ON THE SOMME

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 100, 27 April 1917, Page 2

ON THE SOMME

WITH THE NEW ZEALAND

ARTILLERY

STRENUOUS WORK AND GOOD

SHOOTING /" ■ ' "

HALF A MILLION SHELLS.'

(From Capt. Malcolm Ross, War Correspondent with the New- Zealand Forces in the Field.)

In battles such as the Somme, the first, essential to-successful attack is careful and elaborate artillery preparation, and the fire to be effective must be both accurate and intense. There must also be co-operation as nearly perfect as can be arranged with the infantry in the attack itself; In all these matters the British have made; great strides since the begiimrng of the war. Our artillery is not perhaps so brilliant as that of the French, but the French have a genius for gunnery, and they have had a. long start, of us. The Germans have been classed as second only, to the French. It says a great deal, therefore, for the British that on the\ Somme. they were able to obtain a mastery over the Germans. The great majority of our gunners and gunnery officers had to be trained since the. beginning of the war. The. guns and the ammunition had to be made in a very "limited time. New Zealand,, in its own small way, has for some time now realised the importance of good guns and. good 'gunnery. English experts were imported to train our men and officers, and at the start of the war our country was the only one of the overseas Dominions that was armed with the up-to-date modern howitzer. As everyone now. knows, the Expeditionary Force took its guns with it to Egypt and to Gallipoli, and in the latter campaign brilliant work was done under the most difficult circumstances. ' Just before we came to France the strength of our artillery was materially augmented, and afterwards it was still further increased. : It is inadvisable to give details about either the strength, the. dispositions, or'the work of the artillery in the Somme battle, but some general particu-, lars may prove interesting. -. The New- Zealand. Artillery went.by 'train 1 to the Somme, and it treked back. It got there before the infantry,, and it left after them. Early'in .September the guns were got into position, and they were not withdrawn till towards the end of October. During nearly all of that period the officers and gunners and the supply columns worked strenuously and heroically. It was the; toughest job they had taken on-since the beginning of the war. They had to suffer from enemy high-explosive, shrapnel, and gas and tear shells. They.had guns and limbered wagons and officers and men knocked out, and they had to advance to forward positions over soft, unloaded, shell-torn ground, yet they were'always: ready when and .where they were wanted, s PRAISED BY iIV INFANTRY.!, In «he big attack of 15th September I saw them shooting, afc comparatively olose range, from the slopes of a. valley that ran almost paralled with the line, between Bernafay and Caterpillar Woo*, and as tho waves of. our infantry rolled ,on ill the successful attack they got their teams up and rushed the guns -to f forward positions behind the crest of the ridge bjetween the battered Delville Wood and the equally shattered High' Wood; in which for so long the Germans had offered stubborn resistance. Still later,; at the beginning of October, most of the guns, were pushed forward to more exposed positions in the vicinity of the vijlage of Flers, about' which for days ' the New.. Zealand infantry fought heroically. .The Artillery'win* arranged in groups, so that not all our guns were in support of our own line. We had the assistance of English guns, and an. English division had the assist^, anco of some of our gunsI have in, former articles deaUng with the fighting described as far as permissible the nature of the barrages in connection with the infantry attack,' and so/there is no; more to be said in the meantime. Our men were loud in their praises of both the stationary and the !'creeping barrages, and when infantry praise their own artillery ,ho further attestation of its efficiency- is required. One interesting point that may be noted is 'that in the initial attack for the first time in the war gaps had to be left in the barrage to enable our new engines of warfare, the "tanks," to ' proceed.. This fact alone will give some idea of the arrangements that had to be made, I and the accuracy- of fire, that had to.be I maintained. "■' ■',•'■. „ THE D.A.C. The Divisional Ammunition Column did magnificent work. Only one who saw the state of the roads in late, September and the nature of,the shelling 'could form an idea of the difficulties that had to be overcome. But day and night ;. our men toiled at their almost superhuman task, and—they got through. So long, as the guns remained South of Longueval the limbered wagons did their work. One saw them occasionally, bogged and broken by the wayside, but always others, got through, and the greedy guns—as the Germans knew to their cost-^-never had to ; remain idle for lack of shells. • The . eighteen-pounders and the 'field howitzers rained shells in the German terrain, - the siege howitzers heaved their bigger shells in advance of the barrage, while still other big guns were busy, with their counter-battery work. . . When the guns moved up to Flers it was impossible to get the wheeled transport through <■ the soft clay. Then the shells were sent forward on pack animals. We had already done this on Gallipoli. We had even man-handled the shells to the: guns along the main saps for the August offensive. Now the men took the baskets from the limbered wagons, and in these, strapped to the pack-saddles, the eighteen-pbunder shells were sent forward. For the 4.5's the men made carriers of canvaa, slung on each side of the transport animals. BRAVE DEEDS. Many plucky deeds were done by offi <Vers, non-commissioned officers, and men, during . the days and nights of the Somme As soon as the Switch Trench was captured by the Second Brigade three artillery officers went forward with the 1 signallers to obtain ob servation from this trench. One of the lieutenants got separated^ from his-party and was wounded early in the day. His sergeant spent five hours under heavy fire searching for. him. Eventually he found him and went for stretcha--bear-ers. Carrying the wounded officer to the dressing station one of tho bearers was killed. The sergeant, though himself slightly wounded, took the place of the dead stretcher-bearer, . and the wounded officer was got safely in to the dressing station :, but he subsequently died of his wounds, and the Now Zealand Artillery lost one of its most promising officers. . Our artillery generally inflicted terrible punishment on the enemy, and for some time his artillery was so demoralised that we came to the conclusion that he was shifting back to a shorter line. He had as a matter of fact to take some, of his guns farther back, but .early in October his fire improved, and, naturally we had some losses. A direct hit on

