ENEMY HELD WELL IN CHECK BY NEW ZEALAND TROOPS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16761, 30 January 1918, Page 5

ENEMY HELD WELL IN CHECK BY NEW ZEALAND TROOPS

LINE LESS ACTIVE SAVE FOE ARTILLERY WORK. . ATTEMPTED RAID BY FOUR PARTIES FRUSTRATED. N.Z. War Correspondent's Message. Jan. 28. The New Zealanders have been busy improving the sector which they at present hold. Fighting activity has died down, and recently the enemy artillery fire has been much below normal. Our guns, 'however, remain fairly active. Casualties have decreased considerably. There has been active sniping from the enemy lines, though their shooting is good. Our snipers and machine-gunners give the enemy little chance of approaching in the open. Both machine-guns and trench mortars fire on low-flying enemy aeroplanes, often forcing the pilots to climb out of range. Our patrols are continually reconnoitring in No Man's Land, going out by night and also in the daylight. Opposite our lines on the German front is a derelict tank occupied by an enemy outpost Several Germans going and coming were killed and wounded here by machine-gun and rifle fire. Finally our artillery got on to it, and finished the post. Our men went out and found twelve enemy dead inside the tank. Some had apparently been wounded by bullets and had crawled in for shelter. These and some others had been killed by the shock of our bursting shells, which fell all around. Recently after a sharp trench mortar bombardment at half-past one in the morning four parties of the enemy, numbering about 100, attempted to gain our trenches. , By the time they had started our men were standing to arms, and quickly got to work with their rifles and Lewis guns, with the result that only one party got as far as our wire, and none entered the trcnch. In this little brush our artillerymen distinguished themselves by the promptitude with which they responded to the S.O.S. call. Their first shell burst on the German position before the S.O.S. signal had burst out, and the barrage came down almost immediately. The attack had, however, already been repulsed, but the infantrymen were delighted with the promptness of the artillery response. The enemy in their advance threw some bombs, but most of them fell short. When daylight broke eight enemy dead were seen lying outside our wire. Besides these bodies there were many other indications of casualties. '