A WAR ROMANCE

Otago Witness, Issue 2734, 8 August 1906, Page 77

A WAR ROMANCE

Bt Walter Shaw.

(For the Witness.)

A great military power has made a 1 sudden attack on the South Island of New Zealand. Two separate armies ha-ve been landed, one at a point on the northern ' shores of the West Coast and a second at a point some distance north of Dunedin. ' The army of Westland has retreated through the- Otira Gorge, and is striving to unite with the army of North Canterbury. The Otago army has retreated rapidly, but in good order, in a line following the Otago Central railway, with the object of passing through the Lindis Pass and uniting with the army of South Canterbury in the mountainous country overlooking the Mackenzie Plains near the Hakataramea Valley. This is in ac- I cordance with pre-arransed military plans. ," To prevent this union, the eastern attacking force has attempted to drive the Otago army through the goldfields to the country bordering on Lake Wanaka. The enemy have meanwhile sent a force to the south of Westland to march through the Haast Paas and completely envelop the Otago army between two contending forces, and 6O prevent its union with the army of South Canterbury. Had such move been ttuooesaful, the enemy would have marched practically unopposed along the East Coast and have attacked the armies of NoTth Canterbury and Westland. from the south, while their western force would i have a similar attack from the west through the Otira Gorge. The following account showa how the plans of the enemy ■ were frustrated. " j Oar army had rapidly retreated to the hills and mountains before the advtfnce of the invading foe, and little advantage was left as save in desultory guerilla warfare, which might, for a time, prolong the contest, and enable the colonial forces to , concentrate and decide the fate of the country in one decisive battle. But little hope of concentration was possible by the routea which lay on the eastern shore, j and if such pians were at all possible, it | must be %j the continual retreat and yet convergence of the various provincial forces at one particular rendezvous which lay among the mountains that overlooked the country of the plains— the route from which to the rendezvous could be reached only by dangerous marches through the impregnable passes that formed a barrier for many miles from the attacks of any invading forces. But so sudden had been the present attack and so complete was their organisation that the enemy's forces had already landed and destroyed all telegraphic communication with the other provincial armies, and there was but little time left to concentrate otrr army into one channel of retreat which lay towards the mountain ; passes, but to a distance considerably south, of the rendezvous. Fortunately we had men amongst us well accustomed to the country, and we were but little delayed in our retreat. The enemy, although well acquainted with the more civilised | routes of the eastern shores, seemed to be j out-manceuvred when we neared the out- ' skirts of civilisation, and, save for their bands of men who roamed the country round in search of information, we had soon placed ourselves a considerable distance from their main body, and had but little fear of attack from the east in the meantime. It appeared to us strange, however, that their advance should cease when it did, but we regarded it merely as owing to their want of initiativeness, combined with lack of accurate information as to the country through which we were proceeding. ""Gobrien, the most active of our leaders, and a man renowned as much for his generalship as for his courage and foresight, was the one alone who protested against the belief in the supposed want of i initiativeness of the enemy. "The enemy,' he said, "on the contrary, have conducted themselves as no other military force could have done. They have stopped merely on the outskirts of the more civilised parts, not with the intention of ceasing from the pursuit, but merely to draw us on to the level country and- then engage and destroy our isolated force. Let us guard well the entrance to the pass."

