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The New Zealand Medical Service in the Great War 1914-1918

Operations at Bapaume, 21st to the 31st August, 1918

Operations at Bapaume, 21st to the 31st August, 1918.

These operations may be considered as comprising three phases: first, the advance to the Ancre on the 21st and 22nd; second phase, the envelopment of Bapaume and the withdrawal of its garrison, from the 24th to the 28th; third, the advance to the line Riencourt-Bancourt beyond Bapaume and the repulse of the German counter attack on August 31st. The operations of the 21st and 22nd were of a preparatory nature. Zero hour was at 4.55 a.m., the dawn was very misty, and observation was limited. By 6.50 a.m. the N.Z.R.B. had captured Puisieux and were reported to be within 200 yards of their objectives. They had taken many prisoners, their casualties were light. The mist cleared by 10 a.m. and shortly after that hour all the New Zealand objectives were attained. At this time the A.D.M.S. directed the A.D.S. to move forward to a large dugout "the Catacombs" in the chalk at a point midway between Hebuterne and Puisieux. The road adjacent was practicable for motor transport and there was but little shell fire, so that evacuations proceeded quite smoothly and there was no congestion at any point. The total New Zealand wounded admitted to the M.D.S. for the day was 46. In addition some 70 wounded from other divisions with 33 wounded Germans were brought in; making in all 150 for the day's operations. During the night the 42nd Division secured the Dovecote after determined fighting. This day was remarkable on the IVth Corps front in that three divisions, associated in Gallipoli, again fought side by side: the 42nd East Lancashire Division, which had relieved us at Helles, and the Royal Naval Division now the 63rd, which had been with us at Anzac.

The following day, the 22nd, was a quiet day very few wounded passed through the M.D.S., not exceeding a score from all sources; the main fighting was further north. The reserve bearers of the infantry detachment under Lieut.-Col. Murray went to harvesting, the medical posts remained in situ and no incident of medical importance was reported, save that orders were issued for the reopening of the D.R.S. at Authie Mill. This suggested two issues present in the mind of the D.D.M.S.: hard fighting ahead and limited advances. Warned that the New Zealand page 410Division would, in all likelihood, take over the area held by the 63rd Division, the A.D.M.S., accompanied by Lieut.-Col. Hardie Neil, reconnoitered Bucquoy with a view to establishing an A.D.S. there, and a site at Essarts, two miles to the westward, was selected as suitable for a M.D.S.

The following day, the 23rd, the British battle array was opening out its flanks, the Third and the Fourth Armies were fighting on a 33 mile front from just south of Arras to our junction with the French south-east of Amiens. The New Zealand Division was still in Corps reserve and, beyond a short advance to the Ancre by elements of the 3rd Brigade, was not engaged. The junction between the divisions on the left and right had squeezed out our front line. The Australians recaptured Albert and Meaulte, while the Third Army made headway in the northern area of the battlefield. Sir Douglas Haig, encouraged by these successes, and now fully confident that the breaking point of German resistance had been reached, determined to push on with increasing violence and audacity.

During the night of the 23rd/24th the 1st and 2nd New Zealand Brigades were concentrating in front of Loupart Wood and Grevillers in the neighbourhood of Achiet le Petit. That night two parties of the 3rd Field Ambulance, under Major Goldstein, M.C., N.Z.M.C., and Major Johns, M.C., N.Z.M.C., moved into Bucquoy to form an A.D.S. The bearer subdivisions with one bearer subdivision of No. 1 Field Ambulance marched at midnight under Captain Hutson, N.Z.M.C. and concentrated near Achiet le Petit. The following medical arrangements had been made:—to each brigade headquarters 20 N.Z.M.C. bearers were attached, and to each R.M.O. one squad of 6 N.Z.M.C. bearers, with one runner, N.Z.M.C. to keep touch with the A.D.S. The forward evacuating officer was to push out a bearer relay shortly after the brigade advanced; the A.D.S. at Bucquoy was to be prepared to move forward as the situation demanded; the M.D.S. would open at Esarts at an early hour; empty returning supply lorries were to be used for evacuating the walking wounded.

