THE NEW ZEALANDERS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12407, 27 August 1918, Page 5

THE NEW ZEALANDERS.

TROOPS IN ACTION. excitlnc EXPERIENCES. (Special from tho Official War Correspondent.) August 24. Though tho present battle has interfered somewhat with our education scheniCj lectures in connection therewith. are being daily given within sound of tho guns. Arrangements have also been made by tho Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, with various 1 aimers and owners of stock, whereby officers and men on leave can visit and inspect farms and stock in Scotland. August 23. This moruing, at half-past one, ordinary time, the attack launched on Au-gust-1 Ljy General Byng, after a comparative lull for one day, broke out with renewed intensity. It was a brilliant moonlight night', and ’planes ummed above, while artillery, thundered below. Following a splendid bar- ‘ go "went infantry iroui several divif°" s - bulgado still represented New Zealand, though another battalion relieved the one that had alioady taken a sucessful part in tho advance. * fZf Q con J? nu f to hold our narrow K!! 10 At } Cra a T d the defensive ir ,r W ' n£h to join -lip with the British division that had trouble with a strong point known as tho Beauregard Dovecote. It was decided that the Dovecote must fall this moruing, and while the English were attacking it our men advanced due east between the Dovecote and tho village* of Irles. from across the Aucre came a lot of machine-gun fire, and our men suffered some casualties, but these were really light Only two companies were concerned in this affair. Fighting at night always makes it difficult to stop on the exact objective, and our men, in their keenness, wont at least four hundred yards farther than' they need have gone. However, having gone so far, they decided to hold on to the ground gained, and a difficult situation aroso m consequence. At daylight they found themselves sitting in a valley, with the enemy commanding their position from a ridge, very much like Cheluvelt, as was the case during the light for iolderhoek Chateau last year. Then J t was ascertained that there was another attack to’ be made at eleven o clock m this immediate vicinity, and that their position was two hundred yards inside the area on which the barrage was d\je to come down. It became a caso of crawling out under Geiman machine-gun lire, or remaining to be shelled by friendly artillery. As soon as the position was known n messenger crept back and succeeded in getting word to the advanced brigade headquarters, so that the barrage, winch was; now unnecessary for this in ,S roimd * ' Vfis stopped in time. Ihns all ended well and the New Zealanders, at small cost, had gained a depth , of seven hundred yards on a frontage of eight hundred. In (the operation that commenced at eleven o clock one company from the same battalion, advAncfcd and cleaned out the Germans, who wore occupying the valley of the Ancre, immediately north of Miramont. Some nests of enemy machine-guns were mopped up, prisoners were taken, and the operation was quite successful. '

To-day the heat -was tempered by a breeze, but it was uo uncommon sight to see New Zealanders stripped bare to the waist and being gradually browned by the sun as they were on Gallipoli. Everywhere I found the men in the best of spirits. The fine weather is certainly in favour of a quick advance. The battlefield provides • many interesting sights. Transport, both mechanical and horse, goes forward in the closest of dust, and batteries are shooting from the open, while others are moving well forward. The ISew Zealand artillery is well advanced and the ammunition columns are feeding the guns with their usual splendid energy and intrepidity. Late in the afternoon, from a position well beyond beiro, I watched the battle progressing near Achiet-le-Grand, listened to the rattle of the machine-guns and saw the big crumps from the enemy 5.9 guns bursting on ground they had already lost. It was a strangely fasciuating and thrilling sight. This morning, when the barrage for eleven o’clock advanced and came down, hundreds of Huns took to their heels and leggld it for all they were worth. The New Zealanders chased them up .as close ns they could on the edge of the barrage and shot, at them with machine-guns and rifles. “We had lot of fun up there for a while,” said a cheery wounded rifleman whom I met on the battlefield some hours later. Away beyond, on a ridge, our men could see other Germans retreating at the same time. Some New Zealanders spotted a party of about twenty pf the enemy coming towards them, as -if to surrender somewhere, inoping asif,wounded, but when they reached a favourable position they began to shoot at "our: men. Then the New Zealanders 'dealt -it out to the little party and- in' a ‘ brief space of time none were left, to carry hack any news of’the Rattle to 1 Germany. “A platoon officer got,:six arid I got two,” said a corporal, who was hit later in the engagement after KoJiad been internipted in his shooting Ito take back a message to company 'headquarters. Most of our men' had but a poor opinion of the fighting calibre of the Germans met in this battle. “The Hunt is not sticking it out like he used to,” said a wounded New Zealand corporal. “His spirit is gone. The only good men he seems to have now are his machine-gunners. These are left till the last to hold the positions, and I assure you they are getting a very rough spin.” ‘Returning over the crest of the Seri£ Ridge, I found between sixty and seventy prisoners whom the New Zealanders had captured, halted by the way, in charge of about four riflemen. Numbers of one of our battalions in the reserves had joined them, and all were mixed together in quite a friendly party. The Germans' were willingly giving away souvenirs, and there was a hubbub of conversation, in English, French and German. Nearly all the Germans seem- - ed very glad to be done with the war, and not in the least afraid that the bew Zealanders would eat 'them. One young fellow, who just before the war had been a student at Oxford, doubted my statement that the war might last three years more. “Germany,'’ he said, “ was finished,” and he added, with emphasis, “ Thank the good Lord that for me it is at an end.” All the German prisoners I saw were very kindly treated, and their' wounded were tenderly cared for. Even their walking wounded were taken into our ambulance cars whenever there was room. In the afternoon I was with the officers of our Medical Corps, who took some of them back in a car. I was wading in a creek yesterday, when our men, with machine-gun fire, drove 240 Germans upon a position held by some English troops. Those promptly surrendered and were marched off as prisoners. “Hard luck for the New Zealanders,” I said to a New Zealand officer. “Never mind,” he said; “it all goes to win the war, and these tommies fought well.” As I write, at the end of a long day, to catch the last dispatch rider, the loud and continuous thunder of the British guns heats on the air. They have been busy now for twenty hours, and seem _as if they would continue until far into the night or next day. iIvP r ro clcc P* n S onward towards tins battle front. It has been a busy day •it ,To-morrow Bapaume will be m danger, and it is perhaps wuhm iho„>bonnds of possibility that the -Now Zoalo 'uler.s may have a hand