THE NEW ZEALANDERS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 14571, 5 April 1918, Page 3

THE NEW ZEALANDERS.

IN THE GREAT BATTLE. A WAR OF MOVEMENT. (Special Cables from thfi N.Z. War Correspondent.) March 27. The New Zealanders are now m the great battle. They were keen to take part m it, and one unit, when told they were to trek south, received the announcement with cheers. To-day I have been watching the different units concentrating. The men look well and are keen and m good form and spirits, though rather tired with marching. They look forward to some, good shooting amongst the. oncoming masses of Germans. Later : Our men have come m contact with the onemy, and, so far, have been successful. They have already taken prisoners and killed and wounded others. We are right m the biggest battle m the world's history. It is a war of movement such, as we have never yet seen. Everyone is keen, and interest is intense. So rapid are our moves that I have, little time for writing pt present. Even the divisional headquarters staff have been snatching brief intervals of sleep and food when they can. Scarcely anyone has had his clothes or even his boots off for three days and nights, but everyone is cheerful and hard at work. Already much has been accomplished. The difficulties of concentration were rapidly overcome. Our troops filled a gap and established a front line without any loss of time. Indeed, m our own limited sphere, tee have achieved a triumph of rapid organisation. Some of the .units marched 24 miles, and after only a brief spell, lying out on tjie cold ground without blankets, went straight into action. Not only that, but they have beaten the enemy back from advanced positions that he was. endeavoring to hold by machine gun's and rifle fire. , *- , - : When our men got to close quarters with th^ enemy at one place he ran for his life, except where he had strong points with machine guns. Yesterday the New Zealanders captured over 40 prisoners and 11 machine guns; Prisoners state that they were told that after they advanced 15 kilometres they woitld be withdrawn, and , they were going eyes out to do the distance m quick time, and had already done ten kilometres when they, bumped up against the New Zealanders. Then the promise made to them was fulfilled, , and they were withdrawn, but not to ! the German side of the line. •Since then other prisoners have been trickling m. An hour ago I passed between 30 and 40 coming through a village, that was oven then under shell-fire. Some of the prisoners are sturdy fellows and a few mere boys. Whenever they > had machine guns, theenemy fought determinedly. " ; March 28. There are strange scenes along the country roads— streams of army traffic and villagers hurrying away with, their lares ivnd penates on .carts,- on' wheelbarrows, on "perambulators, or even on a pole cai'ried between two persons. They aro 'mostly " old women, old men, and children. Rome of the incidents would be laughable were they not so pathetic. Yesterday there passed us nn old man driving a. cart. In' the cart was' a calf and "'anold woman. Tied to the. tail of the ■' hartwas a oow and tied to the tail of tbo cow was a, dog, all marching slowly m the line of guns and lorries and limbered waggons. Never before m war have the New Zealanders seen anything like it. To give some idea of the change from tr^nclv warfare, I may mention that this morning* on going out to the front with staff officers, we almost drove our motor cai 1 into our artillery barrage that barred the way to the village we weremaking for. We turned on to an open field, and reached the village by another road just as two shells "burst". right m the centre of it, Shells were bursting m other villages through which we drove, but traffic proceeded without halt. y. As we got back to headquarters n shell landed on tho; voad' Nearby, wounding a passing Indian, who matched calmly on wjth a limp arm "arid tne : contents pouring from, his water-bottle. On our return we found that the New Zealaftdexs -had "been attacked at noon, but ' the . 'attack was; gallantly beaten off v and our men stood their groiind -unflinchingly. It was the barrage- 'for this we nearly drbve into. Further attacks are anticipated and m war it is never safe to predict, but the indications are that the enemy may sti'ike a snag if he does come on. Generally speaking-^-I speak only of our own limited section— the position has been greatly improved upon what it was two days ago. One thing we are all agreed upon — war of movements is certainly a most interesting war. Having advanced to fill a place m the line, the New Zealanders established themselves on a front and were ready to attempt to stem the Germans rush m that particular section. Too >much praise cannot : be accorded our troops for what, m the first instance, they have accomplished under exceptional difficulties. After a long railway journey they came — some by motor ' transport and some on'- foot — a. distance to the concentrating point. Thence they marched further miles straight into the firing line, and were almost at - one© engaged 1 with the enemy; In" eonae instances they did -this without practically any rest, proving their- great * endurance and in-domitable.-spirit* '■-,-.-"- ■' Yesterday: the enemy attacked our line at two places. In each instance the onslaught was met .with unflinching' courage' and the enemy- driven off with loss. Last night one of our jinits was again at close grips with the enemy, who;advanced bodily, and established himself m a small section of our line; This ; morning between five and six o'clock the artillery on ouf front came into action m order to stave • off other threatened attacks. Apparently this bombardment had. the desired result, for tlie enemy 'did'not come on and any con- 1 centration he may have had m the area must have suffered severely, for m this open country cover is scarce. : Oiir own artillery performed' a notable feat. After marching between 30 and 40 miles they went straight into action and Were shooting the same 'dayl Tanks rendered material assistance as Iwe were taking up our line. At the moment we seem: to have gained a. slight mastery over tlfe enemy but further attacks on the liT>c,ori his part may be expected. •. ' , Tho long spell of fino weather winch has favored the attackers has now broken, with a cold wind and rain. April 2. "Warmo.it congratulations upon your fin© success of yesterday," runs a telegram from another divisional commander on the battlefront to the ceneral commandmir the New Zealand division. Congratulations have also been received from army and corps commanders with whom we had previously been fighting. At present our front is comparatively q-uiet, but our roll of prisoners and maclvne guns is steadily increasing. Tlie King, while m the battle zone the other dayf saw the New Zealand reinforcements marching itp. Our whole force is m good health.