CALL TO ARMS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23400, 17 July 1939, Page 8

CALL TO ARMS

PEOUD TRADITION PEAKED HAT IN FRANCE WHEN THE LINE BROKE . V Any young man should be proud to march in a company that continues the traditions of the New Zealand infantry regiments; traditions • dearly bought but splendidly won on the scarred hills of Gallipoli and the fields of Flanders. Recruits of to-day will march iu the footsteps of the gallant. • With these words of introduction Mr. John A. Lee, D.C.M., M.P., tells the thrilling story of how New Zealanders helped to stem the last effort of the Germans to break through to the Channel. In March, 1918, he writes, the New Zealand Division was at rest below beautiful Casscl, a town built on a high hill. It was weary, for it had been on fatigue and on trench duty in the Ypres Salient, where "stand to" had been a night-long vigil, a few men at a tiino being allowed to rest, and that only during the daytime. Mighty bombardments and counter-bombard"-ments came into being at a moment's notice. By March, 1918, the Russian Army was defeated and Germany was concentrating on the Western Frontier. Every, one was expectant. At what moment and. at what place would a. concentration of German guns liberate the lethal flash of a mighty offensive?. The Line Goes Up Suddenly every regiment was ordered to prepare for action, to pack up and be ready to move at a moment's notice. Ajid after warning and preparation came a long period of waiting. Thunderous drum fire could be heard in the far distance, but none knew what it portended. The Wellington Regiment, of which I was a member, was suddenly ordered to be entrained and to proceed to the Somme area. . The Canterbury and Auckland Regiments had gone before. Wo alighted at a town close to Amiens and marched on through Amiens toward what we thought to be the front. The regiments had no news, for nobody knew during two or three dreadful days where the actual front was. Through Amiens and on the road to Mailly-Maillet New Zealand regiments as they marched passed the pitiful procession of refugees fleeing from the oncoming German Army. Yet, when these unfortunate French peasants realised that the New Zealanders had arrived and were going to stop the enemy, they refused to move further. No one was quite aware of it at the moment, but the New Zealand Division was actually being marched toward a huge gap that existed in the Allied line. The Auckland Regiment had a night in Mailly-Maillet to themselves, while Wellington men were further away at Saillv sur Somme. I should says the Aucklanders had a night and a brewery to themselves. Everybody was light-hearted. Transport was chaotic. Men were living on the barest of iron rations. The British front line had gone up. The Germans were somewhere in front advancing, no one knew how far in front, no one know how many or in what way they were armed. Yet everyone was hilarious as never before in the history of the New Zealand Division. High Spirits in' Crisis Even if disaster appeared likely to overtake the British Armies the war had got on to firm, clear ground, had got out of its vile ditch, was a matter of marching and counter-marching on fresh country. Never during did New Zealanders face a more critical situation than thd|. faced in front of Mailly-Maillet covering up the gap in the line that led to Amiens, during the next week or two, and yet never were they so high-spirited. first time, in my recollection, the regiments sang on the march. I remem-. her hearing Paul Dufault, the great Canadian tenor, sing a song in prewar days, and that song came back to my mind as I noted the fortitude and good spirits of New Zealanders when facing the unexpected. On the road gaily, Without a crust of bread. Yet gaily marched the Regiment. Nothing to eat, in rags, But full of glory. The Canterbury and Auckland Regiments had a night in Mailly-Maillet with no food, with no artillery behind .them, no barbed wire in front, no contact with units on the right or on the left, and no knowledge of how far away the German forces "were or how soon it would be before they were on the door-steps of Mailly-Maillet. An yet courage was high as never before. The men of New Zealand - were never so noisy and cheerful as when it seemed likely that they would be swallowed tip iu the advancing tide. Gallant Aucklanders The following morning Aucklandm inarched down the Serre road and right into the oncoming Germans. The First Auckland Battalion marched down the road in columns of threes, until German machine-guns advertised the presence of the enemy. And- then the various companies and platoons swung to the right and to the left and advanced in the face of deadly machine-gun hail as though on parade. The Wellington Battalion came later to take over the area where the Aucklanders arrested the German advance, and all down the slope from MaillyMaillet to the old sugar refinery, thenwas a sprinkling of Auckland's dead gallant fellows killed with-machine-gun lire, dead with their heads toward the enemy. Our men went to earth in the old trench line of the Somme battlefield, and there tlioy resisted attack after attack. The Germans, knowing - that there was no organised trench line, but only groups of poorly-equip-ped New Zealanders here and there, tried to continue their advance by infiltration to find a-weak spot through which they could outflank stronglyheld positions. Brigade's Great Stand The Germans were abundantly provided with armament, with explosives. They had their own equipment and all of the equipment they had taken from the British lines in their all-conquering forward burst. And yet it happened that the Canterbury and Auckland men did not give an inch. They hold on against attack after at- • tack. They held on and gradually developed and consolidated a front line, and into this front line in a few hours *» came the men of the Wellington Regiment to further consolidate and hold up the advance. Battalion after battalion came up, Otagos and the Rifle Brigade, until the latter joined up with Australians in Hebuterno and the gap was filled — after a fashion. Froni the New Zealand front line, unprotected with wire, . a lino occupied by men hungry and unsupported by artillery, poorly equipped with bombs and machine guns, could be seen hundreds of German horses away in the rear Horses of German regiments, members of which were dismounted and in the trenches fronting the New Zealand troops. Trains, in full view of New Zealanders. came steaming on to the old Somme battlefield along British lines or railway, and there were no British guns to knock out such easy targets. German aeroplanes came over, nying low, and there were no anti-aircraft batteries 01* machine-guns to keep them high in the air. But, fighting back with machine-guns, rifles, and sometimes tlio bayonet, New Zealanders never gave <i'] inch thereafter, in spite of repeater efforts of the German Army to urea through..