WITH THE NEW ZEALANDERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3372, 30 October 1918, Page 17

WITH THE NEW ZEALANDERS.

FIGHTING IN THE OPEN. A MEDICAL HERO. GENERAL RUSSELL AGAIN DECORATED. WELLINGTON, October 21. (Special, from the Official War Correspondent.) October 15. There is a pause in the battle in this sector, and the enemy is feverishly digging in and wiring on the high ground beyond the Selle River. He is shelling the evacuated villages nearest his line, but is evidently getting short of ammunition. The Naw Zealandcra have made night-fighting their specialty, and this has resulted not only in the surprising of the enemy and the capturing of villages, but has saved many casualties, for the country here lacks cover, and any daylight advance is met with maohine-gun fire from houses, steeples, and high ground that command a wide field of firing. In one attack so great was the surprise that food in the German officers' messes was found half consumed or still in the cooking pots. In one locality we found a large French factory utilised as a horse hospital, with an operating room and very complete arrangements generally. Another factory, which had all the machinery removed, was at the time of our advance being used as a huge carpenters'" and metal workers' shop. We are the richer ior many tables, forms, chairs, and cupboards that the enemy had not time to burn or carry off. At another place sick and wounded horses, with Hun-like thoroughness, had their throat cut, so that they would not fall into our hands alive. Other horses, killed by a bomb or shell, had been bled and disembowelled, and their flesh was in the process of being cut off for human food.

Civilians tell tales of ill-treatment during their four years' bondage, . and become voluble in their descriptions of ill-treatment of British prisoners, who were insulted and beaten by their guards. For a long time the Germans have showed intense hatred of the British, and lately they have included the Americans in their category of vituperation. In Candry women had to work in factories for small wages, and their overseers even went the length of spitting tn their faoes when .they did not work 'to their satisfaction. Eventually their wages were claimed from the commune, so that they practically got nothing for their labour. They were paid in depreciated German paper currency, and the town was fined in a large sum prior- to the retreat. Recent fighting has been unlike anything we have experienced in this war. Our men have marched for miles across open country, fighting as they went. There is no sign of wire or trc-noh, save for a few hastily-dug mach'fle-gun pits, made with the object of holding up our advance. In one fight we had a battalion headquarters in sight, and our commander sat at the roadside with the telephones and his staff beside him in full view of all that was happening. His troops moved forward in artillery formation, by platoons, across the open country, taking advantage of the folds in the ground. The battalion staff was on horseback. One could see them galloping up to meet v company commanders, and the latter, also mounted, galloping back to give their orders to the platoon commanders. No time was lost, and the troops were continually moving forward. Jt was open warfare as detailed in the drill book, and in which our units had been trained during their short spell out of the line.

In most of this fighting both officers and rften did so well that it was difficult to single any individuals for special awards, but there is one moving incident that stands out in bold relief—the modest hero being a medical officer attached to an Auckland battalion. He was dressing the wounded in the open while tho-battle was proceeding. Owing to the exigencies of the situation there was no better place available for his regimental aid post, and with enemy shells bursting over the position he gallantly continued his merciful work. Casualties were many, and as the medical officers of adjoining units had been unable to get up he had for 36 hours to dress the wounded men ot three battalions as they streamed in to him. The wounded there were killed and wounded again while awaiting his aid. One shell blew a wounded man to pieces, bespattering his uniform; but, to all appearances outwardly calm, he went on dressing the wounded. In the trenoh close beside him a salvo blew a man's head off while he was dressing a wounded soldier, and he himself was badly shaken. Even this didn't cteter him, and English, Scottish, New Zealand, and German wounded continued to claim his attention. He organised stretcher parties, and had the severe cases carried down to a deep German dug-out in the vicinity. His own escapes were miraculous, for he worked continuously in grayo danger without sleep for a day and two nights October 17. His Majesty the King of the Belgians has awarded General Russell tho decoration of Commander of the Order of Leopold, with the Croix de Guerre. The ceremony ot investiture was performed by General Orthe, Chief of the Belgian Mission at British Headquarters, who stated that the King of the Belgians fully realised the remarkable generosity with which the people of New Zealand had subscribed to the Belgian Relief Fund. His Majesty also greatly appreciated the fact that tho division which General Russell commanded had won back the first Belgian town —Messines —since the Gorman invasion of his country. General Orthe added that his Majesty had watched with great interest the victorious career of the division both in Belgium and in France.