FIGHT FOR THE RIDGE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18838, 13 October 1924, Page 9

FIGHT FOR THE RIDGE.

SCALING PASSCHENDAELE.

THE TWELFTH OF OCTOBER.

GALLANTRY, OF. ANZACS,

By A.I.F, The Twelfth of October is another glory-day in the calendar of the exploits of New Zealanders and the Australians in the Great War, for it marked the close of the four-phase offensive of the Battle of Passchendaele, in which forty British divisions were engaged. A brief review of what was really the most important major operation of the year 1917, nob excluding Messines or the Hindenburg Line, may be interesting. It will afford soma little consolation to the bereaved these days to know that the verdict of the historian and the perspective of time have awarded the highest share of the glory of Passchendaele to the fighting soldiers of the two remotest of His Majesty's Dominions. Viewed through the eye of the higher command, there were four operation orders from Field-Marshal Sir Douglas Haig: Menin Road, September 20; Polygouveld (or Polygon Wood), September 26; Broodseinde and Gravenstafel, October 4; and Passchendaele, October 12; j Thursday, October 4, was the greatest day of all. There were preliminaries on July 31, in which British "divisions grasped the roots and the first main trunk of the Ridge; on the 20th, we made good our hold oil the highest point near Glencorse Wood, with the plateau of Broodseinde 3000 yds. ahead; on the 26th, the tide of attack swept past Zonnebeke, half-way up the slope, a mile nearer the Ridge; on the 4th, Anzacs of both Dominions took Gravenstafel Spur' and Broodseinde Plateau in their stride; on the 12th, they moved again, with six other divisions, to the ruins of Passchendaele Village, the final goal of the British Armies of Plumer and Gough. Confidence in Commander. We had a call from the Commander-in-Chief and the Commander of the Second Army on the morning of September 19, and knew from that circumstance that something was afoot. It wt*s our first "close-up" with the little, white-haired leader, with his silky moustache, eyeglass, and protruding under-lip, whose grim, inflexible resolution always won the confidence of his soldiers, whether on j Flanders or Italian battle-fronts. His victory of Meesines, and restraint which prevented any aftermath of loss confirmed the whole army in its appreciation of his powers as a leader. •The Menin Road operation was covered by two British armies, with eight divisions in attack, Gough being on the north, from Langemarcke to Zonnebeke, Plumer covering the rest of the line in this third Battle of Ypres, down to Hillebeke. Every British soldier we met coming and going on the famous Menin Road seemed to have been born and reared within ten miles of Bow Bells. There was a new Territorial unit, making its maiden bow, under the youngest brigadier in the army. There were also new units in the Fifty-first Division, which topped the pinnacle of glory when they fought with their backs to the •tfall in the breach of the Fifth Army's battlefront when the big German drive broke through on the Somme on March 21, 1918. There were other British divisions, worn with long fighting, that wove fresh and brilliant strands into the traditions of the Imperial armies. The 23rd took a great hammering, alongside the 19th, the famous captors of La Boiselle, who were relieved by the New Zealanders in the Somme battle. The Australians came into their own at Polygon Wood on the 26th. The Black Watch Corner was a stubborn obstacle to them, but thay had their eye on the racecourse beyond, and declared they would have a race meeting there, bare-backed, without reins, on fleet mules—or in tanks, if there were no other, way. Taking their objective, they reconnoitred the course, and pl&nted a flag with the Southern Cross on it where they found an old shambles' which thev calculated had been the judge's box in the days of peace. " One of the Critical Victories." The New Zealanders' engagement of the Fourth was described by the London Times as " one of the critical victories of the war." The Germans were planning a new attack, and had brought in several fresh divisions. They timed their attack at seven in the morning, but the British attack took place an hoar earlier, and New Zealand and Australian troops, shaking hands on the flanks, actually came across German troops, when the barrage lifted, deploying in the open in attack formation. New Zealanders splashed their way across the morass by the Hannebeke, and stormed their way through Aviatik Farm and Bootleer. The ground was thick with German pill-boxes. In the early phase of the attack, it was a case of advancing from shell-hole to shellhole, until they were past the traverse of the enemy batteries; then, bomb in hand, for the back door of the pill-box. Evening found the whole of the Gravenstafel Spur in their hands, and the Australians firmly settled in their objective round Broodseinde. The thrill of victory was in the air. It pervaded the crowded traffic behind the lines, the duck-boards down which the prisoners came, the dressing stations, alas, overcrowded, where brave fellows paid its toll. On the morning of the twelfth, the prospect of the new attack for the crest of Passchendaele and the village was a fearsome one. Everyone was covered with mud, to hip and shoulder. Historians and commentators have been arguing during the seven years that have intervened as to whether Sir Douglas Haig made a mistake in going for the Ridge on the 12th, but the average soldier prefers to cherish his impressions of those days, when everyone agreed that the Commander-in-Chief took the more spirited course of the two, and went on with the attack, before the winter set in. There were some notable achievements in the air during the Passchendaele offensive. Never had the Flying Corps cooperated with guns and infantry to better advantage. A regular sight at sundown was a Dominion aviator "hawking" along the German front line at a height of iiou more than 200 ft., emptying his machine-gun belt on his way home, with the enemy blazing at him with everything from rifle to howitzer at point-blonk range. The Air Commander, hearing of his exploits, put him on his honour to desist from the practice, but the enemy got him eventually, after the youthful "ace" had 40 machiues to his credit.