ACROSS THE SOMME.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLVI, Issue 12998, 10 November 1916, Page 1

ACROSS THE SOMME.

OX THE FRINGE OF THE GREAT BATTLE. NEW ZEALANDERS EX ROUTE. (From Captain -Malcolm Ross, War Correspondent with tiro New Zea'nsu Forces.) Bth September . Wo have crossed the Somme. Wo are on the fringe of the great battle, and as day follows duy ana' inarch follows march <the finger of fortune s»:enu•to point steadily to the fact that our small force from the most distant p.irt of our far-flung Empire is going to have t±£ great good luck of taking part in. momentous and historic fighting. A fortnight ago the New Zealandt-r.-arrived at Hallencourt, and then- and in the adjoining villages went into billets. The brigade aid further training, suitable to the new kind of stre.iuou.s warfare in wlricli they were abc..iu■to engage: They had hnc a long spoU in the trenches at Armciitieres, .ai'-'-l what -with night-raiding and, a good clr-.U of German bombing and shetliug they had an anxious and a _ trying time. They were not in the linieiiglit, _ but they held a part of the line, alia, in spite of considerable losses, held it. well. Tno enemy gained no advantage. Or> the contrary, he suffered greater los-es than he had been accustomed to- in that sector for some timo previously. For some days now the force has been marching light, the men ieavin-g even their blankets behind them, ansl having to sleep in their overcoats on tilt' hard earthen floor of barn.-, or the wooden floors of ether billets. The daily training and the change of -ecu'.' and incident ore steadily inipwiju their morale and physique. At tin present moment, taking them all 111 all. they are just about as fit for battle troops could be. From Hallencourt and district »i----marched to Belloy-sur-Somme, ant. in that old and dilapidated village and the adjacent hamlcis the brigades again leted for a few days. A heavy storni broke over the district, but

afterwards the sun came out warm ant! clear, and tlio beautiful country was revealed in all its loveliness., It was a perfect pleasure to wander' across the downs or through the grounds of some old loyalist chateau, backed by a s'.ucndid forest. The rcd-tileil roots < - the villages made patches ot color that relieved the scmbre green of the trees, and iu every village the spire or tower cr sonic old church gave its distinctive touch to the graceful landscape Down ill the flat-, shallow valley ran the Somme, swollen, _ and ;il a dull Payne grey, with the tilt washed fro:n the scarred and .pitted face of the battlefield by the thunderstorm. Paths led down from the village tewar;: tiie tivcr, past lagoon- Irir.ged Witii raupo and papyrus-like red that rustled witn every passing brtezc. Quivering a.— pens and graceful elms v.ere ret's-ctcc-darkly iu these dull, placid pond-, starred at interval- with white water iilies. At a bend in the pathway you passed a peasant girl herding her kmc and crooning an old song. \on came suddenly upon a silent Frenchman fishing amidst" the .'-edges with great patience, yet with little success icr alj hisfour roils with their quill-lloaied lines. But even in such a peaceful c-eeue yon could not altogether get away from tho thought cf war." A small enclosure, fenced in with rudely-cut- post-, <>i p<-p----lar and two strands of barbed-wire, was labelled with a bit of beard and some block paint ""British Cemetery. Two patches of raw brown earth showed only too .plainly that it had not been, fenced in vain. In days to come some English mother will perhaps come here on a pilgrimage. Near the river, beside a path, was another sign: "Danger; Keep Clear."' As one looked in vain for any sign or work cf man, the- ] notice gave one an uncanny feeling. The river ran close under the further slope of the valley. Besido it the railroad was marked by the steam and rumble of tnany passing trains, day and night, carrying one way guns and focd and ammunition to tho battlefield, and the other way the wreckage, animate, and inanimate, from scenes of incessant strife. Beyond, tho valley rose in gentle slopes -with w ; oods and fields, in which the old men and women were gathering the harvest of peace. Behind the woods of the chateau I lav for the half of one morning listening. fascinated, to the continuous rumble of the guus in a great bombardment. It was as the beating of a thousand drums without interval, but with, every minute or so, the louder boom of some bigger instrument more fiercely Ixatcn. It rccal!ed*a day in Stevenson's house at Vailima, wheii,_ after a hurricane, the s£a was breaking with remorseless fury on the coral reef beyond the Vaisiugauo River. Doves were cooing softly in the wood. Butterflies. white, pale green, and brown, were flitting about in the warm sunshine. Overhead there came the droning noise of a flight of aeroplanes living very high up, and themselves looking for all the world like white butterflies in'the clear sunlight._ A reaper and binder at work in an adjacent field mad,- a similar droning noise, rising and

