WITH THE NEW ZEALANDERS.

Colonist, Volume LX, Issue 14546, 26 October 1917, Page 3

WITH THE NEW ZEALANDERS.

ON THE EDGE OF THE GREAT BATTLE.

NEW ZEALANDERS STORM LA

BASSE VILLE

HAND-TO-HAND FIGHTING

f'From Malcolm Ross, ""War Correspondent witli N Z. Forces m the Field.)

• ■ August sth. lho story of the capture of La Basso Vilje by the New Zealanders is worth telling in detail, for though the forces engaged were not very numerous 'there was some bitter fighting, and deeds of heroism that redound to the credit of the junior officers, n.c.o.'s and men were performed with the same disregard of great danger that has been a characteristic of' the majority of our men in all the battles and trench fighting in which they have taken part. In front of the new position-taken up by the Force, to the south' of Messines, .on low land, only some sixty or seventy feet above sea level, lay the ruins of the little village. It had probably, three years ago, housed the workers and their families who .were mainly employed at the sugar refinery that had become a strong point in the German defences. In ■ front of the village, going' northwards; ran _~ the old Armentieres-Menin single line railway, and jr-st in front ofi that again the Quesnoy-Werv icq road, • which, cut through the town of Warneton. Not many yards beyond that the winding Lys meandered through the fertile Flanders lands, with' their avenues'and clumps-of beautiful trees.

A NEW WARFARE. It seemed as if we were at last getting away from the stalemate of absolute trench -warfare. On. this front neither army had now any continuous line. of. trenches ..in their forward positions. Posts were established in shellholes, broken buildings, hedgerows. .The men holding the front lived uncomfortably in th© open. There were affairs between patrols, mostly in the fields. There was scope for initiative and daring. Day and night the positions were heavily shelled by guns of various calibres. Gas shells were mixed with higb explosive" shells. The machine-guns in the night watches searched for victims in the Any-Man's-Land that, for the. time being, had taken the place of No-Man's-Land. The fertile, fields were pittde. with shell holes 'and; cumbered with broken wire. The fii:st real defences of the Germans were behind the railway. Behind that again Avas ih© barrier 6f the Lys, with its broken bridges- purposely ■ destroyed by the enemy to .bar our iurther progress. "Wheri the enemy wished to come our way le-came in the night, crossing in 'boats. In one or two places he had precarious floating bridges, built of timbers lashed to barrels with rope. In the southern end of our sector v;e had driven the enemy right across the Lys. Farther to the north he still held positions on our side of the river.

By day, in his camouflaged shellholes, he lay. doggo. "No man may show himself by day." So ran a German order. By night the plucky patrols crept out, shooting at each other in the moonlight on occasions when they met. There was always danger that they might be cut off ana captured by a superior force, that they might be wiped out altogether. Flares that lit the landscape blazed;in the sky at uncertain intervals, making the men lie motionless, wishing that they could shrivel to the size of mice, feeling that they were the size of elephants! At times the enemy would send up his red rockets; that burst into two red balls of light, or fire a rocket that showered a golden rain—evidently signs for his artillery to fire. Shells -of various calibres, gas _ shells, apd gas 'bombs' came screeching and whistling into our front, support, and subsidiary lines, On occasions our own S.O.S. would climb the voul. and our own artillery would reply -vigorously, staving off counter attack,, and silencing, or at least modifying, the enemy barrage. The enemy had other pyrotechnics at hand, amongst them yellow flares that' burst in yellow stars. His planes flew j as low as 100 ft. Often,' however, they came to grief. Sometimes they flew over our lines and dropped a long streamer of the German colours to the end of which! was sewn a weighted cloth envelope. And in the envelope j would be a list of our air casualties I and prisoners, neatly printed, within, a black border. Our airmen did the like by him, for the airmen on both sides are sports. They are out to kill or capture, but not to hate. This sporting spirit of the air services is one of the pleasant features of the war. ■ Once some prisoners told .us that Baron Richthofen, one of their famous fliers, had been shot down with two bullet wounds in his head., by an English aviator, but that he had landed in a field and had been taken to a hospital.' In this Any-Mar.'s-Land there was, naturally, much sniping. j