At 1 a.m. on the 24th, battle orders were issued by the divisional staff for the advance of the 1st Brigade—with the 2nd in support—to Grevillers and Loupart Wood with the ultimate object, Bapaume. At 4.30 a.m. the 1st Brigade advanced and made satisfactory progress through the wood and the village site, but the division on our left, failing to get Biefvillers less than a mile to the north, our 2nd Wellington Battalion was page 411ordered to take it, which it did, at about 10 a.m., by which time we had captured 200 prisoners and 2 field guns and our line was east of Loupart Wood and Grevillers.

The advance of the ambulance bearers under Captain Hutson, N.Z.M.C., began at 4 a.m. when the bearer subdivisions moved forward to a cutting in front of the railway line at a point where it crosses the road from Achiet le Petit to Grevillers. From this post, the "Railway B.R.P." squads of four bearers with wheeled stretchers were able to work forward along the road, of which the surface was uninjured, to the R.A.P.'s of the 1st Brigade about Grevillers. Ford cars were used as far as the Railway Post, the heavy cars had a loading station just in front of Achiet le Petit. By 7 o'clock wounded were coming in to the A.D.S. at Bucquoy. At the M.D.S. at Souastre, the walking wounded were loaded on to empty returning lorries and although there was some slight delay in getting sufficient M.A.C. cars in the afternoon, all stretcher cases were cleared without difficulty. In the afternoon the 2nd Field Ambulance in reserve was moved up to Souastre. There was no hitch in the evacuations which proceeded smoothly; up to 6 p.m. the wounded passed through totalled 16 officers, 252 O.R., of which 182 were from the New Zealand Division. A German regimental aid post was overrun just in front of Grevillers, here three German medical officers were taken and reached the A.D.S. during the day. By 6 p.m. our line was half a mile in front of Grevillers, just one mile from Bapaume. During the day we had captured 400 prisoners and several guns. The British line south of us was through Le Sars to Mametz. That night the A.D.M.S. issued orders for the M.D.S. to advance to Bucquoy while the A.D.S. was to open in Achiet le Petit.

On the 25th the 2nd Brigade had orders to advance through Avesnes to the high ground north of Bapaume and to seize a line to the east of the town on the Cambrai road. The objectives of the 1st Brigade were: to encircle Bapaume from the south, junctioning with our left Brigade when the town had been surrounded. At 5 a.m. both brigades were in movement, the 2nd Brigade met with severe resistance and by 10 a.m. had reached Monument Wood on the Bapaume Arras road. Here there was much fighting with heavy casualties, but 150 prisoners had been taken and the brigade was pushing on in a renewed assault in the late afternoon. South of Bapaume, and conforming to the movements of the division on their right, the 1st Brigade made little progress in spite of staunch fighting: the Transloy-Loupart page 412system with strong points about Thilloy and Le Barque was opposing frontally the advance of the 63rd Division so that, hemmed in on the left by the Bapaume machine-gun nests and checked on its right, the 1st Brigade was definitely arrested. At 10 a.m. the A.D.S. opened at Achiet le Petit, and established car posts behind Grevillers while a B.R.P., to serve the 2nd Brigade, was pushed forward near Biefviliers in a sugar factory just one mile west of the Monument Wood. In the forenoon the A.D.M.S. had interviewed the three German medical officers at the A.D.S. One of them, it appeared, was a naval medical staff officer on a visit to the front. Our attack had advanced very rapidly the previous day and in the mist and confusion the party had been cut off. Another medical officer was the Stabsarzt of the 14th Bavarian Regiment whose R.A.P. we had overrun; the third, a Lieutenant, was an R.M.O. of the same regiment. The junior officer was detained at the A.D.S. at Achiet to help with the German wounded, some 40 or more of whom were brought in during the day.

