NEW ZEALAND GUNS

Marlborough Express, Volume LII, Issue 83, 12 April 1918, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND GUNS

WORK ON BELGIAN FRONT.

BRjEG-AIXE IN MEUPORT LINE.

N.Z. HEADQUARTERS, Jan. 9. (Prom Captain Malcolm Ross.)' The artillery of a division is not necessarily all the time with • the division to which it belongs. . Noi> infrequently it goes into a fight; before its division, and sometime^ it •stays.in the light after the division

has been relieved. Sometimes, to suit the exigencies of an occasion, a part of it may find itself for a considerable period on a sector far removed from its infantry* At tho time it may be advisable that the enemy should not know of such movements. Hence the delay in writing this article. Months hsivo elapsed now since a brigade of New Zealand artillery trekked north towards tho dimes afc Nieuport. ft was after the Lombaertzyde affair, last July, when the Germans, making a sudden afcta,ck

along the beach, pushed' some of tho British troops back across the Yser, and made pdisoners of a number of tho Australian Tunnellers who were working in that region^ 1 The Germans were crumping the road along which we went with 5.95, . which burst with great noise, and I clouds of smoke and sand. Wo made a slight detour across the dunes behind this shelling, scraps of iron from the bursting shells falling j about us as we went. It was inI tcrcsting to note the effect of the : shelling on the sands. In the soft

Flanders mud the shells buried themselves in the ground before exploding, and the effect was somewhat local. But here the shell burst the moment it hit the sand, making scarcely any crater, and sending its splinters flying over a wide area,. Shell-fire in such conditions may be much more destructive than in the inland war zone. By strange ways that must not be described we made our way right up to the Yser, near where the mole ran out to sea, and among the beams of which the German snipers secreted

thomselves to fire on any unwary soldiers who had the temerity to walk along the beach. Lombaertzyde, once on the sea beach, and, further inland, Nieuporfc, lay close at hand in front of us. It was into this country that the New Zealanders came and planted their guns. The batteries found themselves on virgin ground, and had to build their own gun-pits. Some of them fouud themselves in a veritable bog, where the water was close to the surface, and each shell-hole was soon filled with water. Others, more fortunate, were on. the edge of the sand-hills, and so had drier ground. The brigade was under the command of oiie of our old Gallipoli officers, Ayho did memorable shooting at a, critical time at Quinn's Post. .

In this new sector there was much work to do, and at first the German gunners gave them a warm time, with big stuff. Five-point-nines came over at frequent intervals, and then the enemy went on to deal in Bin. and even llin. calibres. They also had experience of a 15in. gun, with which tho , enemy also shelled Dunkirk, 14 miles behind the New Zeajanders, in French /territory. Night and day the enemy deluged this area with harassing fire. He used a delay-action fuse to destroy dug-outs and gun-pits. One day he put in 250 five-point-niue shells, and wound up the performance with a couple of dozen llin., one of which wrecked an officers' mess and everything about it.

Some of the batteries were knocked out, but the New Zealanders were rather lucky with their men, and during the months they were there the casualties—including those of four English batteries .that were with our brigade—were not heavy. During the time they were in this sector the New Zealand Artillery gained one D.5.0., two military crosses, and about a dozen military medals, so it may be judged that they had some soriqus work to do, and that their services were appreciated.