ENEMY ATTACK DESCRIBED BY NEW ZEALANDERS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 14635, 19 June 1918, Page 3

ENEMY ATTACK DESCRIBED BY NEW ZEALANDERS.

SAN MATEO (U.S.), May 11. "Fritz came over the ridge of a hill m front. He was scarcely 100 yards away. He seemed to be m a kind of mob, as we found out after a human shield, m order to bring up his machine guns. Our rifles soon got hot—yet . he came on. Then our guns opened up. Dirt, rnei* and guns flying m all directions." / Dudley Cuthbert, sergeant m tho New Zealand Infantry, has written to his mother, Mrs. E. Cuthbert of this city, a description of the German offensive m its early days. Cuthbert was wounded m battle and wrote from a hospital m Walton-on-Thames, England. : "We went into a new sector m comparative quiet," he wrote. "Stood to all night, and at 5 a.m. .Fritz opened tip with a terrific bombardment. It continued all day, and all we could do was grovel m the bottom of our trenohes and soak our bolts m oil. It had been raining for two days and the trenches wore full of water. .

"One man every here and there kept watch for a half -hour at a time. We were soaked to the skin. No breakfast came up, so we chewed a biscuit and carried on. Some of our boys got wounded and died. We could not move them. No living thing had a chance under tho rain that came over at us; shells of every cilibre, bombs, trench mortars ; his aeroplanes hanging about all day giving directions to the artillery. "The day gradually wore on till 7 p.m. He came over at us. I will never forget the quiet way the machine gunner on watch said: *Here they come, boys.' We all got up "slowly, took our rifles and crouched behind the parapet. Then the Hun came.

"As soon as our guns silenced we ware ordered over the top," Cuthbert wrote. "So, with our bayonets at the' charge we tore up_ the hill, closely followed by boys carrying shovels and other tools. As I reached the top I was a bit m front. A heavy fire came from his machihe gun, but we tore on and took them, one after another.

"The Huns got scant mercy. The kumerad act was no use. Just as we thought, we had cleaned up everything, I threw down my rifle and measured out where we would dig m so as to have a good field of fire. I saw a clump of thistles and was going toward it when T heard the click of a Fritz M.G., and the next minute' I got one m the hip ne«r the groin." Cuthbert was awarded the Oroix de Guerre last December. He and a brother enlisted m the Now Zealand Rifle Brigade early m 1917.