MARCH TO BATTLE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21755, 21 March 1934, Page 13

MARCH TO BATTLE

ON THE ROAD IN 1918 THE' GERMAN OFFENSIVE SIDELIGHTS OF THE CAMPAIGN Memories of stirring times in 1918 are recalled to-day by the anniversary of the commencement of the great German offensive io France, in the halting of whicli the New Zealand Division played an important part. From the 2nd Army training area about Hazebrouck and St. Omer, where the men enjoyed rest and sport and bounteous provisioning, the division in . a few hours was called on to force march and fight on official rations that fell as low as one loaf to 32 men, the remainder of the issue being biscuits and bully beef. The unofficial, but more tempting, menu comprised chicken, pork and potatoes, with wines ranging from the common vin blano and vin rouge to the choicest champagnes, which were "salvaged" in abandoned villages and farms on the River Ancre, west of Albert.

Taking tliem in chronological order, the first of the outstanding recollections of those days is the receipt of the warning order for units to hold themselves in readiness to -move at an hour's notice. Thus was a pleasant evening in prospect rudely interrupted by the fortunes of war. There was the first concentration move and the issue of the divisional orders for the next move. Those orders should be enshrined somewhere, for they covered everything from the supply of trains down to the dulling of brass badges and buttons on arrival at the prospective battle area. Divisional rumour at the time had it that the orders were the work of one highly placed officer, who consumed a tin of 50 cigarettes in the process and found on reading it that he had no need to make a single alteration in the pencil draft. All Night March "Detrain, dump all packs, get into fighting order, issue 220 rounds of ammunition per man and march to Corbie." These orders came to one bafctalion after a night and the greater, part of the day in the train, and drew from the colonel the laconic comment, "And while we are getting ready, I think we will all have a meal." So by the wayside, while boxes of ammunition were broached and packs stacked, the troops had a meal. And then the march started. On through the night toward Amiens. Peaceful farmhouses where lights shone seemed so restful and so far away from war that they were enough to induce feelings of homesickness in the steadily plodding men. A few hours' sleep under the stars, an early breakfast, f;ome rumours, and the refreshed battalion, all the better, too, for its rest and training period, took the road again almost as if it expected to meet the enemy around the next corner.

Past the cathedral, barricaded against air raids, and up the hill to the turn-off below the citadel, the battalion swung through Amiens and on to the Albert Boad to meet the first' swarms of refugees. Here adventure departed, whistling and singing stopped, and stoicism took their place, a stoicism broken only by occasional cheery words to a grandmere propelling her few saved belongings in a perambulator, or, as they came nearer the sound of' guns, •' • a greeting or two to "Tommies" of . whose units they were the. few shattered survivors. The thought has come since that the presence on the road of whole battalions of perfectly-trained and fit fighting men must have been a tonic to those tired "Tommies" and - the refugees. " ' Preparations for Action * So these and other marching men reached Hedauville, the charged concentration area, at various hours that night. A good sleep was needed, hut it was not to be. A colonel gathered his officers about him and explained the situation so far as it was known.' That was little, except that British troops had been seen in the next village that morning, beyond was the German army in full array, and the New Zealand Division was to endeavour to contact with the Australians, who were taking up a line near Serre. His final words were full of portent. "We will be advanceguard for the brigade. You, Peter, will provide and command the vanguard. We will clear Colincamps, put out outposts, contact with the Aussies, and in the morning, at dawn, the first and second 'Dinks' (Rifle Brigade) jvill advance and take possession of the high ground. All clear? Right. We move at ' midnight." The rest is the official histories. The contact was established, the gap jn the line filled, and the German advance, halted and finally stayed when fresh masses of men were thrown vainly against the tliinly-held front on April 5.