A GREAT ANNIVERSARY

Otago Witness, Issue 3396, 16 April 1919, Page 53

A GREAT ANNIVERSARY

HOW i\i£W ZEALANDERS STOPPED THE HUN ADVANCE.

By R. Gilkison

Just one year ago Hindenburg was making his great and final attempt to capture Paris or the Channel ports. Russia having succumbed, all the great German army from the East was available. For months before the attack began the German troops received special training to enable them to follow up a successful assault, and legions of troops were being gathered behind the lines. Then on March 21 the storm broke. While many parts of the British line held on steadfastly, that portion which was occupied by the Fifth Army, under General Gough, was severely pressed, and before long broke, deluged Avith poison gas and storms of shells. In five days Hndenburg had recaptured Bapaume and Peronne and other country which had the/ year before been torn from the Hun only after six months' hard fighting. The Fifth Army was broken and scattered; the line was pierced, and the only hope lay in fresh reinforcements being pushed in. Up to this time the New Zealand Division had been about Ypres, a district sadly destroyed by years of war. On March 25 a new arrangement was made. Two Australian divisions, a division of Guards, and one of New Zealanders were sent to stop the gap. How our boys did their share is the ,story I have to tell. After a long journey by train they reached Amiens and were thence sent forward, some on foot and some on motor wagon. No one knew where the Germans were. The roads were full of French refugees flying from the Hun invaders, and carrying with them their children, pushing perambulators and barrows loaded with the household goods, while cows, calves, and dogs trotted along beside them. Every child was carrying a load according to his ability. Many of the people had small carts loaded witti salvage, and dragged by dogs. Some of these poor * people had undergone the same experience before when the Germans in 1914 advanced on the Marne. Portions of broken English battalions were also.met marching out, and great oonfusion reigned. At Mailly-Maillet and Auchonvillers our men came, into touch with the opposing forces. At the. former the Germans were marching "in headed by a ser-geant-major on a bicycle, evidently looking for billets for his men, when our advanced parties, marching in on the other side, turned machine guns on them, and drove them back. On that, first day (March 27) the Now Zealanders captured 40 prisoners arid 11 machine guns. Our nien were delighted the .chance given them of a fight in the "open. The district to which they had come consisted of beautiful rolling downs, dotted over by, many beech forests, full of primroses and strawberry blossoms. The villages were small agricultural ones. Some only had been shelled in 1916; others were as yet unswept by shell fire/ Our eoldiers were very thankful to be in such fine attractive country, away from the swamps and mud and devastated areas of Belgium. Heavy fighting followed on March 28. At first our men had no artillery, but General Fulton compelled some British gunners to accompany the New Zealanders and assist. Later on the New Zealand Artillery came up, having marched day and night to reach the line, and with their assistance concentrations of the enemy were broken up and destroyed , Our men had been hurried so rapidly into the gap that they had come without overcoats or blankets. The nights were often cold and wet, but the men were of a most magnificent spirit, and made light of all troubles. They took possession of the old trenches which had been made in 1916, and from that time on the gap was closed. Touch had been gained with other divisions on both sides, and the British line was again complete. On the 29th March General Fulton and Brigadier-major Purdy were killed by a shell. They were in a cellar in a ruined house in Colincamps, close to the front, when a shell exploded beside them. Major Pnrdy was killed at once. The General was not touched, but died of shell shock. Both are buried at Doullous, a few miles behind the line. It seems to me only a few years since I saw the 4th Contingent for South Africa,' with Captains Fulton and Harvey at its head, marching through Dunedin, and it seems a comparatively short time, too, since Harry Fulton was a bright, curlyheaded boy at the Dunedin High School find a member of the High School Fifteen, which used to play unequal matches against the first fifteens of the men's clubs. Ho served his country well, and died gloriously, doing his duty. On the 30th March the New Zealanders were sufficiently strong to be able to take the offensive at La Signy Farm, near Hebuterne. The Rifle Brigade, Wellington and Auckland Battalions, were sent to

gain a ridge from which better observation could be got, and in 10 minutes from the commencement of the attack the work was done. Two hundred prisoners and 120 machine guns were taken in that little "straightening of tho lino." On the sth April a very heavy attack was made by the Germans, but completely failed. The enemy sought to make use of old trenches in the field, but our men bombed them out of that and cut them to pieces in the open. The battle began with a heavy bombardment of the British lines by tho enemy, which lasted for four hours. Fortunately our men had improved tho trenches ere this, and fortunately, too, the German barrage just missed -the mark\ falling mainly between the first and second lines of trenches. Following the barrage came the battalions of infantry. A new reserve division had been brought up by the Germans to assist,* and a most mined attack was made, but the deadly .fire from the New Zealand lines mowed them down. Nowhere did the Huns obtain • footing in our trenches. Some of out patrol partieswere cut off, and a few wer* lost nt La Signy. It became evident thai' the farin could not be profitably held, an« the surviving defenders were called back-. One Rhodes scholar and his platoon were' surrounded, and made a hard fight of it. A bullet parsed through his steel helmet, and one of his men had the bowl of his pip* shot away, but calmly refilled what wu left. This gallant platoon was rescued) by a tank, several of which had now come up to our assistant. Broken and torn the Gorman battalions at last withdrew, slaving hundreds of dead strewed over the open outside our trenches and 126 prisoners.

We lost many noble fellows in these strenuous fights, but. it muet be a great satisfaction to their friends to know that they did not die in vain. They and their comrades held the line, and so saved not only the British army hut all civilisation. On the Bth May Dr Tolhurst and Padre Allen, of the 4th Battalion of the Rifle Brigade, were killed together. They wove ministering to wounded men who were in. a forward aid post in an old sugar faotorf near Cblincamps, when a shell entered the old building and killed both. The London Times correspondent dealing with the incidents described says:—"lt Jits been largely owing to the New Zealanders that the Germans during the last month have totally failed to make any progress in the Hebutcrne area. They tried again! and again, and every time they ha\e fallen off shattered from the New Zealanders' defence, and in counter-attacking the New Zealanders have several times flung the enemy back to his positions with very 1 heavy casualties." I have described how the New Zealand Division stopped the onslaught of the advancing Hun, and it only remains to add that it never lost a foot of ground or left its position until the time came for the great advance on Bapaume In July and August last.