NEW ZEALANDERS IN THE SOMME BATTLE.

North Otago Times, Volume CIV, Issue 13754, 13 November 1916, Page 2

NEW ZEALANDERS IN THE SOMME BATTLE.

BOMB BRILLIANT FIGHTING, THREE THOUSAND YARDS INTO ENEMY TERRITORY. THE SWITCH TRENCH STORMED. THE FLERS LINE HELD. (Prom Malcolm Ross, Official War .O.orrespondent with New Zoiltad Forces). Divisional" Headquarters, . .' , 17tli September.' Thursday broke line with passing clouds and. a keen wind after the rain. As the day wore on the visibility increased, and our guns continued the bombardment .with vigour, sending, a veritable rain of shells into the enemy's territory. •

The "tanks," our new engine of warfare, began to crawl slowly up towards tlie front line. Four out-of tlio nuinber. available were allotted to the New Zealanders. In- the evening . our heavies, far behind the line, - suddenly opened a furious bombardment: The streams of traffic behind the front were truly amaziug. A long column of 'British went forward in the dusk, singing as they went, . lu placed our batteries were so thick that in wandering about in.the open you had to keep a careful watch or you.were i» danger of getting your head blown off. There was also a certain danger from the chance of prematures fromi the guns behind. One battery had some casualties from one of these bursts from a gun in the rear. Tito percentage of prematures, however, was never large, and' there has of late been a growing improvement in the manufacture of our shells. The Staff was now working day and night: and there was an enormous mass of detail to be attended to in a hurry.

Dawn on the Battlefield. The men spent 'a very cold night in the trenches. Even with blankets 011 a..camp bed, one woke frequently with the cold. But the New Zealanders were hardy fellows, and keen for the attack They bore th e discomfort cheerfully, I loft at an early hour for.a. commanding position from which to view the fluiii bombardment. The bivouac fires of the vast camp were winking like stars in a lower firmament, The streams of traffic had eased off, Iu the remnants of Mametz men were drawing water from a deep well. A little further ou, in the cemetery beside the road leading to Montaubau, a man was early at work digging a grave. Day broke with a red dawn, and a three-quarter 1110011 high in a clear sky, 011 the horizon, over the battle front, there hung a pall of dark smoke and cloud. Out of this our aeroplanes came flying, like black bats against the sky, looking for enemy planes and 1 bringing back messages to Brigade and Corps Headquarters. Our guns seemed to be flashing everywhere over a wide area. They clustered on reverse slopes, and were hidden in valleys.

Soon after six .o'clock the first barrage was put on No-Man's Land, some .two hundred yards in front' of one part of the line. This was a front line trench almost 011 the crest of the ridge between High Wood 1 aiuT Delville Wood opposite Bazciitin-lc-Grand, It was a

tremendous- barrage, and it extended all along the line on either side of our position. The ridge for miles was one continuous line of flashing fire and clouds and pillars of smoke, and the noise of the guns resolved itself into a pulsating sound as of. thousands of drums katen with ever-increasing energy, /

Away 011 the left beyond.the New Zealand position there was a pyrotechnic display—apparently German. A shell burst against the dark background, with a beautiful falling shower of brilliant' red sparks. A moment later a pillar of grey smoke shot skyward. This was followed by a second and a third shell of the same character, but before the last one had arrived the first pillar, caught 011 the gentle morning airs, .began to bend like a serpent, its head coming over towards our lines. The red dawn had faded out of the sky, and the smoke from all these shells, mingling into one great cloud, descended lower and lower and came creeping down the slopes into the valley. It was mysterious and 1 weirdly uncanny. Whether it was a gas barrage or merely a smoke cloud meant simply to obscure observation, we' could not understand, As a spectacle it was a- success. By this-time, our aeroplaues, flying bravely low over the enemy lines, were being peppered by anti-aircraft guns, the -black puffs of the German high explosive showing inky black against the pale morning sky. But while we watched none were hit. Then the sun, gilding tlie eastern clouds, enme with a rush out of the pall of cloud.

