Samoa-Born Soldier Returns to His Home.

Samoanische Zeitung, Volume 18, Issue 25, 22 June 1918, Page 4

Samoa-Born Soldier Returns to His Home.

His Experieeces at the Front. It the Battle of tie Sonne. Wounded at Messines. A cordial welcome is being extended to Private William Stowers, who, having been wounded in the German debacle at Messines, has returned to his old home in for a brief stay to recuperate. As will be seen from the record of his doings at the Front, Stowers encountered many trying experiences while in France. He was in the front line of trenches on the Somme and again to the fore at the Battle of Messines Ridge, besides doing much other useful work not recorded in the ensuing narrative. As a Samoa-born soldiei he has acquitted himself with credit to the land of his birth, and has proved himself as one of Britain's own. The wound he received at Messines was a severe one, his lower jaw being dislocated, eo that for weeks he was unable to open his mouth. Thanks, however, to unremitting surgical treatment, of which he speaks in the most grateful terms, he has emerged from a terrible ordeal without disfigurement, and hopes ere long to recover his normal good health. Though a son of Samoa, Private William Stowers was living in Auckland when the war began, having a period of seven years' service with Messrs. John Burns & Co. of that city, with whom he served his apprenticeship as an ironmonger. The record of this firm in its contribution of volunteers for the Front must be a noteworthy one, for in the vicinity of Messines, about a fortnight before the famous ridge fell before the assault of the Allies, no fewer than 45 employes of the firm, including William Stowers, met together and no doubt discussed the many sensational adventures they had encountered. With so many of their employes hearing the call, the firm arranged for their departure in three batches. Stowers' turn came with the last lot, and he went into camp on March 7,1910, as one of the Mounted Rifles. After three months' training he embarked with the 14th Reinforcements at Wellington on board Troopship 50 on the 7th June. He describes the voyage to England via Frernantle, Durban, and Capetown as both enjoyable and uneventful. A boxing tournament took place on board, in which Stowers proved his mettle by winning the gold medal as bantam-weight champion. 1 Short Stag in England. Plymouth was reached in the early days of August, from whence the voyagers entrained for Salisbury Plain. At this time men were being shipped across the Channel in large numbers as reinforcements for the great Somme offensive. Stowers' stay in England was a short one. He promptly volunteered, transferred to the 3rd Co. Ist. Batt. Auck land Regiment, and left for France only a fortnight alter his arrival in the Old Country. Landing at Boulogne, his regiment were drafted to the main base training camp, where in " The Bullring " they put in six weeks' hard training. Courses of bayonet fighting, bomb throwing, trench digging, extended order attack, route marches occupied the most of their time. A feature of strenuoua physical exercises he remembers with relish was the

climbing of a seven-foot wall, which had to be negotiated while carrying a full pack and with one hand occupied with rifle and fixed bayonet. Tie Battle of the Somme. Clearing out the Enemy. At the end of six weeks of this preparatory work, a long railway journey carried the troops near the scene of operations. This was followed by a two hours' march, which brought them to the supporting trenches just as night was tailing. Throughout the night they stood by, waiting for the order, " Over the Top." The line in f ron t of them had only just been t a k Pn Communicating trenches wereheing dug that night. Early in the morning, ;is dawn was breaking i fc no y made theh' way into the front lino. The enemy's front trench w as f,OO yards ahead. For a qua r t er of an hour our artillery shelly iem with terrific violence. The noise was deafening, the suspense barely imaginable. Then the barrage lifted, and over the top they went. How did it feel as he jum per l out into No Man's Land ? There was no time for feeling at that supreme moment. It was the preceding hours o{ waiting for the word that harassed the nervous sj'stem. The front line of the enemy met them with a heavy rifle fire. From the Germans' supporting lj nes af ]_ vancing waves were drenched with a storm of machine wnn bullets. But the rush went on Half way across, the rifle fire of thoir antagonists ceased. When the enemy saw the gleam of the bayonets they did not wait. Most of them had business elsewhere. The rest flung away their arms, threw up their hands and ran to meet the advancing Britishers, shivering with fright, and crying "Kamerad, Kamerad !" There was no work for the bayonet here. Digging In. Passing the line occupied but a few moments before by the enemy, our men sheltered momentari y midway towards their second line, waiting for the barrage to lift. Pushing on again, they took the second line with little resistance but many cries of " Kamerad !" Their objective was the third line, over a thousand yards beyond the starting mark. When this was reached they dug themselves in with furious haste, the machine sun fire from the enemy meanwhile being something terrible. Here they stayed until they wore relieved about 3 o'olock next morning, when they returned to the supporting trenches from which thev had started 24 hours before. They had passed through a nerve racking time; they were tired and thirsty ; Stowers says he was almost too exhausted to walk. After this trying experience the regiment entrained forEstairs, where thev rested two days, having a further three days' rest a* Laventie, two miles behind the front line. The order then came to move into the front line, where thev stayed for eight days, sleeping by day and standing to by night. Relieved from time to time, they occupied themselves at Laventie in this work for a period of two months. Scooting on No Han's Land. Dangerous Work oF Patrols.