one gun destroyed the gun and killed the whole detachment. On the same day an Bin- shell killed Lieut. "Watson and four men. Some ammunition exploded, blew . in one of the gun-pits, and set fire to the charges stored alongside the gun. There were six men in the gun-pit-at ths time, and immediately they proceeded to get out as quickly as they could. When they were only a few yards away cries were heard coming from inside the pit. A sergeant and a bombardier who had made good their escape at once returned, • and tried to enter the pit from the back through the blazing ammunition. Finding it hopeless, to do so, they went to the front of the.pit and gained an entrance. Inside they now found a gunner pinned down by fallen beams and debris. With the burning ammunition quite close to them, the sergeant and the bombatdier worked at the wreckage, and, after a few minutes', strenuous effort, succeeded in reaching the gunner and getting him out in safety. The name of the bombardier is Syme, and he has since, received the D.O.M. for his action. Sergeant Salmon, who was the leader of this rescue, was lulled in action a day or two later. , : " THE FALLEN. The New Zealand Artillery, had the misfortune to lose some of their best officers in. the Somme fighting. Among these, as will have been noted from the casualty, lists, . was Capt. . Daniell, who left New Zealand with, the Main Expeditionary Force on 16th October, 1914, as. captain of tho 2nd Battery. In August, 1915, I well remember him in command of a battery of 18-pouii3ers that was specially formed to support tho attack on Ghunuk Bair against tho strong, Turkish positions. For his work on that occasion .he was -awarded the Military Cross and was mentioned in despatches. He served throughout the whole of the Gallipoli campaign, going-at one stage to Egypt to take.over command of.a 6-inch howitzer battery, which he brought to the Gallipoli Peninsula and commanded till the evacuation. He came with this battery to France, and was killed in action near High Wood on the night of 3rd October, by an explosion of ammunition in one of the gun-pits. At the same time 2nd Lieut. Brooks and four other ranks were killed. The gun'was blown to bits. Another battery commander whose loss was greatly deplored by all who knew Miim was Capt. H. A. Davies. At the beginning of the war he, was in England 'undergoing training with the R.F.A. He served in France with an E.F.A. unit from September, *1914, to January, 1915. He then left to join the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in Egypt where he wa? appointed to command a howitiser battery. He 'served throughout the Gallipoli campaign, and came on to France in command of a battery which took part in all operations with whioh the New Zealand, Force was concerned, including the Son We. He was killed on the night ctf' the 15th September.- . The records show that during the time the, New Zealand guns were on the Somme they fired close upon half a mil--lioh shells. . ; " \