By seven o'clock the crest of the rounded ridge was blotted out in the pall of ashen grey. Above this the swift-flying planes began to catch the silver glint of the risen sun. Below was the flashing gold of flame that came from the batteries' throats. Every hundred yards or so of . hollow and ridge-side seemed to shield a flashing gun. Could the men and women of the Motherland's factories and munition works have glimpsed the scene they would have felt a great pride in their work and an inclination to increase, if possible, their energies. On the crest of .the ridge ou which I stood, a circling plane dropped a rocket, indicated by its steely glare. This done, it sailed a way, for further news of the tide of war that- had begun to fIW over the German lines. While the battle din did not die down to any noticeable degree, the smoky pall increased, High 'Wood and Delville Wood wer e no longer seen. The dismembered' tree trunks of Bazciitiu-lc-Petit disappeared slowly from sight, Then the cveryincvensing/ cloud lie-

sccnfloil upon Bois-dc-Mametz, wreathing lingers about its higher, slopes and down the shallow gullies into the main valley) till at last even its gaunt trees faded from view,

Overhead all this time the streams of shell came, rending the air with a noise as of tearing canvas or coming witli a slow, whirring whistle, according to their character and purpose. For days and nights past the ammunition columns had been feeding the batteries with untiring'energy, and even as they piled up the jicaps of shell the tired gunners, working in twelve-hour shifts, were as qiiickly pulling them down; Few German shells came our way. Their gunners were too busy in. a vain struggle with the onrushing tide of "the contemptible little army," The first news to come down from our linos was good. It improved as the day wore on. It was not long before groups of prisoners and streams of lightlywounded began lo troop along, the dusty roads. Later, on the stretchers and in [lie field ambulances, came more, serious cases, The tide of battle was rolling on to some purpose. We were •bending the Herman line again.

The German Prisoners. " Prisoners are surt'cnderiiig very freely, and seem demoralised." So' ran a message from a forward observing'officer in the New Zealand 1 lines, An hour later I saw the first batches of prisoners coming in. TJiey were certainly a much poorer lot than I saw captured at the beginning of the big push in July. Their clothes were patched. Oho wore breeches of a thin lightish yellow cloth, another corduroys. Evidently Germany is not finding it a very easy matter to clothe her army. A prisoner, of course, docs not at; any time appear to the best advantage; but these men were many of them of poor physique and had a wan and pinched! look. Their hollow cheeks seemed to indicate that rations had been running low. Sonic were almost boys, | and 1 the officers—l saw six in a batch | of sixty men—were quite young. One could l not- but feel sorry for tliein as they marched along in silence, each busy with his own thoughts, .in column of'fours. Making all due allowance for the fact that they would be terribly shaken by our artillery preparation it was evident 1 that their morale had greatly diminished, Certainly there was nothing of tho superman about them. A sturdy New Zealander, who was watching them go past, but who had not been in the fight, said he would scarcely have had tho heart to kill them, All along the way crowds of our soldiers came to the roadside to gaze at them. ■ Coming through the vast camp that surrounds our headquarters the Tommies ran forward until a lane three and four deep was formed on each Bide of the road. The Germans gazed in wonder at the great j array of troops. One prisoner, who could speak a little French, kept remarking, ü ßoco, boeo, soldat Anglais." This man was anxious to know where they were going, ami when told that in a few days they would be in England, his face was wreathed with smiles of delight. He did' not wish to stay iii France, He was anxious also to know how soon lie could send a letter to his little daughter, whom lie had not Been for a long time. A few of these prisoners were slightly wounded. Some Wore their ordinary headgear, some their steel helmets, and many were bareheaded 1 . One little man, with a small head' and a very big steel helmet, looked 1 for all the world like a .German edition of Charlie Chaplin. He himself was very solemn, but everyone who set eyes 011 him could scarce forbear to smile. One young fellow who had not shaved for some days took out of his pocket a small mirror, and, somewhat anxiously, looked at his own face as ho marched along the dusty road. A mail from a field ambulance was wearing tho •Iron Cross. He said lie had got it for rescuing wounded under fire. At one stage in their journey, as thev passed close beside one of our heavies in action, there was evidence that the strain of the past- few days' shelling had told on their nerves, for several shut their eyes and put their fingers in their ears. Some said they were taken by surprise {)}• our infantry attack and were lying in their dug-outs when our men came upon them, Fourteen surrendered in one dug-out. One mau had a narrow escape from a bursting bomb. His hair was badly singed. These prisoners were mostly captured by an English division ou our left. Later iu the day I saw other groups, including some taken by the New Zealanders. They were a finer type of men, better clothed and 1 apparently better fed, The men opposite us were of the sth Bavarian Division, reputed to be good lighters, but our men had simply walked through them, shooting and bayoneting and taking prisoners. Some prisoners T saw were of the Seventh Kegiment, They had come into the line 011 the night of 9th-10tli September, having relieved another Bavarian regiment, One was nineteen years old and belonged' to the 1917 class, He had been Vailed up early in January, and had joined iu July, there being ten of his class in the company to which he belonged. They said l their losses that day had been heavy. Others had only eome into the line the night before the battle, and evidently they had been taken by surprise with our attack. Amongst the prisoners captured iu this sector were eight musicians. The men said our shelling was so terrible that they had to have the music of bauds to keep up their spirits. Three doctors and one staff doctor had been captured: The proportion of officers to men captured was about the usual proportion of one to forty. The men in many instances carried 'with them loaves of 1 black bread. They were well supplied with cigars and cigarettes, and for a tinic the New Zealanders had 110 lack of good smoking, The officers apparently lived well, and even had wine in their dug-outs. They carried excellent automatic revolvers, which fired a bullet blunted at the end—a bullet that 1 apparently would not make a worse