falling on tin' breeze, except lor it: more metallic rattle. All this, was but the prelude to scene: and incidents of a strangely different chatacter and battle music with a inori Wagnerian sound. Xcxt day our troops marched out again. along the dusty roads leading to ward tile great- contest. In tile morninf a tool breeze made marching pleasant and before the hour was far advancet tlii* brigades had left the greater number of the fourteen miles they had t< do behind them. For hours I watchee them passing through a dip m tin Amiens-Albert- road. From St. Gratiei and Allonville, from Cardonnette ant Rainneville, from Coisv and Doulan villi- they marched by diverse ways trending all in one direction—the man artery leading to the great battle thai is raging in I'icardy. A brigade group with its four battalions, its special faction?-, its A.S.C.. and its Field Ambulances, takes an hour ami twentj minutes to pass. Two ol the brigade; cam. past to the music of their band: and the skirl of the bagpipes. - A" other brigade has 110 bands, and thai make? a great difference in the march ing. New Zealanders have not yet I thoroughly acquired the strict discipline of the route inarch, and thero i! , teiideiM-v to straggle over the road but this dav the men marched *erj well, and seemed very fit borne inarch cd bettor than others, but the differnice was not so great as to warraiii comparison. Some were billeted, other, had to bivouac for the night, and n was rather a cold night, but youn f weil-trainetl troops take 110 harm fron a cold night out of doors, and the expedience serves to harden them for tlu sterner work that lies ahead. One would have thought that aftei their long march they would l'} i y c "p 01 „|a'l to lie down and rest awhile bui thev had no sooner reached then bivouacking ground then thev cron dec in large numbers 011 either sule of tlu broad road to become interested spec tators of the stream of traffic. Ho« - manv thousands of British teet ha ( trod'its hard metal! Many liay» eom» back the way they went m motor am bulances. and there are many who wil never come back at all. r ~-1 In the evening we were ill our new headquarters in a hollou" undulating country in the Inids* ot . vast camp. A lino of thin-walled. tar naulin-roofed huts were used offices There were similar mess huts? and th staff lived in other huts and twits. Hu we were fifteen tents short. Thej hac disappeared mysteriously with nil out going livision. It was probably a ca* of peaceful annexation. For some days now the guns nad beer thundering in one continuous cannon ade. There were several shots, pei second, so that in the great noise yov could scarcely distinguish one rej»ri from another," except when some nearci or higger gun broke in upon the general pulsation A division was attacking

High Wood, and in their first attack had not succeeded. No one had any doubt that sooner or later the Germans would be driven out of that strong point, just as one had seen them driven out of Fricourt and Mametz and La Hoisellc. and other strong points in the early days of the gieat advance. The best* of the enemy's troops could not withstand the fury of such an attack driven home with the force of our tremendous artillery and the heroism and determination of our infantry. In July all the ground now.-covered by this "vast camp was green fields. Now it was mostly bare earth trodden bard with hoof of horse and feet of many thousands of men. The traffic rumbled past continuously. Our planes flew overhead, and our captive balloons swayed in the blue, straining at their rtec'p ropes. Seldom did we sec an enemy plane or balloon. The mastery of the air remained with the British firmly established since the first days of ttio great Battle of the Somme. In the darkness of night the flashing of the «iuis added a strange picturesqueness to the scene.