SERIES'OF ADVANCES MADE BY NEW ZEALANDERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16936, 23 August 1918, Page 5

SERIES'OF ADVANCES MADE BY NEW ZEALANDERS.

CLOSE FOLLOWING UP OF THE RETIRING ENEMY.

OTAGO INFANTRY DESTROY AN ATTACKING PARTY.

Aui. 19. • For some days now, apparently in conformation with what may. mean a more general, scheme of retirement to;' a shorter and more easily-defended line, the enemy has' been gradually ' falling back opposite our sector. The first indication of this retirement was noted on the morning of August 14, when everything was extraordinarily quiet Patrols were pushed out at five o'clock; the'enemy artillery was below normal, smoke was rising from certain localities in enemy territory, while German aircraft were inactive and showed no disposition to cross our lines. During the previous day a few of the enemy were seen going and coming in unusual places, and Bom© stretcher cases wore carried away from a dug-out, but there were no signs of retirement. On August 14, however, our patrols were soon pushing' out towards the Puisieux-Serre Ridge]' '■■■•■ Occasionally an enemy machine-gun opposed our advance on the > right flank, but invariably after a few minutes' firing it was withdrawn, and our patrols pushed on at the heels of the enemy. By nightfall Canterbury and .Otago troops had . advanced,"fighting, to a line along the Serre-Puisieux Road. They had killed and wounded several of the enemy, and were able to send back 40 prisoners. On the left the Wellington troops found the enemy resisting more strongly, and progress was more difficult. Six prisoners were captured early in the morning. We had occupied a system of trenches 1000 yards to the south of Puisieux.

New Zetland Correspondent.

At dawn next day two companies of the enemy had reoccupied a sunken road to the north of the village, but were engaged by Otago troops, who inflicted casualties, captured four prisoners, and advanced the line another 800 yards during the day. '•' The enemy moving back were fired on, and machine-guns were silenced, by our artillery. During the night harassing • fire • was directed ■ on the enemy communications, ; while trench mortars moving forward with our, infantry maintained a covering fire. Aircraft gave . timely assistance with special patrols, and brought back early reports of the location of the enemy. Progress on our left was slower owing to the> high ground not being in our possession. The enemy guns were evidently shooting at extreme ranges. They shelled the ruins of Serre Village, and put down barrages with the evident intention of hindering our advance.'. Machineguns in pockets gave considerable trouble to our advancing patrols, and in most cases held out until the last moment to delay the advance. The enemy was holding his front line with outposts, in which were eight. men with one machine-gun, well in front of the main line of resistance which contained the remainder of his forward battalion, the support battalion of each regiment being a long way further back. Enemy patrols had orders to beat off our patrols, but to fall back' fighting if strongly attacked. In : nearly every case his patrols gave way at once on a show of determined pressure. : V' . <.'.)■■' '•-#'■• . At dawn on August 16 the enemy attacked to reoccupy some trenches south of Puisieux, but the attackers were wiped out by the New Zealanders, 10 prisoners, including an officer, being captured, and the remainder killed. Two machine-guns were secured. The enemy shelled spasmodically our whole area, but with extraordinarily little effect, except at,one place, In the clearing out of a pocket that had been delaying the, advance on the left, 18 prisoners and two machineguns were captured. • vW „

:' 'At five o'clock on the morning of August IB the enemy attacked the Otagos' front with four, sections of a storm battalion and a party ofthe 418 th Infantry Regiment, about 100 men in all, the objective being a sunken road flouth 6f Puisieux, and their object the straightening of their line there. The enemy began with an intense bombardment on the front line area. ; An infantry attack followed on the right centre of the front. •An Otago company pushed forward its Lewis guns to bring a flanking fire to bear on the enemy, and heavy rifle and Lewis gun fire, was poured into the advancing Germans. Thjs broke up tl\e attack. A lieutenant then led his men forward to deal with what remained of the enemy, and captured 11 prisoners and three machine-guns. A small patrol then pushed through the village and killed six Germans. Later another patrol pushing down a shallow valley counted two German officers and 25 other ranks dead. '• The enemy orders for this attack appear to have been very indefinite, which fact doubtless contributed largely to its failure. ■, •