IMPETUOUS NEW ZEALANDERS.

North Otago Times, Volume CVI, Issue 13975, 12 September 1917, Page 6

IMPETUOUS NEW ZEALANDERS.

A NEW KIND OP CAKE WALK. An,employee of this office (says the Otago Daily Times), who resigned his position to go to the front, and by sheer, psrtinacity managed to pass the- medical test, writes cheerfully , from France under date June 12 of the battle of ilcssines:— "I was fortunate as usual, and came through the piece with a whole skin and scathless, except for a slight concussion from a Hun shell—and a near thing it was, too—just before we were relieved. It was a cakewalk for us, There was no opposition except for one or two machine guns, which were very quickly put out of action. I was detail- J jeii to bomb a trench, and when I arrivad on the spot with the only men of my party who had not got lost intheunuttorable confusion or wounded the treuch had been destroyed, and the garrison was already making its way through ■ our artillery barage to our lines. Most of them (they were men of the 17th Bavarian Infantry Regiment) had wounds. We let them go, poor devils! 1 and some machine-gunners of my platoon arrived fully 20 minutes before any others of the company at our objective, and we must have then been actually in front of our barrage, and of course it would have been our own fault if we had been killed by it, as many of our chaps were. Our company took 'the second objective 'that day (3.10 a.m. on July G), and up to the time we were relieved Fritz had, coun-t(T-:;1 tacked twice unsuccessfully. Poor old Pilling went West very shortly after ' wc went over, The officers of our battalion generally had very stiff luck, but the casualties generally were light by comparison. Enclosed you will find' my flag. The colours (which are really yellow and blue) were the first New Zealand colours to be hoisted for artillery and aeroplane observation and direction outside Mcssincs, Amongst chaps I have met recently are some old friends and neighbours: .George Drydcn (Bert's elder brother), Bill (or Jim ) Warren, Dug M'Lemma 'Buck : Buchanan (at 0.8.11.5. with me and ' now second lieutenant), and also little ' Billy Hutchison. It appears sometimes as if New Zealand had been dumped down en tout in Flanders,"

The (lag spoken of in the letter is .about lSin square. It is divided diagonally, one half being yellow and the other bine (it is now black).