THE NEW ZEALAND FIELD ARTILLERY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1473, 16 November 1915, Page 4

THE NEW ZEALAND FIELD ARTILLERY.

BRIGADE IN ACTION.

ACCURATE AND EFFECTIVE

SHOOTING.

(From Malcolm Ross, Official Correspondent with the New Zea-

land Forces.)

Gallipoli Peninsula.

The battery is now so placed as to afford a good cross-fire to the Australian front with one section and to the New Zealand and Australian Division with the other section. This battery had a very wide field of fire, and it was in a covered position which the enemy never exactly located. Consequently the casualties were few, and such as there were must be attributed more to good luck than to good observation and good shooting on the part of the enemy. “Searching,” it should be explained to the uninitiated, is permissible in areas where the fall of the shell cannot be seen by the observer, the battery commander, or the man in an aeroplane or balloon. This batttery was repeatedly thanked by the Australian infantry for the excellent supporting fire it afforded them, and especially on the occasion when our gallant comrades from the island continent, with gieat dash and heroism, attacked and captured the Turkish trenches at Lonesome Pine, on the ring wing, on the night of the 6th August. During this fight the battery fired some 500 rounds at a formidable wire entanglement, cutting it to bits and enabling the assaulting party to cross a locality where but for this feat they must inevitably have been shot to pieces with machine gun and rifle fare. It also, during this assault, prevented the Turkish reserves from coming up to counter attack. With one gun firing high explosive it drove them out of a communication trench in a valley on the left, and with the other gun firing shrapnel smashed them In the open. The other section of the battery during the big fight from the 6th to 10th August,.took part in the operations of the Sari Bair force, doing good work by enfilading the ridge, and by shooting into localities that could not be seen by the other guns supporting this force. The second battery of 18pounders landed on 29th April. It’s field of fire was circumscribed, but very important. The O.C. guarded his observation station as it it were the jewel of all Asia, and with one look through an eyeglass, which with masterly muscular control he Seemed to maintain as immovable as his own guns, he has been known to freeze up intruders who from this vantage point were only too often desirous of scanning the surrounding country. 'He was especially desirous that they should not “give away” his particular observation station, and in spite of all temptations he maintained it almost inviolate to the end. His battery covered the famous Quinn’s Post, and was the only one that could bring fire to bear on the Turkish trenches immediately to the north. I have in a previous article written of the wonderful work done by the battery on the night of 19th May, when the Turkish host swept forward in a desperate counter attack. On this occasion, between midnight and daylight, it fired 61 x rounds of shrapnel at enemy trenches only 20yds distant from our own. The shell shrieked continuously over the heads of our men crouching in their trenches, and throughout the night there was only one premature burst. As it was a dark night and the range only 1000yds, giving necessarily a very flat trajectory, this, it will be seen, was at once a very daring and a very brilliant accomplishment. The feat involved accurate previous registration and accurate and careful “laying” on the part of the gunners. The slightest error, such as the short setting of a fuse, would have been serious under such circumstances. Infantry, who on occasions are wont to complain that they do not get enough support from artillery and at other times to growl because the guns are shooting too close, must for ever remember this fine per-

formance to the credit of the N.Z.F.A. This battery continued doing very good work in the same position till about the middle of August, when, owing to the extension of our lines, it was shifted to a position that shall be nameless, and by which time the major had become a colonel. Suffice it to say that in its new position it did excellent work in the recent bombardments of Hill 60 and the Kabak Kuyu position. It also did good shooting when recently the N.Z. artillery came to the assistance of the 9th Army Corps in one of its attacks. Having concluded its part in the preliminary bombardment on that occasion, it switched on to Hill 60 and the valley beyond preparatory to the attack by the Australians and New Zealanders and a section of K.’s Army. It was afterwards split into sections and helped in the second attack of Hill 60. Our third field gun battery landed at Helles in the beginning of May. Its work may be judged from a letter that reached Divisional Headquarters from the O.C. infantry brigade, of the famous 29th Division. “The officers in the firing line on sth July,” he wrote, “when the enemy made their last attack on the Royal Fusiliers’ Bluff and trenches near it, all report the excellent shooting of the N.Z. field battery. They describe the shrapnel fire as most accurate from this battery, bursting just beyond our trenches and sweeping ground and slopes over which the enemy advanced.” This battery returned to Anzac about 20th August, landed in the night, and hurried out into the field of action. Notwithstanding the distance, the difficulties of transhipment, and the roughness of the country over which the guns had to be taken, by daybreak the battery was entrenched in its new position and registering on the Turkish trenches. One section was firing at a 600yds range during the attack on Hill 60. This was a daring and successful bit of work, though the Turks, of course, quickly spotted a battery firing so close to their own lines. The fifth battery recently arrived from Cairo, landed, entrenched, and came into action in a night. Since its arrival it has been engaged in firing principally at enemy guns, and has done useful work. In this brief and simply told story of the work of the N.Z. Field Artillery enough has perhaps been said to prove that our small Dominion has not been lacking in the material for the making of efficient artillery, any more than it has been lacking in the efficiency of their training, but if further evidence of efficiency were required it might be found in some further letters that have reached the officer commanding the brigade. The first, dated 16th May, is from MajorGeneral Godley, commanding the New Zealand and Australian Division. “Please convey to all your batteries now here,” he writes, “my high appreciation of the excellent shooting they have made while in action here. All commamders of all positions are loud in their praises ot the support they have had from the howitzers and No. 2 battery, and on behalf of the whole division I wish to express to them our thanks for the good work that led to such substantial results.” On 16th May the general officer commanding the 29th Division wrote : “The 3rd N.Z, Field Artillery Battery has done excellent work, both in reconnaissance, occupation of ground, and in action. Their selection and registration of targets has been thoroughly done, and their shooting in support of the infantry attack has been uniformly good.” (Continued in our next issue.)