Such remarks were at -first hailed with derision, but soon we had reason to trust in the foresight ot Gor>rien,r who showed himself a& well able to judge of the enemy's movements as guide our army to 6aietv. Our route Lay for some time through the district- of the goldfields, a river bed on our right showing the labour of former generations in the 6earch for the precious metal. Soon we appeared on the borders of the lake. In an almost direct line north of the lake, at a distance of probably more than 150 miles, lay the rendezvous, and were it but possible to pass over thp mountain range, we could possibly avoid meeting any forces of the enemy, either from the east or west. To reach the rendezvous in any other way would mean a long detour on the opposite banks of the river which we saw on our retreat. Such a course, too, would bring us within range of the enemy, and it was essential that we should preserve our force as much as possible. To the north and south la}' other lakes of various dimensions, but the one on whose banks we now rested was at, the entrance to the pass. Acting on Gobrien's instructions, we had procured the services of a guide well acquainted with the route of the pat>s. Conversing with hini, I found he had acted in the capacity of guide to me on a former trip I had made through this pass, and aince that time he had made himself acquainted on different occasions with the most inaccessible routes of the pass. On the occasion on which we had passed throTigh toy ether, he had shown that he wa6 possessed of fcuffuient capacity to perform the task allotted him. Although acting in a high official capa-

city in our army, it was, nevertheless, deemed essential that I should accompany i the cuide. because of mv former acauaint-

ance with the route, but more especially as I had on that occasion taken surveys and measurements of the pass, having in mind the service of the pass to be used as a means of conveyance of forces in some desperate expedition to the towns on the ( West Coast. It had, however, escaped , my calculations that such a plan of attack 1 might be used against us instead of by us, and such indeed was the case. Proceeding slowly, and yet as rapidly ac the roughness of the pass would permit, we reached the low-lying country by the West Coast early on the second day of our march. Leaving our horses at a considerable depth in the forest, we proceeded cautiously on our way. Although the mountains of the pass end abruptly nearly nine miles from the coast, it is impossible to see the sea until neariy on the coast line. On several occasions we ascended the highest trees, trying to spy out, by the aid of our glasses, any sign of an enemy. If an enemy were there, there was little effort needed to conceal them, so dense was the forest surrounding. A bold enemy, too, that could make such a prolonged march along the rough unbeaten tracks of the West Coast ! As we pro- j ceeded, however, the guide, who was in front, suddenly arrested my attention. Coming quickly to hi* 6ide, I saw the cause of his surprise. On both banks of the river lay tho white tents of a large army. At the entrance i;o the bar of the river, several miles lower down, we could see the outlines of several large ships, probably transports which had acted in concert with the army on tfoe coast. Tfthat surprised us chiefly, however, was, on a minute inspection by t&ejiid of our glasses, tie lack of large weapons of war. Small arms there were in plenty, but cannon—we could see none. T-ere was, too, a- feeling in the enemy's camp of peaceful security, borne on them no doubt by the boldness of their enterprise. They were well acquainted with the provincial rendezvous, and it was to act in co-operataon with the attacking force from the east that they had there proceeded. A similar foTce, no doubt, had proceeded through the nass heading from the northern parts of the western coast to the city of the plains beyond. The country to the r«orth would therefore be entirely c«t off ; our at my destroyed; the two forces of the enemy, acting in co-operation, would then commence their march through the country of the plains, which lay near the eastern shore, and their maron to the City of the Plains would be practically unopposed. The guide and I made accurate note of the enemy's position and quickly retraced our steps. I fortunately bad always carried with me plans of a military march through the pass, and. comparing my present observations with mv plans, I had littJe doubt that, if fortune favoured us, we would strike a blow at the enemy which would upset their general plan of campaign. Arriving back at our oamp on the lake after a hard day's march, I proceeded to Gobrien's tent. When I entered, Gobrien was surrounded Dy several omc-TS, all of whom held a position of trust in the army. I unfolded to them my plan of attack. A painful silence followed. For a time, too, even Gobrien was silent. But at length he spoke: "You know, gentleman, that we stand in an Isolated position. By hard marching, we may eventually reach the rendezvous by crossing the mountain range to the north. But what is our position then? Our concentrated armies are not equal in numbers to the armies of the enemy. To maintain a , desultory guerilla warfare means only the continuing of a struggle which can have- no satisfactory military ending. Let us, hazard ' the fate of our country by a blow at the j enemy. If we are unsuccessful, we can > but die like men. If successful, then we gain for ourselves the blessings of successful warfare, and we create in our small nation a military spirit such as will enable , w> to rank amongst the predominant mili- \ tary powers of the earth."

