SOMME BATTLE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17264, 4 September 1916, Page 3

SOMME BATTLE.

SOLDIERS' ■» STORIES. 1 NEW • WAR; VOCABULARY. (London " Daily Telegraph.") Two steamers lie at opposite sides of the dock. One la obviously atessel with no desire to advertiso her presence on the high seas, " in other words"—as they sing in "Tho Biug Boys''—a transport. The other is dazzling, prhite,. ornamented with a good deal of green,' supplemented by red. She makes,an attractive picture in-the early morning sun. Even by night you could not' miss "her, for she goes.about her business with, her entiro hull outlined in; red lights - t re? gatta fashion, with, a great luminous red cross blazing > on eitner counter. Not even tho commander- of a U boat, could mistake her for anything but what sho is-—a hospital'chip.. Two great "brows, 1 ' or covered gangways, .connect the hospital ship, with her native land. Down these tho stretchers are beginning to pass, having been raised from,below decks by cunning mechanical dovices which cause no jar, and are ] being conveyed into' the cool shade of the dock-shed. Hero they are laid in neat rows, upon

the, platform, ready for transfer to the waiting hospital train. Everything is a miracle of quietness and order. The curious public is afar off, held aloof by dock-gates. In tho dockshed, organisation and method reign supreme. There is no shouting or fuss. The R.A.M.C. staff officers control everything, apparently by a crook of the finger. Tho stretcher bearers do their work with silent aplomb. Tho occupants of tho stretchers possess the almost universal feature of a six-days' beard—always excepting those who are of an age which is not; troubled by such manly accretions. They lie very still—not with the stillness of exhaustion or dejection, but with tho comfortable resignation of men who have done the State some service, and have suffered in the process, but who now. with their troubles well behind them, are enduring present discomfort buoyed up by the prospect of clean beds, chicken diet, and ultimate tea-parties. Such as possess them are wearing "Woodbine stumps upon the lower lip. • They are quite ready to compare notes. Let us approach, "and listen to a heavily-bandaged gentleman who —so the label attached to him informs us—is Private Blank, suffering from three " G.S." machine-gun bullet wounds. ;•••'•■ URITZES ON THE RUN. Did tho Fritzes run?—"Yes; they run all right. Tho last lot saved 'us trouble by running towards us with their hands up. But their machineguns—they gave us fair 'amlet till wo got across No Man's Land. After that we 'used the bay nit, and they didn't give us no more vexatiousness. Where- did we go in? Oh. near Albat. Out objective was'Mary's Court orsome such nlnce."

(It "is evident that the Battle of the Sommo.is* going to add some fresh household words do our war vocabulary. "Wipers'' is a veteran by this time. "Plug Street.'" " Booloo," and "Araintears" are old friends. Wo must now make room for "Monty Ban." "La Bustle." "Fry Court," and "Gum Court.")

What were your prisoners like? " 'Atf clemmed," said the man from Manchester. No rations for three days, explained a Fusilier close by. One of his arms wa,, strapped to Ins side, but the other still claßpcd to his bosom a German helmet. A British Tommy will cheerfully shed a limb or two in the execution of his duty, but not all the might and majestvot theR.A.M.C. can force him to relmcjuish a fairly-earned souvenir. "They eculdn't get nothing up to them for four days on account of c\ir artillery tire." be raided, contented! v. " Barrage, my lad," amended a rather superior person, with a bncocorporaFs stripe and a bandaged foot. But. now Royal Army Medical Corps orderlies ore at Ifand, and the symposium com*:; to an end. The .stretcher:; are conveyed one by one into the long, open coaches of the train, and each patient is shipped sideways, with gentlsness and despatch, into bis .appointed cot. ! On the uoiK-r deck ol the hospital .ship lounge" the "walking cases. They must remain on board, with what patience they may, until all the " stretcher- cases" have been disposed of. Casual conversation with these confirms impressions already acquired. All are unanimous in affirming that our artillery preparation was a tremendous affair. ' , "Loos v/as child's play to it, says one officer, a member of a certain immortal, or at least irrepressible, division which has taken oart in every outburst of international unpleasantness sinco the Marnc, " Tho final hour was absolute pandemonium. And when our new trench-mortar batteries got to

work, too —at sixteen to the dozen — well, it was bad enough for us, but what it must havo boon like at the business end of things, Lord knows. For a few minutes 1 was almost a proBoche."

Other items of intelligence are gleaned. Tho weather was "rotten"; mud-caked garments corroborate, this statement. .The wire, on the whole, was well and truly Cut to pieces everywhere, though there were spots at which the enemy contrived to repair it. Finally. 90 per cent of the casualties during the assault were due to machine-gun fire. GULF STREAM OF BULLETS.

" Tho Boche machine gunner simply goes to bed during a bombardment," complained one victim of this ronressible habit—" sometimes 30ft down. Then, when our artillery lilts, be pulis his gun topside with a rope, and you havo to wade through a perfect Gulf Stream of his bullets.'' " ft cuts both ways," observed another voice, with justice. "Our Emma (Ices are equally good at tiia game now; and they will stop the Bcchc counter-attacks as per Boche programme." But tho fact most clearly elicited by casual conversation is this-.—that tho nioro closely you engago in a battle the less you know about its progress. This ship is full of officers and men who were in the thick of things for perhaps forty-eight hours on cud, but who aro quite likely to know nothing at all of what was. going on round fclu next traverso in tho trench which they occupied. All. are aboard the train now, and a newspaper is passed round. .There are delighted exclamations, especially from a second-lieu-tenant, whoso countenance seems to bo held together entirely by strips of plaster. Such parts of the cotintenace as can be discerned arc smiling broadly

•' I knew we were doing well," says the strapped one, devouring the headlines; "but I never know wo were doing as well as this. Official, too! ' Sonimo' battle—what? Sorry." " 1 say," croaks a voice from one of the cots—its owner is a very young officer, who must just have escaped being left behind in a base hospital, as too dangerously wounded to move—"bo a good chap, and tell me how things are going at Fricourt, I got pipped early in the show, Vat our fellows were going on like champions. Tell me—did we—did we get Fricourt?"

He is a little feverish, this young man. His eyes burn as the newspaper is conveniently folded and laid before him On the front page is a map of tho battlefield: the scale is perhaps an inch to tho mile. It is seen that the black, straggling streak which defines tho present, position of the bat tie-line clears Fricourt, on the right side, by a. good inch aud a half. The eyes close contentedly, and the voice with all the croak gone out of it, remarks, "Thanks most awfully. Would vcu mind 'leaving the paper for mo to "read—later? 1 think I can sleep a bit now. So long.