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Timaru Herald, Volume CXL, Issue 20260, 8 November 1935, Page 12

The seventeenth anniversary of the capture of Le Quesnoy by the New Zealand Forces fell on Monday. The attack was part of the big push in the closing stages of the Great War, which culminated in the capture of Mons and the acceptance of armistice terms by the Germans a week later. The first New Zealanders to enter Le Quesnoy, according to official records, were Second-Lieutenant L. C. L. Averill, a son of Archbishop Aver ill, and Second-Lieutenant H. W. Kerr. The New Zealanders stormed Le Quesnoy, which was fortified by ancient ramparts, but were prevented from storming the keep of the fortress by machine-gun fire. The German commander rejected a verbal summons to surrender, and the New Zealanders pressed forward cn the flanks and broke through the enemy lines. Over 100 guns were captured, and they forced the ramparts and captured what remained of the garrison.