PIONEERS ON THE SOMME.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16498, 26 March 1917, Page 6

PIONEERS ON THE SOMME.

GOOD WORK BY THE MAORIS. .. TRENCH-DIGGING UNDER FffiE. % New Zealand Correspondent's Mesas*. ;■£.■;". ; - - . ' Jan. 14. -3 The New Zealand Pioneers have. left .', ; their mark—and a deeply-dug mark it.is.?.".-;. —on the battlefield of the Scmme. Daring the few .weeks they were employed \' there. they dug 13,163 yds of trenches. A great deal of this work was deep -and;.;;. wide, for communications, and practically the whole of it was done under fire, often .'. heavy, and at times under the added dis/>' abilities of bursting tear and gas shells. ; ; - Their splendid performance is probably ; . easily a record'' for any part of the' -rSomme battlefield. i: : 'The Pioneers came into the Somms battle towards the end of August, and ~ their first task was the digging-of g? trenches in Dclville Wood. About the beginning of September -they took over some * work on the Bazentin Ridge, and afterwards worked on the roads about Mon;,. tatiban. ; Then they began to dig the long - communication trench. At this they. did . magnificent work, never ceasing to carry ; . 'the trench on from «lay to day as m piinfantry advanced. The first section, of;:_. trenches enabled our men to.get safe com- . munication up to the front line for ....--; big attack on September 15. The Pioneers:.. I were told that they must have these | finished in time for this attack. They I wero completed by the evening of.3 8 -, ; , 114 th, though four*or five times the men t j had to be taken off the work for 24 hours ; at a stretch owing to the heavy German:..; shelling. The trenches were, of course, not carried so far without loss, .for/ttfj ;-;; Germans still 'had a good deal of high; .. ground that served them well as observa-..■ tion posts- On the night of the ,W«,;::; Kohere,. on© of the finest Maori officers, • ,- was killed, and there wero other 'casual- .. I ties- ' .i, . , .: r ::■

! The-hottest time the Pioneers had was ,-; ion the day of the advance. As they «■& | I forward the enemy shells were bursting .; over their heads, and the shells continued... _, to como in salvos for 24 hours.. Once tfie.;-, I Germans . endeavoured to barrage the ti ®jpJ I when they were working, but the BMW | were falling a 100 yards wide on one tm-.;. Tho Maoris worked all day watching m .- close shelling. At four o'clock mt» afternoon they left the trench with W -■-; six casualties. A company working on *. : higher bit of ground on the left W- 6 heavily:: One officer died of wounds ana another was wounded, but the others, m miraculous escapes. They had -equips* shot off and their clothes torn and mere??? ... with shrapnel and bits of high explosive; j •Usually the German trenches were ; 50_..; battered" by our own artillery that it W ■•; scarcely . worth while trying to repair . them. ' Some that our men. attempted 1 r ;- reorganise 'contained holes from f ll '" 5 ",' . ing that went 14ft down. Rather vm endeavour- to cope with such a state ;,,. ' things it was often better to dig p™,;; ■new trenches on new, firm ground. „3.; V'; '■:. One -ieco of trench dug at night wu«tho very' nose of the enemy easily -j tho lie "to all the most optimistic ng a, ( :;. in the books. It was 4ft 9io deep, * - wide, and 452 yards long. It was dog £ 200 men' ; in .five hours, and not « &[>, man was hit. The Boche was so 0 when he saw it next morning that lie j-> ceeded to blow it. to smithereens., _-V;< -