TO AND FRO IN FRANCE.

Colonist, Volume LVIII, Issue 14529, 5 October 1917, Page 7

TO AND FRO IN FRANCE.

NELSON SOLDIER'S EXPERI-

ENCES.

Private Saai E. Miller, in & letter from a hospital in Jinglund to Mr J. Brown, of Wjiinui street, Nelson, yives tiie following interesting accoiint of his experiences in France with the New Zealand Division: —'"We first went into aciio.'i in or near a town called Armontieros, Avherc wo stayed for about three months, losing 'several nmnj among them being by best mate, j Neiison by namo. He was killed instantaneously 1)>- a huge shell. That was in 1915. Well, after that we were sent to anoth-y part of the line many: miies away, to a place called Albert, where- you see the Virgin i.iary hanging from the church steeple, the remarkable result of a "bombardment. Wo passed on to a place called Fricourt, near Fricourt wood. Then we entered into tho Battle of the Somme. There it was mo saw life —or rather death in all directions. It was tho fierciest battle New Zealanders had been in. Menj guns., horse-s, waggons, were lying in all directions. Thousands of guns of all calibres were booming, and shells were bursting and screaming overhead, while up above the aeroplanes fought to the. .death, keeping the enemy from, observing behind our lines. 'JYLen iay dead tmci wounded in all the roads, and in many eases we were compelled to drive over them, thero being no time to bury them. The. noise was terrific at first, but one grew used to it. This lasted eight weeks, during our stay there, and when we left the battle was still raging, it was tho worst, time I have been through. These sights make one very careless. " You feel, Well, what docs it matter if I'm smacked now, or later en? That is the feeling, yet every time a shell bursts, near you, you duck for imaginary cover. That is where poor old Victor Sherwood iras killed. '.1 was with him a few hours before he was knocked out. Then we went back to Armentieres and villages, surrounding it, doing a little here, taking part in a raid there, stopping a countor-attack somewhere else, and aso on for some time, losing a few men all the While. Then good news came. We were to be taken out or tho line for a rest. This is what our rest was:—We were taken out of the line and trekked to a place called St. Om'er, ■ where we trained solidly ior three weeks, re hearsing tho battle that was to come, i.e., the Battle of Mes-sines. Every division that was to take pare in this advance had to rehearse it for three weeks, so that every man knew just what was wanted of hire. The training was carried out in sham tights. Then we were brought back into tho line, and went into action in front of tho Messinc* Kidge. On June 7tii the battle commenced. Such an uproar you cannot imagine. In the early hours of the morning of that date, a huge mine was exploded rigjit under the enemy's trenches, "blowing them clean eft the map. That was the signal for the guns to open up and they did too. Lord, I'll never foiget it. Fritz 'retaliated on onr artillery but though lie sent over thousands of shells, they failed to silence our guns. We had too many, which lie learned later, greatly to hw cost. His aeroplanes had a sad spui, too. lie didn't get a look in anywhere, and had to make himself -scarce from tho jump. At last Messines was ours; and all his counter-attacks wers chawed up. it was during this battle tliat I took ill, after having a fortnight of it."