AT THE FRONT

Evening Post, Volume XC, Issue 86, 9 October 1915, Page 10

AT THE FRONT

NEW ZEALANDERS IN FLANDERS AN OFFICER TOUR. 1 (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, 27th August. During the last week a party of three New Zealand officers who have been recovering from their wounds in this country (Colonel E. W. Chaytor, C.8., Lieut.Colonel A Plugge, and Major J. TL M'Carroll) have paid a visit to the British lines in France and Flanders, where they had been sent by the War Office with the object of picking up wrinkles that may be of service in the campaign in Gallipoli. Leaving Victoria station by the boat train, they crossed to Boulogne from Folkestone, and were met on landing by a motor from the General Headquarters, and, having obtained their passes from the Assistant Provost Marshal, they proceeded to headquarters, which is about fifty miles inland. The General Staff had arranged a comprehensive tour, which embraced visits to the headquarters of the three British armies, and before embarking on it the party had the general situation explained to them. In the case of each visit the procedure was the same. The officers were first taken to the headquarters of the army, which selected the corps they should visit. At the corps headquarters the divisions they should visit were selected, at the divisional headquarters the brigade, and so on. Everywhere the New Zealand officers were received with cordiality and hos pitality and shown everything that could possibly be of interest to them; and as everybody on the western front takes a keen interest in the campaign in Galhpoli they invariably had. to give an account of their own experiences in Turkey. • t On the visit to the ltst Army, the party went to Aire, La Boissiere, Vaudrioourt, Noyelles, and Bethune, and had a good look at the trenches in the historic region of La Baissee, Givenchy, and Cuinchy. The ruins of Vermelles, the scene of the heroic house-to-house fighting by the French in November last, were passed through on the way to the communication trenches leading to the fire trenches opposite Fort Hohenzollem. To reach the 3rd Army, the route lay in the rear of the French, who hold some of the ground in between our Ist and 3rd Armies. The trenches here were | constructed by the French and have oniy been taken, over by our men quite recently. The most interesting visit of all was to the 2nd Army, which is operating on Belgian territory, and includes within its jurisdiction the famous Hill 60 and Zillebeke. At one point the German trenches are only 25 yards distant, and the New Zealand officers were able to have a stray shot at the Germans without any breach of that journaUsfic etiquette which prevents war correspondents from doing the same thing. The party passed along the fire trenches in the direction of Sanctuary Wood and Hooge, and on rofcurarag by way of Ypres walked through the ruins of the Cloth Hall and the Cathedral. Ypres 1& under daily shell fire, and as the New Zealanders left a shrapnel shell — called by the Tommies "whizbang" — burst close to their car, which was hit in several places, two of | the tires being burst. Needless to say, the car did not stop for repairs until it got to a slightly more healthy spot. I IMPRESSIONS OF THE TOUR. As the result of the tour, the New Zealanders brought away the following salient impressions : — 1. Compared with Gallipoli, France and Flanders are at present something in the nature of a rest cure. 2. The trenches in Flanders are much the same as, but more elaborate than, those in Gallipoli, particularly in respect to dug-outs.. The fire trenches have false bottoms of boards, and the communication trenches have bricks to walk on. Many of the trenches have breastworks of sand-bags, and are practically above the ground. The traverses are usually loop-holed, in case a portion of the trenches should be taken by the enemy. 3. Great improvement in bombs, mortars, sniposcopes, telescope sights, rifle grenades. 4. The war seems to be run on petrol. With one army there are 8000 lorries and 3000 ambulances and motor-cars. 5. Machine-guns are excellently placed, more for defence than for attack. 6. The knapsack pattern of spray, used to combat the gas. The New Zealand officers all got a touch of gas from a bursting shell. 7. Check on traffic behind the lines; permits have to be shown every few miles. 8. Elaborate stations for observing artillery fire. 9. C.O.s about a mile behind the lines. With the Australasians the CO. usually lives in or close to the fire trench with the men. During the tour the party measured the crater of a 15-inch shell, and found it to be 47ft across. •