This speech, though wholly devoid, of passion, had a magical effect from its logical sequence. Soon the whole army was in motion. A force of 5000 of the hardest-trained men were sent ahead, attached to their train being 50 pieces of artillery. As I watched that band of men with those weapons of destruction marching into the pass, it sieemed more like a violation of the sanctuary of Nature than the march of an armed host to battle. Silently they march- on, horses and men dragging at the heavy guns, through rivers and streams, round the precipitous mountain To get within sight of the enemy, it was necessary to approach as near the coast as possible, as the space between the outskirts of the forests and the enemy's camp was scarce a qiiarter of a mile. Under cover of darkn«ss and the soft nature of the ground, our men dragged the heavy pieces of artillery and placed them in position. Not a second was lost, and, as the day becjan to dawn, our forces, to the number of 6000 men, stood in battle array before the camp of the enemy. At intervals through the pass, bodies of onr men were stationed on the most accessible mountains that guarded a possible entrance for the enemy. At the entrance of the pass itself, and facing the lake, our line of communications ran, and on t)ie lake our men sailed from coast to cornst m small steam craft, specially adapted for such purpose, and easily taken to pieces, to be carried fiom place to place. On the shores of the lake, but out of sight of the route we had tiaversed, lay the remainder of our forces, amounting to 8000 men. Having the command both of the lake and its surrounding*, even if the army from the east approached, we could retreat into the recesses of the pass and safely defend ourselves against th'i joint attacks of the en^my. But this meant guerilla warfare. Fortunately, the eastern army remained stationary until too late. The battle on the coast had been then already decided. The transports had moved from their position lower down the v_-oa>-t, and were almost in a direct line with our guns. A more veritable deathtrap was never prepared by the hand of man. Boats were continually passing to

and fro between the camp and tie traps', ports, and we iculd ace that heavy pieces of artillery were -being brought ashore. Not 100 soon had we arrived. Already many of these pieces were close to land, and- making a calculation of the number of pieces such a force tfiat lay before us would at. one time carry, considering tl» nature of the enterprise, it was safe to say that all their heavy artillery was at one tame on the water in the smaller craft plyuag tv and fro. , ■, ■>• At the woTd of command, our whole Un» opened fire. „ „ . Totally unprepared for such a fire, their ranks (if such one could call tiiem) qmcJdy broke; the land forces ran to the shore; many of the boats, with their heavy loads, had sunk: two of the transports were in flames; those on one side of the river [ strove to unite their forces with the force* on the opposite shore, but the rude bridge which lay in between was quickly torn to pieces by the cannon balls that feu around. Divided as they were, our army outnumbered the part of the force on the southern side of the river. Those on the northern side commenced' to retreat northwards along the route they had traversed, but their ranks were broken and theie baggage and munitions of war destroyed. Th^ forces on the southern side continued to fight on until overwhelming losses forced them to surrender. Tharee of tfie transports had sunk ;. two more were in. flames ; one alone succeeded in making its escape. The remains of the force on- Uje noEth bank retreated north with greatly diminished cumbers ; but, in tne meantime, the eastern force had advanced Leaving s sufficient nranbeT only to guard the entrance from the coast, our whole army concentrated its forces on the country round the shores of the lake.

The adjoining provincial army had been informed of our action, and by superhuman efforts had sent considerable numbers of their men through the pass from, the plain country.

The eastern army of the enemy advanced to the attack. Flushed with our recentsuccess, our men advanced at the point of the bayonet. Both armies that day performed* feats of valour. The- enemy were fighting for conquest ; we fought for hearth and home. Slowly their ranks broke; fiercer pressed our attack, and when at length the sun went down, the force of the enemy was in full retreat to the eastern shores. Frustrated in the south and west, and fearing an attack from our combined provincial forces, the enemy made no advance on the City of the Plains. The invasion of the Southern Isle had failed !