nearly parallel to the Cambrai line. The task allotted to the New Zealanders .was, in conjunction with the 37 th Division (right) and 62nd Division (left) to attack ‘ and establish a line nearly four miles east of their starting line and 2} miles beyond the eastern ramparts of Le Quesnoy. Without intense bombardment, which would destroy historic monuments and material wealth, and cause casualties tb the civil population, a frontal assault on the fortress town was impossible. It was arranged, therefore, to envelop it from the flanks. Seven brigades of field artillery and three batteries of heavy howitzers carried out a complicated barrage of varying rates co-ordinated with the movements of the troops on either flank, whose operations fell into five phases. Scaling the Ramparts. The attack opened at 5.30 a.m. on November 4, and despite the vigorous resistance of the enemy, who was aided by the diversified nature of the heavilywooded country, the New Zealanders gained all their objectives and Le Quesnoy was completely surrounded. Shortly before 11 a.m. some captured Germans were sent into the town to explain the situation, and later an aeroplane dropped a message to the commander of the garrison calling upon him to surrender, but without result. Finally Lieut. L. C. L. Averill (son of Archbishop Averill), with Lieut. H. W. Kerr and several men of the 4th Battalion, Rifle Brigade, scaled the inner wall of the rampart, followed, short after 4 p.m., by the remainder of the battalion, which thus had the honour to claim the town’s capture. The Germans gave in, and a few minutes later the 2nd Rifles inarched in through the Valenciennes gate. Townspeople’s Gratitude. the civilians gave the New Zealanders a wildly enthusiastic welcome, and in the process of clearing up the town eagerly assisted the riflement by indicating the hiding places of their late masters. On November 10 President Poincare paid an official visit to Le Quesnoy, the New Zealanders forming a guard of honour, and four days later General Hart and the Rifle Battalion commanders went back to Le Quesnoy to receive a flag from the town and present in turn a New Zealand flag. The delivery of Le Quesnoy has since been commemorated by the townspeople by a memorial tablet on the rampart at the spot where the wall was scaled, and the planting of a New Zealand garden in the moat. On November 4 the New Zealanders advanced six miles, capturing Le Quesnoy, Herbignie,, Villereau, Potelle, and Herbignies, with nearly 2000 prisoners and 60 field guns, including batteries complete with personnel and horses. The passage of the great Mormal Forest on the following day under conditions of aggravated difficulty was a notable performance and set the seal of final and complete success on the work of the New Zeahyiders in the .Great .Wax.