THE NEW ZEALANDERS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12504, 17 December 1918, Page 3

THE NEW ZEALANDERS.

THE HARD FIGHTING NEAR HAPLINOOURT. SCENE ON BATTLEFIELD. (From MALCOLM ROSS, Official War Correepondenfc.) following tho fall of Bapauine, Fretnicourfc and Banco urt (ruined villages beyond) were occupied, the Rifles and tho North Islanders being in the forefront oi the advance. Both places were stoutly defended by Bavarian troops, end again wo captured many prisoners and machine-guns, and large quantities ol gun ammunition that tho enemy had not the time to destroy, nor tho transport to carry away. Following closely m tiio track of our victorious troops, one saw an extraordinary litter of anus and equipment, both on tho battlefield and in the lints, dugouts and trenches occupied l>y tho German army. There ivas hitter fighting to gain tho crest or a long low ridge fronting Hapliucourt. At ono place whore a sunken road crossed the main road, and where there were numerous huts of a camp evacuated by the British in their roticat earlier in the year, one company or the Otngans suffered severely from machine-gun fire from concealed positions left untouched by our barrage. Later on, however, these same Otagans pushed over the crest of tho ridge, and many a defending German bit the dust on the nether slope. SCENE ON THE BATTLEFIELD. Early on tho morning of the fight ono saw their bodies strewn about the field. They were lying_about the green pass, in trenches and in dugouts. One burly Bavarian had fallen headlong down the slopes of a dugont in which bo was seeking shelter, and still lay mere, head downwards, with a bullet through Ins breast. All about were Hues, bayonets, ammunition, overcoats, gas masks, letters, and the ugly camouflaged steel helmets that the Boche uses against our destructive shrapnel, those who had not been killed or wounded had fled through the Haplincouit Vyood, where there were many signs of a comfortable Hun occupation. Inero were excellent wooden huts and dugouts with great, baulks of timber over them to burst the falling shells. Uno officer had made himself very snug in a wheeled caravan in which* there late-glass windows and a comfortable wooden bed with some nrotencc ■at ornamentation. 3lost of the huts were splintered by our shell fire, but the dugouts were unharmed. There was provision for electric lighting in this and other camps that wo saw, and the power line for a high tension current; its galvanised irori wires, carried on High poles, ran across country in front of the village.' The enemy had broken the wire in many places, and had sawn through tho poles, so that we might not; be able to use the line. COMFORTABLE WINTER ' QUARTERS.

11l nearly all the camps we came to in this drive there were clear evidences that the Germans-, were confident that they had come to stay, and that they had begun to comfortably settle themselves down, for the winter. This was especially the case at a big camp hidden in a pretty little wood that had entirely escaped the shelling of tho British army. It must have been the headquarters of a division or an army group. Tiro huts and offices were well built, and underneath nearly every one of them were deep dugouts, into which the occupant could retire for safety in case of shelling or bombing. These, on the occasion of our first visit, were found useful for the enemy, surmising, no doubt, that we should house ourselves in so comfortable and charming! a spot, promptly, began to. crump it with five-nines. In the caverns under these huts one felt perfectly safe. In most of them were beds. In one hut an oiljcor—evidently s'onj-eoneof ; jmport-nnee-—and made himself a bedstead with a splinter-proof side of thick timber. It was hinged so that ho could get into bed without clhqbing over it. In that' bed he could sleep comfortably,' safe from everything but a direct hit. But should the. nervous strain be too great, or tho bombs or shells be bursting too close, there was, at the end of the bed, a neat little concreted dugout, into which! the,, occupant could hop at a moment’s notice. In some of the lints there was even a pretence at architectural ornamentation. It was a. lovely sylvan scene. Flowers blossomed in window boxes and about the pa ths, and the birds sang merrily, in the leafy trees, as if war /were a long way off rile roof of a hut set on fire, by one of the German five-nines was burning. As we turned about and set our motorcar for home the live-nines began to crump an adjacent wood and the road along which we had to pass. During tho early part of that ride we paid no need to speed limits. It was fortunate, perhaps, wo did not, for on reaching our headquarters we found our caf pierced by bits of iron from the bursting German shells through which we had raced along tho road.’ IN THE VILLAGE-S.. In nearly all the villages tho Gormans had apparently settled down for the winter. They had huts and dugouts, and they had also been in occupation of some of the old British dugouts. The tide of battle had ebbed and flowed about all these villages, and they were much battered; but, in'a few cases, one saw walls still standing, and the remnants of houses that were still habitable. There were, of course', no villagers—only the British soldiers and the four deep columns of German prisoners marching, not nncheprfttlly, back to the wire cages far behind their recent residences. We had come_ beyond the limits of civilisation, and it would be weeks before ivo saw any man in civilian garb or the sad French peasant women coming back to look For tho spot where had stood their cosy houses. In one such village u member of the French mission with the New Zealand Division had looked for his old homo, and had difficulty in finding it. The house had been razed to the ground. He recognised the spot only by finding a well, from which they had used to draw water, in the courtyard. Often have 1 seen in some redeemed villages a French soldier, with his wife loaning on his arm, looking wistfully at a. heap of bricks that had been his home in happier days. Sometimes it was only the women and children who came, for their gallant men were no longer among the living!

SIGNS OF GERMAN OCCUPATION. in all these French villages the Germans had set np their own array signs. Often they were side by side withUio signs of British occupation. By these German signs you could read the mind and method of the Boche. fie is a very thorough and a very careful man, anil leaves as little as ho can to chance. Hero it is “uchtung” (beware—look out). The.ro is " nicht anvulirem.” “nicht antroten,” and “ nicht fasten ’ 1 —don’t touch. don’t approach, and ‘‘ don’t loiter here.” There is " bomb-era-ichor” (bomb-proof), the “ ilieger deckung” (coyer from aircraft), the “ loben-gcfahr ” (danger to life), and the “ entlausmigsanstalt ” (de-lousing plant), the ‘'splinter-proof,” “theplace where you must pass quickly,” and the place ‘ ‘ where you must be carelull ’ ’ tributes to our bombing planes, our observers and to our artillery. And tbero is tbo “ raude ” stables, indicating mange, which we, in our turn, avoid! In addition there are things without signs that we must especially beware of—the land mines and the booby traps set to catch the unwary. And throughout it all—which gives us the greatest satisfaction—there is the trail of dead horses and dead men, the shell dumps exploded and unexploded, the piles of engineering stores burnt and unburnt, the litter of equipment, and thousands ol bottles of soda-water that many an

English soldier and many an officers’ mess have welcomed in. a land where water is worth a groat deal to an advancing array.

MORE WAR HONOURS.

Military medals have been awarded to the following members of tho Expeditionary Force oil active service Sergeants Arthur R. Co x, Lancelot 0, S. farhiitt, Thomas A. Bishop, David C. Black, Frank W. Johnson,' Corporal Jolin B. Freshncy, William H. Moon, Donald A. M’Corquodalc, Harold J. Tuck. Daniel Hurley, Lance-Corporals Albert do B. Steward, Sydney Giles, David T. Paterson, Privates Maitland Webb, Ernest J. Jones, Leonard WGillespie, Henry T. Watkins, William U. Tilby, Edward M. Leo, Prank Mattox. Albert Uuflorcl, Frank Manning, Norman D. Stirling, Edward Taylor, Charles G. M’Donald, Stanley P. Pcgler, Charles J. Curray, Allan G. Wilson, Jack Haxell and Frederick C. Cole,