About 2 p.m. Major Johns, M.C., had gone forward to inspect the car post near Grevillers. It was at a point on the road leading down to Grevillers where a trench line intersected the roadway. To the north a road branched off to Biefvillers not far away. Suddenly an artillery crash fell upon the post. A withering local shell storm. Captain Patterson, N.Z.M.C., who was coming up from our R.A.P. at Grevillers, saw the storm break, and hurrying on found that Major Johns had been killed instantly, and with him three N.Z.M.C. men, while three others were wounded, one mortally. So ended the life of our breezy correspondent of the Somme and Messines at no great distance from the 1916 battlefields he so ingenuously described. He had served his battalion with distinction and was equally successful and admired as a section commander in No. 3 Field Ambulance. Modest, reticent, but full of quiet courage, his loss was keenly felt by all his comrades; he was the last of our medical officers to be killed in action. That our casualties in medical officers were light, must be attributed to the care exercised by both A.D.'sM.S. in making provision for the protection of medical posts; a policy always adhered to by the Division. Our N.Z.M.C. casualties for this day were unusually heavy: 1 officer and 4 O.R. killed; 1 died of wounds; 9 wounded; 1 motor ambulance driver of the M.T.A.S.C., attached, killed.

The M.D.S. which opened in Bucquoy at 2 p.m., admitted 12 officers and 238 O.R. wounded of the New Zealand Division, and page break
Major Noel JohnsNoel Johns, M.C., N.Z.M.C. Killed in Action 25/8/18.

Major Noel Johns, M.C., N.Z.M.C. Killed in Action 25/8/18.

A Car Post.

A Car Post.

page break page 413evacuated a grand total of nearly 500 casualties, which included the wounded of other formations and German wounded prisoners of war. The routine dosage of A.T.S. was modified by G.H.Q. instruction on this date. A study of recent severe cases of tetanus led to the belief that the usual injection of 1000 units was insufficient as a prophylactic and in consequence the ambulances had orders from the D.G.M.S. to increase the dose to 1500 units; the new procedure was to be experimental only for a period of three months.

During the day we had captured many prisoners and some guns and by nightfall our 2nd Brigade, steering a northward course about Bapaume—still strongly held by determined machine-gunners—had reached a point near Bcugnatre, north, and to the eastward, while the 1st Brigade faced by an impasse was still due south of the town. The German Divisions had orders to hold up our advance at all costs so as to permit of an orderly withdrawal of their troops in the old Somme battlefield. Bapaume, the goal of our 1916 battles, was a central keep in a powerful organised zone of defences, the main trace of which facing south-west had been the original German positions of 1916, but now remodelled and presenting a firm bastion strongly reinforced by many Divisions.

For three days the battle raged about the broken walls of Bapaume, whose desperate resistance seemed to increase rather than diminish as the days dragged on. The greatest battle yet fought by Haig was fully developed by the 26th, when the First Army, breaking out from the Arras heights headed by Canadians and the Guards swept rapidly through their old battlefields of 1917, regaining at a bound all that had been surrendered in March and pushing onwards tore a six mile gap in the northern extension of the impregnable Seigfried zone. The Hindenberg wall of steel and granite was turned; the Germans must fall back, and that rapidly, towards the inner Cambrai defences. This was the decisive day in the contest which was to regain all that we had lost in March and give us a dominance in positions and in morale over our opponents, which must lead to their final overthrow.

Throughout the three days struggle, the close of which on the 28th saw the abandonment of Bapaume and its subsidiary defences the IVth Corps maintained its dogged pressure on the tough German line. To the north the 5th Division and our Rifle Brigade made some headway but with heavy losses, the New Zealanders penetrating ultimately to the Cambrai railway line, page 414just north of St. Aubin. But the Ligny-Thilloy defences and the town held out irresistibly until the last. No change in the medical dispositions was necessary with the exception of an extension of the car posts and bearer relays north of the town keeping step with the advances of the Rifle Brigade. A car route from Biefvillers through Bihucourt and Achiet le Grand was found to be the most advantageous and at no time was any difficulty experienced in clearing the R.A.P.'s in the vicinity of Monument Wood in the northern and Grevillers in the southern sector. It had rained hard all the night of the 25th, so that heavy mud retarded the progress of the bearers for a time, but a drying wind and fine sunshine on the 26th made for easier evacuations. The roads, especially along the new route were in good condition and uninjured by shell fire. An entraining post for walking wounded was established at Puisieux au Mont, to which point our old 1917 light railway had penetrated, and now rapidly repaired, it was used to bring up ammunition, and the empty trucks returning taking the lightly wounded did much to relieve the M.A.C. cars and lorries. The total wounded treated on the 26th was, for the New Zealand Division, 13 officers, 255 O.R., and in all, 16 officers, 413 O.R. were evacuated from the M.D.S.

