LIGHT HORSE IN FRANCE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 14647, 3 July 1918, Page 9

LIGHT HORSE IN FRANCE.

FRENCH APPRECIATION

(Commonwealth OflJcial Correspondent.) LONDON, June 19. With the majority ■' of Australian mounted troojte m Palestine, people are apVto forget. the, piieepnce of a few Australian' Light Horse, i^i Trance frequently operating apai-t from the Australian infantry divisions. j Some of ; these Light Horse anil Xew! Zejvlandl Mounted Rifles and New Zea- ! land Cyclists played a- considerable part I as infantry t,h e heavy- fighting] last month, near Kemmel and Dickebuscli. They earned praise from both their British , and :■: Fiencli •: comrades for! their gallant conduct, first through the! heavy. preliminary shelling of Kemmeil • Hill, w,here,Fj»nch cavalry later \ them, and af|er wards m, tlie fr<»ht line, ; near Vormezeele, allongsidie the South -, Africans and other gafiant infantry of tlie 19th Division. Many British Tom- \ mies. who r lost all their officers, attached j themselves to the Australians, and for ! many critical days common hardships' and dlangers were magnificently born*, i Some of the British soldiers brokV down ' and wept like children iwhen they separ- ' ated from, the Australians. ' I .Many little groups 1 of colonial and) British troops fought during those days ( a-t the end of April, under the severest j strain, overwhelming numbers of . tilue '. Gertmuii army, ..till support arrived. The ' Australians tell how the gunners of one : En^Msih battery, beaten from, their guns, I retired, organised their own counter- ! attack ; with. rifles-, and recaptured their: «P horses, and took out the whole battery. / , : i "Frendi cavalry relieving. British l^em- ' nanta on Mount Kemmel rode theii* horses up to the very foot of the hild m the most •daring .fashion," says 1 an Australian infantry officer attaohedf to the Light Horse. Wfien. tflie enenty. finally took the hill, Kemmel was lib "longer tenable. The enthusiasm of the French cavalry-men, on finding Australian and New Zealand' Light Horse beside them, was unibounded. , t The Ldglhlt Horse a few days later went up to the front line at Vormezeele. It was a most threatening position. Tlie enemy was massing for a further attack,; and there was a dangerous position! iin ' the British line. The 19th Division, on the left, which fought heroically in' the St. Quentiu battie, and had found itself again involved at Messines, sti.il reso- ! lutely held the line with muah-dimiiM'sh- { ed battalions. They were unfeigned] v ! glad W see tlie little body of Australian 1 trqppera yid^flg lip, which thtey 1 did in 1 mounted column, although tlie whole district was bare of any shelter »?•*! troops, and the enemy bomibaa-dlmeiit had transformed it into an absolute desert.) 'Tl^e^wpr'alians dfiig 'jai ,oju the edge of i\ wood/ the site ofva famous camp well known to their countrymen (infantry), with the Scots on their left. They received, on the afternoon of April &6, a heavy attack by massed German infam- *?£* , Tlie, thin li^e ■ .^as^ted. ,;by .^rt^l^ry,, completely amasljed' the Huns' effoffij which continued . unceasingly for 90 minutes, and was called) off after the Germans had sufferod the bloodiest losses. ..'. j. Two day^ lajer.the Germans again attempted ;to k?e*s %oUg|^; tl% : .vital part of the" line, opposufe tlie' Light Horse. .They attacked with a fresh division' m a slight mist. . The Germans, not knowing the country, gradually assembled m little groups, closer to rt .our 'line/ whioh did not fire;". wLevery /available machhieguii), Lewis &nn\ and vifle was . mbumtocl oil the parapet, hicludihg captured German guns. .-Then, when the enemy was coming on, evidently ignorant of the exact, position:, and arrived -at close range, the . wihdLe line opened up m a blaze of fU'«. The shock to the Germans was so terrible and^ deadly that they oquld not be said to have attacked at a11. . ' .'■>