SOLDIER’S LETTER.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume VI, Issue 285, 17 November 1916, Page 3

SOLDIER’S LETTER.

HASTINGS BOYS AT FLERS. The following are extracts from a very interesting letter describing the fighting on the Somme, which Mrs. T. Honnor has received from her son Reg, who ,at the time of writing, was in hospital at Rouen, France. September 25th, 1916. I have been through a place that I never want to go through again. Those of us who were in it and came through were very lucky. It was in this inferno that a great number of our brave lads fell never to rise again, and poor old Bert (his brother) and Sid Brimer were two of them, and also Jaspar Greene, a man, every inch of him, who fought like a lion, but was mown down by a machine gun with a good many more. It was on September 15th that our brigade got orders to move up from a place called Metz Wood to the support trenches, which were behind where our 2nd and 3rd Brigades had attacked that morning and had been very successful, as they held their gains very easily.

We next got orders to move up to the new front line on the night of September 16th, an,i to be ready to j attack at any hour next day. Up we went that night, got to our positions about midnight, and were I ready for the attack then if they had j liked, but anyhow we were kept waiting until late next morning, mind you under a pretty heavy shell fire all the time, and this was when a lot of the damage was done. It was about a quarter of an hour before “going over” time, when Sid ] Brimer, Bert, and a little chap nam- | ed Aston were talking in the trench, i a shell landed close handy and the ‘ three of them fell. Less than half ■an hour after poor Jaspar was nit Iby a machine gun bullet. He droppied into a shell-hole for cover for a ' minute, then got up and went on i further until he was again hit when I he fell and died like a man. EveryI one who saw him said the same ! thing. It was in this action that ! Horace Brooke-Taylor was killed, : and poor old Jack Clay was miss- ■ ing last time I heard. It is unlikely ! that anyone who is missing is a I prisoner, as the Germans had I neither time nor chance to take ; prisoners on that front. They had I more than they could do trying to . get back themselves, and our boys i did make slaughter on them with the [ bayonet. We were all told that the > Germans will not fight at close i quarters, but we did not believe it I until we saw for ourselves. The I German will fire on you with a ! machine-gun from behind cover until ! you get to him, and then he will come out, put his hands up and say I “Mercy, comrade,” and will want to ; be taken prisoner. ; I was with the infantry as messenger, unfortunately. When I was i told off for/this all the boys said to i me, “You have a decent job,” but i they soon saw what a decent job it I was when we got going. It was i nearly as bad as stretcher-bearing. I and that is considered the worst job | in the army, and so it is without a I doubt.

The country over which the fighting took place was hilly—not large hills, just rises. Before the attack we held a rise, and the Germans were on the other side, just over it. Our objective lay about 1000 yards away ; it was a village called Flers. At the time appointed, over our men went, all as cool as if nothing was happening, with shells flying in all directions. Still going alt a walk they came to the front German line. Most of the chaps that got to it were disappointed, for the Huns would not show fight—it was “Mercy, comrade!” and all this sort of business. Then the order came to take cover in shell holes, which the ground was covered in. While we waited there, up came our landships, the greatest invention in the world, and used for the first time in this advance. They frightened the Huns all right. Some rushed out and threw hand-grenades at one of them, others fired at it with rifles and machine guns, but it was useless. They were only mown down by the machine-guns which it carries as well as two 6-pounder guns for blowing a machine gun out of position when it is located. These caterpillars, as they are called, will go practically anywhere, across trenches that it would'take a man all his time to run and jump. They are marvellous things and did splendid work.

We got up again led by the cateri pillars., and went right through our I objective by about 500 yards, then ' started to dig ourselves in ready for a counter-attack, which was very feeble. We lost heavily, but the Huns lost treble our number o f losses both in men and equipment, i That was the first day’s work; the i second day passed off with nothing ' very notable, just heavy artillery I work on both sides. I It was on the morning o>f Septemj ber 17th, that Bert- fell in actioi j with others that you know from good I old Hastings. The next day it start [ ed to rain and you never saw sue)' J a miserable lot in your life—mud i and slush up to the knees, nowhere I to lie down, and as cold as charity, i I tell you it was nice! This con-

tinued until the 21st, and then it cleared up a bit and the boys cheered up. That night I was standing in the trench when a shell landed just in front and blew the trench in on top of me. That is how lam in the hospital at the present time. I am getting on all right now, although my back is pretty sore yet; but don’t worry about me, I am lucky to get away at all, and I have a. good chance of being in England m a few days.