NEW ZEALANDERS ON THE SOMME BATTLEFIELD

Otago Witness, Issue 3275, 20 December 1916, Page 49

NEW ZEALANDERS ON THE SOMME BATTLEFIELD

MEN IN THE FRONT LINE. PREPARATIONS FOR A GREAT BATTLE. (From Captain Malcolm Ross, War Or respondent with the N.Z. Forces.) Divisional Headquarters, September 12. We arrived at our new Divisional Headquarters on Friday, September 8. That day and night, and the following day, the guns were very busy. The British were at tacking High Wood. Since I had witnessed the advance * at the beginning of July a great change in the position and in the landscape had been effected. Railways and numerous roads, along which the traffic poured in streams, had been made. From the forward observation post where, sitting in the green meadow amidst the poppies and cornflowers, I had watched the taking of Fricourt, the splendidly heroic advance upon La Boiselle, and the German barrage on our advancing troops between Mametz and the Fricourt Wood, one now witnessed quite a cheering scene. The rolling downs for miles ahead were now in our hands, and one walked in comparative safety along the roads or across the shell-pitted chalk-and-flint fields keenly interested in the shelling and the bewildering litter of tho Sommo battlefield. You could ride in a motor car to where the Rifle Brigade had established its headquarters in a German dug-out. that went'down into the bowels of "the earth. The villages had been blown to bits, and the slopes of tho valley were pitted with thousands of shells of varyingsize. Broken rifles, helmets, bayonets, barbed wire, smashed German railway trucks, and broken limbers littered tho ground and the roadside. Stagnant water filled some of the great craters made by the shells. A broken ambulance wagon, tilted on end, and a dead horse, indicated clearly that even the evacuation of the wounded and the transport of food and ammunition were attended with danger. And there were still grimmer sights that one does not care to write about. Some of our men digging down to improve a dug-out came upon five dead Germans. Our soldiers were everywhere walking about in the open and the transport passed along the roads in clouds of dust. The limbers were, bringing ammunition right up to the forward guns in broad daylight! At Montauban, only a few hundred yards from where wo stood, tho Boche 5.9 shells were bursting and sending up clouds of earth and smoke. One shell fell on a brick heap that was once a building, and a cloud of red dust mingled with the black smoke of high explosive. A little farther on flame-shells wore hitting the edge of the broken wood. With each one a great burst of red flames leaped skyward through the cloud of smoke. Tho men working on the road gathered up their picks and shovels and went slowly and quietly some little way into tho field beside the road. The traffic hurried past that spot a little quicker, but it did not stop. The marvellous sang froid with which everyone went about his business was truly amazing. A young officer with two gold stripes on his sleeve, indicating that tie had been twice wounded, was directing the traffic with no more, or perhaps less, concern that he would have done it in Pic-

cadilly cr the Strand. Our own shells wert whistling- and tearing overhead from howitzers and field guns, and we watched then} with great satisfaction bursting on the German position in High Wood and on towards Delville Wood. The Germans wore shelling <jur trenches in return, but they seemed to bo often just missing the trench. They also shelled the corner of High Wood that* was in our possession. Their b'g guns wers not speaking, and one wondered whether they wore taking them away. They had eight observation balloons up —the largest number for a long time past. There wero 19 of ours observing the Gorman line. Our* planes flying low went, across to the German lines, and the enemy balloons or tha greater number of them were quickly* hauled down. There, was not a single man plane in sight. As we came down a slopo below High Wood later in the afternoon our eyes smarted with the gas from( tear shells borne down upon us on tha wind. The smell was rather a pleasant ona. —somewhat like a combination of violet and lilac. There were other smells one felt inclined to hurry past. Over whole landscape was the haze that comes from the smoke and dust of battle. It wa4 like a painting scumbled with a light! bluish grey, such as artists sometimes usai to get the haze of distance.

ISEW 7EALANDERS IN THE FRONT LINE.

The Ist and 4th Battalions of our Riflf Br ; gade were the first to go into the front lino. They 'nannod a section of the trenches between High Wood and Delville Wood, known as the Trench Wood Lane. The Ist Battalion on the way up got into soma, shelling. They made light of initial losses, and that night they were sending patrol? out for 400 yards towards the Boche line\ Our men thought .the German line thinly held at this point. They were eaget to get to grips with the enemy, but very few. The enemy shelled our trencf in enfilade, apparently from Courcelette, but the shells fell mainly on one side ol the other, and did little damage. In front of wi was the well-known Gorman switch trench, on which the British had made ow* or two attacks. In front of this lino th< enemy had a shallow guide trench only 2{ deep, possibly as an indication to his nigh ; patrols as to how far they should venture. I walked up the slopes for some distance toward Delville Wood, and came upon ouij two communication trenches dupr by th* Maoris and the P'ngineers, Who had comt on some time in advance of the main They had done splendid work. The conv munication trench dug by the Maoris wat finer than anything to be seen in the neighy bourhood. The Pioneers and the Engineer* had not done ail this work without casual* ties

WONDERFUL PREPARATIONS. By this time even a novice unused to war must have surmised that we were on the eve of important events that, with ordinary luck, might lead to results of importance. The presage of impending battle on a large Ecale was in the air. It was beginning to infect the whole force, and the men were keyed up to a high expectancy. Their morale was. at the top of the curve. They might—probably would —suffer m large numbers. But it was an inestimable privilege and a high honour to be taking part with the gallant British and the brilliant French in a momentous undertaking 1 . At Armentieres we had all looked into the eyes of Death, but the operations there were minor operations. Here was the reaj thing come at last. Day arid night the rumble of the traffic past our camp seemed, ever on the increase. Guns and limbers were all heading one way—towards the front. And then more guns, and still more guns. One wondered when the procession would cease. Day and night the ammunition columns slaved with the shells. Piles of thousands of empty boxes in the great dumps and stacks of shells of varied calibre, from the thin, graceful 18-pounder to the big fat howitzer, lay naked in the sunlight waiting to be sent on towards the front. Away beyond the valley I saw the limbers in broad' daylight 'taking the shells right up to the gun emplacements. Some signallers and several of our runners near by were knocked out by a German shell. A man working in a quarry beside the road was struck by another shell. The great crater of a 9.5 had thrown the raw earth over the road, but such shclling_ on the part of the enemy was treated with absolute contempt. The traffic did not stop for a single moment/ In places where the sheila fell more thickly it simply hurried past a little quicker. Infected with the microbe of general unconcern, one walked calmly about in the open, scorning even the shelter of the excellent communication trench beside which ore walked. At times the tear gas made one's eyes smart, and one saw to it that one's helmet, with its rubberpadded eyes, was handy in case the poison gas came along. But one had to walk warily, for there were hidden dangers. Our own bombs and the enemy's, littered about the fields after the great advance, were still dangerous. One false step and you might be sent to kingdom come. The day before, a gunner who had trodden on one in the grass was already sleeping m his shallow grave.