The Division undertook no offensive operations on the 27th or 28th, the dispositions remained the same; Bapaume was to be enveloped, not assaulted at great cost frontally. Our heavy guns rained shells all day into the doomed town and our defensive positions were improved to meet a sortie by the reinforced garrison, or a counter attack by divisions coming to raise the seige. Most of the wounded brought in during the early hours of the morning of the 27th, casualties of the previous day's fighting, were evacuated prior to 6 a.m., the total for the division being 11 officers, 250 O.R. In all over 300, but the numbers evacuated as a result of losses sustanied on the 27th, 28th and 29th, did not exceed 150. Enemy shelling was much increased on the last two days, our car post at Biefvillers was again affected, two men were wounded and two large cars had their bodies blown clean off. As the shelling subsided on the night of the 28th, a strange silence fell upon Bapaume—away to the eastward was seen the glare of burning dumps, and just before dawn our patrols penetrated the town to find it abandoned. Immediately our line pushed forward, the Rifle Brigade early reaching the old sugar factory on the Cambrai road, the 1st Brigade temporarily checked at the road leading south-east from Bapaume to Beaulencourt.

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During the day the A.D.M.S. reconnoitred a post at Grevillers. indicated by Lieut.-Col. Hardie Neil, as the most suitable site for the A.D.S. A good cellar in the ruined village with a large yard adjacent was selected and preparations made to make it ready for occupation. At Irles a convenient post for a M.D.S. was inspected and Lieut.-Col. Craig was instructed to send forward parties to construct the necessary protective works. That night General Russell, whose headquarters had now advanced to dugouts in front of Buequoy, issued orders for a forward movement of the 1st and 3rd Brigades to Riencourt and Bancourt on a line due east from Bapaume: the advance under barrage was to commence at 5 a.m. and had as its most remote objectives Haplincourt where the 5th Division would be on our left at Beugny and the 42nd Division on our right at Villers-au-Flos; a total advance of three miles. Acting on these orders the A.D.M.S. made arrangements with his field ambulance commanders to advance their posts during the day—if our progress was satisfactory—to Grevillers and Irles; the field ambulance in reserve remaining in position.

The Rifle Brigade was in movement at 5 a.m. on the 30th. Closely following the barrage they cleared Fremicourt village by 6.30 taking many prisoners. The 2nd Auckland Battalion assembled in front of Bancourt bat did not move with the barrage as the Division on our right could not advance at the hour appointed. During the period of assembly the Battalion headquarters were posted in a sunken track east of the Péronne road in rear of an intervening ridge which separated the Battalion from Bancourt. The enemy counter barrage fell heavily about this point and one large shell knocked out most of the headquarters party including the R.M.O., Captain Simeox, who was very seriously wounded. The Chaplain, the Rev. Dobson, assuming the duties of R.M.O., bound up the wounded and got them away safely to Grevillers. 2nd Auckland ultimately carried Bancourt although the village of Riencourt resisted the 42nd Division until nightfall. Our casualties were considerable. Lieut.-Col. Hardie Neil made a personal reconnaissance at 8 a.m. in the direction of Bancourt and at 1 o'clock the A.D.S. was advanced to Grevillers. Car routes through Bapaume, where the road surface was good, were used to clear the northern sector and bearers relays pushed out beyond Grevillers to the vicinity of the Peronne road. Great difficulty was experienced in removing the wounded from Bancourt owing to enfilade machine-gun fire from Riencourt until the latter village was taken by the 42nd Division. Shortly page 416after midday, Lieut.-Col. Craig was ready to receive wounded at his M.D.S. in Irles; a long tunnel in the chalk afforded good cover for stretcher cases and, although his station became somewhat congested during the afternoon, it was finally cleared by M.A.C. at 7 p.m. The old site of the 29th British C.C.S. on the road from Grevillers to Bapaume, one of the many C.C.S. stations we were obliged to abandon in March, was inspected, found to be in serviceable condition, and was earmarked for medical purposes. 11 officers, 234 O.R. wounded, of the New Zealand Division passed through the medical posts during the day; the total evacuations were over 300.

