GERMAN PRISONERS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 866, 18 November 1916, Page 11

GERMAN PRISONERS.

j NEW ZEALANDERS ON THE SOMME. SOME SUBSIDIARY SERVICES. | From the New Zealand Official War Correspondent.] SOM.MI: BATTLEFIELD, Sept. 2i\ For a full day and night now the I guns have born beating the air with that unceasing pulsation that was our constant wonder early in .Inly, and that in mid-Sept ember we heard again with renewed wonder akin to awe. It must have been a very long day ami night for the enemy. What it is all about . we do not exactly know. We are too; near the front. The nearer yon are to the front the less news you get, and the later you are in getting it. Hut ' you see more and hear more, though I what you see cannot altogether be recorded for enemy information. ami what you hear is largely inarticulate. I We can tell from the direction of the. I sound that this bombardment is not on our sector —"up Thiepval way"' is i the nearest we can get to it. The German prisoners marching down on the ' roads hear it and seem to pause in j their march, pondering. When we are j really ready and the guns begin to ; ■ hum instead of pulsate they will be- . come very thoughtful. There is one other , thing that should give them food for , reflection, it is being marched down by a few Tommies with fixed bayonets along the roads they know so well and through country in which for two years they have lived almost undisturbed. , Along the roads over which their guns i and ammunition and food used to come our guns and ammunition and food are now going. They are aide to see with their own eyes the great war machine of the British Empire moving slowly but irresistibly onward. But a few days ago 1 marched beside a smart young officer begloved and wearing a well-cut overcoat of horizon blue, on through Mametz and past Fricourt. This was country every inch of which lie knew, country that with its trenches ami forts and dug-outs and wire he thought impregnable. Yet in a few • weeks he had been pushed back miles j beyond it all. It was no wonder that , he looked neither to the right nor to the left, but marched straight on, busy i with his own thoughts. Captured by New Zealanders. Amongst these are prisoners captured by the New Zealanders. And very ' ready they were to put away the rifle ! and the grenade. In Flers and vicinI ity in one day the Kifle Brigade eaptui* j ed over 400 prisoners. These men were all very much shaken by our shell fire, and they were glad to surrender. i They saeniod to have been fairly well | rationed, ami they had good cigars and i cigarettes. There is apparently a " raition'' cigar for the German troops. i Many of the German soldiers carried | in their packs two bottles of soda , I water. For a day or two the victorious 11 New Zealanders had more than enough to eat and drink and smoke. There 11 were of course plenty of souvenirs to I be had for the picking-tip; helmets. j bayonets, binoculars, expensive automaI tic revolvers, and a few very excel- | lent periscopes that must have cost anything from £2O to £:SO. Often a prisoner would offer a medal or a watch or firing to a man to propitiate him. One .'German offered his Iron Cross. Geni erally, the German soldiers seemed snr t ; prised that they should l>e so well •! treated by British troops. They were I Bavarian regiments that were oppos- ' j ed to us here, and though these troops 'jare said to be among the best lighters j in the German Army, our men who J i made the victorious onrush from the j crest of the ridge across Hues of Ger- ; man trenches into and beyond Flers | ha<l the utmost contempt for them as ! opponents when it came to close combat. As a rule they either held up their hnnds or ran. Many of our men | who took part in fighting afterwards said to me that it was like shoot-' ing rabbits. In later stages of the j fighting however, the Germans fought gamely, and positions were only won: and held at considerable cost. But on I no occasion was the valour of the Xew j Zealanders unequal to the task that had been set them. Machine Guns Captured. During the first few days of the fighting we captured a number of ma-1 chine guns, rifles, bombs, and ammu-1 nition. Amongst the machine guns our j men brought in was one that had been : captured by the Germans from the j French in the earlier stages of the war. This gun the Germans had converted ; and were using against us. We shall now be able to hand it back to its ori- j ginal owners, or perhaps, if the author!- I ties permit, take it back with us as an ; interesting souvenir to New Zealand. 1 I Stretcher-Bearers and Runners. I have already referred to the excel-! I lent work done by our doctors. Three j of the latter were wounded, and two. including a well-known North Island sur- j I geon, were killed. This surgeon had j gone out to an advanced position where; there were a considerable number of I wounded belonging to the Hides. Practically all these had been got in, and j the doctor was having a look round to ' see what more could be done, when he ; was severely wounded by a bursting' shell. He received every possible attention, and was conveyed to the New , Zealand Stationary Hospital at Amiens, where he died —a loss fo the Force and I to Xew Zealand. His brother-doctor, fell at the same place where he was hit. Our stretcher-bearers, as they always do, worked heroically. They were the' first our, and they had to carry their wounded a long distance uphill through' j a shell swept zone. They never for one; i moment spared themselves, and quite a j number were killed and wounded in I their gallant efforts to save the lives of j t heir suffering comrades. A* a rule, one hears little praise of the runners, and the work is a little apt to lie overlooked. The intensity of the shell-fire in these later day battles makes ii <iuite impossible at the start to obtain communication by wire with the front. land often the lines already in existence ' | up to the forward position before an attack are shot away by the enemy's 'shelling. I'nder such circumstances Communication can be obtained only ! b\ runners. There is never any lack of 'men for (his dangerous work. Wearing I shorts, and with yellow barn!- en their tunic sleeves, they hop out of a trench and sprint from shell-crater To shell crater, bearing back news to battalion lor brigade headquarters as to how tht ■light is going, or what the position is. Tin y arc killed and wounded, but often the wounded persevere, and in some instances they have struggled on and delivered their messages, and then drop ped from exhaustion oi loss of blood or both. As in the ca--e of the stretcher ! bearers, their work is hard ami their ; bravery unexcelled. Men of the Ififles j have assured me that on one occasion I the Germans deliberately fired o:i our stretcher-bearers with a n:a< hi'ie gun. jOne stretcher-bearer made six join I'eys. •oing twelve times through the German

