NEW ZEALAND TROOPS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXII, Issue LXXII, 12 October 1916, Page 5

NEW ZEALAND TROOPS.

SPLENDID WOR% EULOGISED

(From Captain Malcolm Ross, Official Correspondent with the New Zealand Forces). ! SOMME BATTLEFIELD, Oct. 4. On the authority of competent judges outside our own force, it may now be stated that no troops have done better in the Somme fighting than the New Zeala-nders. Their valor, dash, initiative and endurance have not been excelled. Under depressing weather conditions, in critical situations, they more ffran fulfilled expectations. Much was asked of them; they did more. As one watched them, tired and sleepy, with torn and mud-caked clothing coming put of the trenches into sodden bivouacs, one could riot but wonder at their undaunted spirit. Acknowledgment by the High Com- ; mand _of their undoubted achievements j has given the greatest satisfaction in all ranks. A volume might be written about their great deeds, bravely done. There are scores of such that must for ever remain unrecorded—deeds Unexcelled in any previous fighting. There are instances of men cheerfully giving their lives to save others—of sergeants and even privates taking command and leading their men with initiative and devotion to dut^ when every other officer in their company or platoon was killed or wounded. Some, though wounded and wounded again, continued to lead their men under furious shelling, machine-gun and rifle fire. One with his hand almost shot away stayed with his men till killed in a charge. His body was found in a shell crater. The work of the supply and other sections, including the iPioneers, who are mostly Maoris, ha« earned the greatest commendation from the fighting units. The slopes leading down from the crest of the ridce between Del ville Wood and Hie_ (Foureaux) Wood into and beyond Flers are strewn with the graves of heroes. These hillsides will for ever be sacred to the memory of the great and successful. It is a'"hit of France to which present and future generations may make pilgrimage to pay homage -at the shrine' of New Zeal land's liono.r?d dead.

The New Zealanders on their part are marvelling more than ever at the spirit and organisation of the British armies.