HOME AGAIN.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLVII, Issue 13047, 9 January 1917, Page 2

HOME AGAIN.

£Pek Press Association.) Auckland, January S

Another draft of sick and wounded arrived in Auckland early this morning, in charge of Colonel Cowles. Though there were • no-.'Cot cases among them, the men bore plenty of signs of having been in the thick of the fray. Some looked pale and. tired, others limped painfully with the aid of a stick, but, notwithstanding their sufferings, all had a cheery smile on their faces. . "When the boat drew alongside the wharf one dusky warrior proudly exhibited a German helmet taken in the higi push at the Somme. Two German sen-| tries, apparently tiring of tho strenuous business of fighting, were indulging in a game of cards when grim death overtook them, in the form of a. number of New Zealanders, who paid them a strictly business call, wherein the principal form of introduction was the bayonet. "What happened," queried a pressman of the present possessor ol the helmet. "Oh," was tho laconic reply, "I brought this back after pushing my bayonet through tho owner," and beyond that he had nothing to sav.

Among tho officers who returned \vas| one who liad been .attached to one of the much-talked-of "tanks." r riii> work of the "tanks?' is already well known. "They absolutely struck terror into the hearts of the Germans," sail! the speaker,; "when they made theii appearance. Nothing seemed to stoj them. They were literally modern Jug. gernauts, and dealt deatli wherevci they went. It was no imcomniot thing." he went on, "to see one of then nose its way half-way acros/s a trend and then sit there and enfilade tin trench on both sides. When it win finished it sort of casually wandorei along to the next one and repeated tin dose."

An artilleryman who had received s splinter of shell in his back had sometiling to say about the 'big guns and the manner in which they are locate] by aircraft. In one instance fivi Taubes flew over his section. An hour later German shells commences to arrive. They had the range to ; nicety, and made no mistake about it, The inevitable queries as to what hap period brought the strong reply, "Oh, we shifted the guns as soon as we son tho Taubes, and when the shells eonv nienced to drop v:o were somewhere else." The speaker stated that, so. far as the aircraft were concerned, we Had an absolute superiority over the Ger mans, and flew over their lines can tmually, a fact which helped us ver; materially, and which was an indicatior of the striking progress we had marl in this particular branch of warfan since the opening of the war. The southern men who returned lefi by the Main Trunk express to-uight.