THE NEW ZEALANDERS

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue LXXIV, 9 March 1918, Page 5

THE NEW ZEALANDERS

TIME OF COMPARATIVE QUIET

(From Malcolm Ross, Official War Correspondent with the? New Zea- - land Forces.) March 4. Since my_ last cabling the New Zealanders have been enjoying a time of comparative quiet. There has been one raid by an Otago battalion, carried out after bombardment, by one officer arid thirty men. A post in the German lines was surrounded and 6ix Germans captured. At first the prisoners offered no resistance, but later one man attempted to draw his revolver and was promptly shot. The going was very heavy, and before the party, which was detailed to attack another post, had got within thirty yards of iit the signal to return was put up. i Some members of the party, however, went forward and threw bombs into the post before retiring. In another Otago battalion a plucky exploit was carried out by a noncommissioned officer and a private. Having observed some new work 50 yards in front of the enemy's line, they crawled out at 9 o'clock in the morning to investigate. They found on getting close that it was an organised shell hole. Pulling the shutter of a sniper's loophole aside they saw a number of rifles at the bottom .of the cavity. They threw in two bombs, and after these had exploded jumped over the rim of the shell bole and attacked five Germans found sheltering there. One of these 'was killed and i two wounded. The two New Zealand-: ens then marched back across No Man's Land with their four prisoners —two wounded and two unhurt—to their own lines. The daring nature of the adventure is exemplified by the fact that it was carried out in broad daylight within 150 yards of the enemy's' main position. For their bravery in this exploit Sergeant Basil Warner Crooker and Private Alexander Mac Donald have since been awarded respectively the Military Medal and Distinguished Conduct MedaL Recently our patrols have been going out in places to a depth of. 1000 yards, and in one locality our line was advanced several hundred yards to obtain better observation. . Various battalions have been doing excellent work on defences during the last three months. The corps commander has expressed his appreciation of this. Some officers* names, including a general, recently appeared in the casualty lists. These officers were only slightly gassed, and are not at ' all serious cases. The majority of these officers will shortly return to duty. The New Zealanders are still having a quiet time.