. THE-FLAME THROWERS'. In one local attack, the enemy used rus flammenwerfer, manned by men from the Divisional Strumtrupp." Some men in one of our posts suddenly saw a brilliant light flashing in front of them, t A stream of fire shot out. Ihey just had time to get away before the -..burning liquid fell. They were dazzled by the flame, which/appeared to be sprayed along the trench, and they could not see anything behind it. But just before the flame ,was directed at them they saw two Germans, who threw bombs at them. They retaliated with grenades. Then the Germans threw smoke bombs, and immediately the flame burst forth from a distance of twelve or fourteen yards. But our men rajme back -and reoccupied the1 post. They fov.nd. it blackened on the sides and bottom for a. distance ol about forty yards by a tarry substance.

LA BASSE VILLE—THE FIRST FIGHT. j The first attack on La Basse Ville was made on the night of 27th: July by men of a Wellington Regiment. 'Not) many men were employed. The attack was made at 2 a.m., under cover of an artillery barrage. There had been several previous bombardments, so that

when this one commenced the enemy did net anticipate an attack; and wero taken by surprise. Once roused, the Germans fouglit^stabbornly, but they were driven from the' village, and the New Zealanders established four advanced posts on the outskirts' of tho broken houses.

The enemy, howover, suddenly coun-ter-attacked with reserves that had been in hiding in tho Warneton cellars, and our men were driven back fighting gallantly all the'time. ■ Tho enemy were enabled to advance under cover of hedgerows, clumps of trees, and scattered buildings, the low visibility that prevailed at the time preventing our s.o.s. being seen by the observers. Thor.gb ouivown men did not get back w ithbut casualties, they also • inflicted severe casualties on the enemy, and took some prisoners from, the 29th Regiment of the 16th Bavarian -Division.

Some brave deeds were done in 'tHs fight. A private belonging to one of the machine-gun sections, when all with him were knocked out, fought his Lewis gun against a,party of between forty and fifty oncoming Germans until they got vithin bombing distance of him. By this time his gun was disabled, -but he .managed to retire and brought the disabled, gun back with him. - Another man. fought his Lewis gun. till the last drum, was emptied. •The'•.Germans'-Jn'the ruins of the sugar refinery were firing, a. machine.<-g«n°on our nieii,. and a private, when'all the men in. thernachiue-giYu crew, with him were killed, attacked, single-handed, the enemy machine-gun crew, killing them all with his gun and the bombs he,had available. • Jn the cellars of tho rained buildings in the little village some Germans' sought shelter, but a New Zealand corporal led several bombing attacks against them, and, with sheer dash and bravery, managed to capture, fourteen prisoners. Some of our men, though wounded, earned o» as long as possible.

• On the night of 28th July, at 9.40 p.m. 5 a heavy barrage fell on and behind, one of our posts1, which was attacked by about sixty of the enemy, who were, however, dispersed by rifle and machine-gun fire. At about halfpast ten a patrol of fifteen were seen coming down a track, and on being fired on by the New Zealanders they fled, leaving eight killed. These men belonged to a Bavarian regiment, and were of a fine. type. They carried neither bayonets nor eqtiipment, but each man had a rifle, and in his pockets twenty rounds v of small arms ammunition. The two front men carried stick bombs.

The German main defences against this attack were behind the railway. We learnt subsequently that our barrage had; struck the enemy very; heavily at one point. One company had no fewer than forty casualties, mostly killed. A company commander was killed by their own artillery shooting short. Their counter-attack was launched with two companies from the reserve battalion. Their attack on the night of the 28th was made by regimental sturm-trupp, with the object of improving the main position by pushing their outposts farther forward. It did not succeed, and the casualties were severe. Generally, their orders were to hold the front'position, and to counter-attack if they were driven back. This they did, and for a time succeeded, but the New Zealanders came at them again, won the village, and held it against all further attacks.