WITH NEW ZEALANDERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3339, 13 March 1918, Page 16

WITH NEW ZEALANDERS.

March 4. Since my last cabling the New Zea«; landers have been enjoying a time of comparative quiet. So far as fighting is con-

cerned there has been one raid by an Otago battalion, carried out after a bombardment, by.one officer and 30 men. A post in the German lines was surrounded, and six Germans captured. At first the prisoners offered no resistance, but later one man. attempted to draw a revolver, and he was promptly shot. The going was very heavy, and before the party detailed to attack another post had got -within 30 yards of it the signal to return was put up. Some members of the party, however, went forward and threw bombs into the post before retiring. In another Otago battalion a plucky exploit was carried out by a non-com. and a private. . flaving observed some new work 50 .yards in front of *he enemy's line, they crawled outsat 9 in the morning to investigate. They found on getting close that it was an organised shell-hole. Pulling the shutter of a sniper's loophole aside they saw a number of rifles at the bottom of the cavity. They threw in two bombs, and after these had exploded jumped over the rim of the shellhole, and attacked five Germans sheltering there. One of these was killed, and two were wounded. The two New. Zealanders then marched back across No Man's Land with their four prisoners, two wounded and two unhurt, to their own lines. The daring nature of the adventure was exemplified by the fact that it was carried out in broad daylight within 150 yards of the enemy's mam position. For their bravery in the exploit Sergeant Basil Warner Crooker and Private Alex. MacDonald have since been awarded respectively the Military Medal and the Distinguished Conduct Medal. Recently our patrols have been going out in places to a depth of 1000 yards, arid in one locality our line was advanced several hundred- yards to-obtain better observation, "furious battalions have been doing excellent work in defence. During the last three .months the corps commander has expressed his special appreciation of this. Some officers' Barnes, including a general, recently appeared in the casualty lists. These officers were only slightly gassed, and are not at all serious cases. The majority of these officers will shortly return to duty. The New Zealanders are still having a quiet time.