shell fire, and then collapsed at the end of his last journey. It needs a mad j with iron nerve to stand such a severj strain. Canteens and Y.M.C.A. In a previous article I referred to the excellent work done by the officer who lis running the canteens for the Xew ; Zealanders. and also by the Y.MxCA. This excellent work has been continued on the Homme battlefield, and is greatly appreciated. There are two canteens here, one established well forward Under shell fire. Our own and the enemy's shells scream over it day and night, and <•!! almost every occasion on which 1 have passed it there has generally been a queue of waiting purchasers there. The New Zealanders get [•reference, but when their wants are supplied the British Tommies also get a chance of which they are only too glad to avail themselves. It is. I believe, the nearest canteen to the front. The Y.M.C.A. tent is also popular. Here the men get tea. cocoa, and coffee, and very excellent English cake, which conies enclosed in tins. Several of the New Zealanders who were lightly wounded in the Somme fighting soon made their way back from the Convalescent Camp to the more comfortable quarters anil generous treatment of the Y.M.C.A. tent a few miles nearer the front from which they had been sent. The Transport. The splendid work done by our first line transport under tremendous difficulties was the admiration of all who were privileged to witness it. When it was at its worst owing to weather and shelling, 1 watched for a time a young Waifarapa sheepfarmer, who now wears the D.C.M. ribbon, straightening it out. One night the road at one place looked something like pictures of the retreat from Moscow, only that there was no retreat, and everything that could move was still going forward. I have reason to know myself what the shelling in that particular corner was like. The scene was one for the painter with the brush rather than with the pen. though I the former, like the latter, would have !to put a restraint upon his efforts at realism. The vile weather that we experienced about that time made the straightening out of the trouble all the more difficult, but the young sheepfarmer was asked if he would do it again another night. And he did it. At the moment of writing the difficulties have been largely overcome, and in a little while others will be taking up the work at a more satisfactory stage.