AWAITING GREAT BLOW.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume IV, Issue 960, 9 March 1917, Page 8

AWAITING GREAT BLOW.

ANZACS GREET WINTER SUN. SIR W. ROBERTSON'S TONIC. Mr Russell, Router's correspondent ai British headquarters in France, wrote the following article for the "United Service" on February 20:— "Sir William Robertson, the Chief of the General Staff, is credited with the remark, 'Whenever I want cheering up I visit the British front.' Living as I do permanently at the British front, I ought to be pretty cheerful, according to Sir William Robertson's formula, but whenever I want to court an outburst of higher spirits I go to see my old friends the Anzacs. wish who:;! I was at Gallipoli.

"Yesterday I indulged in tins tonic visit. The weather was cheerless, a bare thaw and a heavy grey mist combining to present the Somme landscape at its worst. But nothing which the most outrageous conspiracy of the thermometer and the barometer accomplishes damps the contagious cheerfulness of the warriors from down under. 'Gold? Yes. Blooming uncomfortable!' they admilted, and added immediately, 'The health of the A.I.F. is never better than during a hard frost.' Trench feet are scarcely known, and pneumonia and bronchitis not above normal. The explanation, surely, lies in the hardiness of the race, the excellence and sufficiency of 'grub,' the abundance of warm clothing, and the skill in applying the lessons of experience. Prematurely at Large. "The momentary appearance of the sun, dim and wan and watery, was hailed with merry derision. "One soldier remarked, 'lf that's the sun, it ought to go back until it's strong enough to be allowed out alone.' "Along the Anzac front the battle blazes up from time to time, with frequent and considerable spells of quiet. "There is much trench-mortar activity, of which preponderance is altogether on our side. The raiding species of warfare suits the Wallaby temperament, and is correspondingly execrated by the Boches. I found here, as everywhere on the west front, nowadays, the confirmed conviction that our army can go through the German lines whenever the time is opportune.

"The fighting east of Geudecourt in the beginning of February was the hardest of the year for the Anzacs, and was mainly sustained by the Queenslanders and New South Welshmen. In one attack these killed GO Germans in the onslaught and took 54 prisoners. In another the totals were 70 and 50. The enemy fought hard to retain his valuable tactical positions. But the most formidable of his counter-attacks was cut off by the Australian artillery and wiped out. Endless Bombing and Digging.

"There were fierce bombing contests, especially on the night of February 3. The Germans were always bombed out, and once an entire party was annihilated by a shower of hand-grenades. It was a great fight—or rather series of fights—in which the glorious motto, 'Advance, Australia!'-was realised. "There is much digging and improving of positions, and the pioneer battalions have advanced the road construction splendidly, and the great evil, mud, is being steadily overcome. "Every effort is made to beguile the tedium in and out of the trenches. Kinemas and canteens are run liberally, and football matches occur daily. "i am informed that the returning drafts are arriving satisfactory ind the new material is splendid. The Anzacs are training in every form of modern warfare. "Visiting the scenes of last year's great Anzac battles is an unfailing source of recreation to the newcomers, but the battle is becoming increasingly difficult to reconstruct, because Pozieres, Mouquet Farm, and the Windmill and Cemetery are now mere names, to which no material semblance is left to give meaning."