By this time Stnwors was beginning to be regetried as an o d hand at the game, and at Fleubaix, the Rcene of operations, ho received his initiation into the wccitements of patrol work. His first experience of this hazardous employment nearly ended in disaster; his second actually did. Relating the first ad-vontm-e, ho says: " Just after dark

one night a corporal and six of ns went over to cross No Man's Land. Half way on to the enemy's line a flare rose up iramediatley above us. We dropped, but one of ns a fraction too late, with the result that we were spotted. The enemy promptly turned a machine gun on us. Luckily thete was a shell hole close by, and into this wc dropped. That machine gun played around that shell hole for the better part of an hour. By this time the ground all about was fairly churned up with bullets, but we lay close, an 1 at length we crawled away without, loss." In his second experience of patrol work the corporal in charge was taken prisoner—or more probably killed—and two others wounded. The enemy must have observed them soon after they went over, as the corporal, who was a few yards in advance of the rest, was suddenly surrounded without any previous warning of danger. A heavy lire greeted the rest of the patrol, who reached their own line by"devious ways, three men short. The two wounded men were brought in late the same night. Battle of Hessines Ridge. 1 Glorious Victory. Two weeks at Armentieres followed. Then Stowers found himself at Ploegstreet Wood, where the Britishers awaited the Messines " Stunt." On the Gth June, the night before the attack, the New Zealanders left at. 0 -p.m. for the Assembly trenches. They arrived there about 2 o'clock the next morning. For an hour or more on this march they wore their gas masks, as the enemy were shelling with gas shells. Their position was just in front of the village of Messines. Opposite, in the*distance, lay Messines Ridge, lined with the enemy In front of the ridge were the German foremost lines. Our men "ere waiting for the word. At 2.45 the whisper went round that " zero time " was fixed for 3 o'clock. A quarter of an hour later the critical moment 'had come. Without any warning the stupendous mine was exploded. " For an instant," says Stowers, " we were terrified. I thought the end of the world had surely come. The whole ridge was practically blown into the air ; the trenches shook for minutes after. Then we started to make headway under cover of the bat rage." There weie four lines of trenches in front At the first line a bullet struck Stowers in the leg, but at the moment, in the excitement of the time, he scarcely realised it. The first line trenches were almost empty. They met with no resistance. The second and third lines were taken without great difficulty. Their objective was the fourth. Droves of the enemy rushed to meet them, crying " Kameiad," others were making off down the slope. Tt was a regular root. Tn the third line, a comrade drew Stowers' attention to the puttee on his left leg, and only then did he realise that he hao. been hit. But he went on. The objective was talc m by (> o'clock, and the boys dug themselves in. In about fourteen hours from zero time they had achieved all their objectives. t Serious Wound. It was here that Stowers received the wouud that necessitated his return home. Two machine guns, afterwards captured, opened an enfilading fire, and Stowers was struck by a bullet which, ontorinir at the back of the neck, emerged just below the right ear, dislocating the lower jaw. He remembered nothing more until ho recovered consciousness in Camea Hospital, two days later. In tne

meantime tin; operation noes Hated by the injury hud heen successfully performed. Nevertheless, ho was six weeks in hospital before it was considered advisable to remove him to England, and four months before he was able to eat, When he was well enough for the journey he crossed the Channel to Walton on-Thames Hospital. Hero, an operation for removing an unsightly scar on his right cheek was performed, a piece of skin, taken from his leg, being grafted over the place ami all outward traces of the wound entirely obliterated. Altogether, with an interval of three weeks' furlough, which lie spent in Scotland, he was under surgical treatment at Walton for seven months, at the end of which time he was boarded and on the 24th December last year left Avonmouth for home. In Auckland he attended the hospital there for some time as an outpatient, and was then given leave to visit his friends in Samoa. On returning to New Zealand he intends resuming employment with his obi linn.