wound than the round-nosed, bullet of .out ordinary service revolver. Tho Tanks, For the first time in tliis war the infantry had some protection in front of them as they charged across No-Man's Land on to the German lines. These were the "tanks," ns they arc officially called. Other names for them arc. "armoured land cruisers" and "iron Trojan horses." .Much secrecy had been maintained regarding their construction and their armament. The Germans had spotted thein coming up towards our lines'the day before, either from their observation balloons or .their aeroplanes. But they apparently regarded them simply as a new type of 1 armoured car, and the first Boelic that: saw tliem in the early dawn, trawling forward over tremendous .obstacles, must have rubbed his eyes in wonder. Nothing like them had ever before been seen in war,. They were like Saurian monsters, with a rivctted skin of hardened steel that would turn a rifle or bullet and ward off big lumps of high explosive shell. The I only thing in gun-lire that would knock them out would be a: direct hit from a fairly heavy high explosive shell. Some had eyes in front and at the sides in bulging spousons, and through these eyes came fire and lead, that dealt death in enfilade along a trench, and woujd not fail to knock out a .machine-gun section in quick time. Those eyes had lids of hard steel that could be opened or closed' at will. These were the female tanks, The male was a little more formidable, with longer antennae, that moved up and down, aud right and left,

With these blunt muzzles pointing toward' -the enemy trench they made but a small target. They took an ordinary crater or a wide trench with ease, dropping their noses into it aid cocking their tail of round flanged wheels in the air as their noses dipped'. Then, when they nosed their way up the opposite, side of the trench and crater, their tails dipped' and they climbed till they came to the level, and resumed their irresistible crawling march. They had been tried on imitation trenches 1 and craters with success, and I had seen them cutting their way through a young forest with the ease of a knife cutting through cheese. But tho actual battlefield found out' some of their weak points. Those allotted to tho New Zealandcrs did not. get up in time, and our men had the mortification of seeing tliem crawling along live hundred.yards in the rear. Under these circumstances the ground gained by the New Zealandcrs on the first day ' was: all the more to their credit.

Others of the "tanks," however, managed to get up. One charged into High Wood. Another entered Flers iu great style, behind a line of cheering "Tommies." Yet another went on far behind' into the open country past Guedccourt, till it came up against a German battery. From the muzzles of its armament it spat fire and iron, knocking out the German crew, but was in turn itself knocked out by a direct , hit, andi was left on the ground of the enemy. But the driver-captain emptied his petrol tanks and set fire to the interior, so that the Germans would not easily be able to get their capture away. Then the captain and his crew escaped 1 back to our own lines. It was a wonderful, even an amazing, i'eat, Afterwards I came across live ot the "tanks" that had come back, and were sheltering behind our lines, screwing up nuts and mending broken parts, till they were ready for another charge.. I had a talk with the captain of one that crawled 1 into Flers. He was, after his adventure, calmly writing up his diary in the bowels of his own pet saurian monster, and seemed' to have enjoyed his perilous and exciting escapade. In some places the Bodies, when they saw their oncoming, ran like men possessed. But the machine-guns laid many a running Bochc low that day, The skin of this great saurian had been splashed with German bullets, that had bounced off it like hail from an iron roof. Some bullets had only scraped its paint away. This painting had been done by a mastor hand, combining the colours of Ihc landscape, in the style of a French futurist. "What do you think of their colouring?" I heard an oflicer ask an artist clad in khaki sonic days before the battle. "Colonel frolomon -1. Solomon," he added, "gav«> 'his fellow his suit of clothes."