NEW ZEALAND GUNNERS

Taranaki Daily News, 11 July 1929, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND GUNNERS

IN PLOEGSTEERT WOOD. A STORY OF THE WAR. On the second day of the German offensive in Flanders (10th April, 1918) our line in front of Ploegsteert (“Plugstreet”) Wood was forced to retire, writes “Signal” in the Daily Mail. The 6th New Zealand Battery of field howitzers was in action in the wood, and when, at 6 a.m., the order was given for all batteries to withdraw it seemed impossible to get the howitzers out of their pits. So the New Zealanders were told to fight to the last round, and then disable the guns xnd get away if they could. Since 2.30 a.m. the battery positions had been heavily bombarded, and many men were killed and wounded. There were only enough left to send out one Lewis gun in an endeavour to hold off the Germans from the flank section in the southern half of the wood. When the enemy was reported in Ploegsteert village an attempt was made to get these two howitzers away. One was withdrawn from its pit, only to stick fast in the mud; the other was turned completely round and used to shell the Germans out of Butler’s House, a building on the Ploegsteert road about 500 yards south of the well-known “Hyde Park Corner.” Then it -was manhandled on to a tramway line, - but the German fire was so fierce that no team could get near it. The New Zealanders were very reluctant to abandon their howitzers. At the main position one had been destroyed by a direct hit, and another was surrounded by boggy ground and could not be moved. The third was run out on to the nearest road with the assistance of some British infantry; but here again no hoiues could approach under the heavy machine-gun fire of the enemy. It was about noon, and the Germans were practically all round them, when the New Zealanders, having expended every round of ammunition at the gun positions, removed dial sights and breech-blocks and came away. A small “rear-guard” even remained until the late afternoon.