At dawn on the last day of the month a heavy barrage fell upon our front line, two large German tanks advanced to our outposts and later the whole of our front was strongly counterattacked by a Saxon Division. Some ground was at first yielded, but ultimately the position was restored; two disabled tanks lay in front of our outpost line and about 50 Saxon prisoners remained in our hands. The capture of Bapaume was now completed and our lines in front of it were secure. A car post was established early in the day in the buildings, used before the retreat by a British C.C.S., which were adjacent to the old sugar factory on the Bapaume—Cambrai road and about a mile westward of Fremicourt. The route of evacuation was now through Bapaume to Grevillers. The casualties passing through the M.D.S. numbered 10 officers, 235 O.R. New Zealanders, in all over 300 wounded were evacuated including 30 Germans. The light railway at Puisieux, now adapted to carrying lying cases, did much to expedite the journeys of the M.A.C who were experiencing some little difficulty in linking up the C.C.S. at Doullens with the rapidly advancing Corps front, already ten miles beyond its point of departure.

Throughout this hard fought 10 days about Bapaume, no difficulties in the evacuation of wounded presented themselves; all went well, and with the utmost expedition, all wounded were cleared in good condition to C.C.S. The multiplicity of trenches, dugouts, and galleries in the chalk, the results mostly of German efforts in 1916, provided well protected posts for medical personnel, both the R.A.P.'s and bearer relay posts. Good roads and less severe shelling permitted a free use to be made of motor ambulance cars and without serious losses in transport. The A.D.M.S. in his report on this period, one of transition from position warfare to that of open engagements, comments on this aspect of ambulance transport work:—"The good condition of the page 417roads in the reoccupied territory," he writes, "has enabled motor ambulances to be taken far forward with various manifest advantages: the wounded are brought down more rapidly to M.D.S. and C.C.S. so that surgical treatment is applied at the earliest moment, a factor which contributes to the saving of life or limb; bearers are economised and are not exhausted by long hard carries; medical personnel is saved from excessive casualties.

A motor ambulance travels at least four times faster than bearers carrying by hand; only one driver and an orderly are required to transport four stretcher cases; one lying ease requires a squad of four bearers who take four times as long as a car; in other words, it would take 16 bearers four times as long to evacuate four lying cases as it takes two men with a car. The exposure of personnel is, therefore, as 1: 32" On these grounds the A.D.M.S. was of opinion that cars had not, in the past, been pushed up as far forward as might have been done; and that economy of mechanical transport had been given undue weight in its relation to economy of personnel. In regard to the location of the M.D.S. the A.D.M.S. formed the opinion that this medical post should be brought well forward but just out of range of field artillery and say, 9,000 to 10,000 yards behind the front line, as the closer to the A.D.S. it is sited, the greater the saving in ambulance transport for forward work. He goes on to comment on the work at the A.D.S. and lays stress on the importance of having well trained nursing orderlies capable of dressing wounds efficiently under the direction of a medical officer, so expediting the clearance of wounded and preventing congestion. The wounded, he notes, come down in waves and unless rapidly dressed and passed on, there is grave danger of a large number of cases collecting—a disadvantage accentuated in cold or wet weather when covered accommodation is limited. The A.D.M.S. concludes his report by stating his views on field ambulance organisation: "The field ambulance organisation in its adaptability and in the variety of combinations of its elements leaves nothing to be desired. In any action involving large numbers of wounded and especially where long hard carries have to be undertaken, the bearer personnel is necessarily inadequate. This difficulty is easily overcome by obtaining Infantry to act as bearers, each squad being in charge of a trained N.Z.M.C bearer. It is not recommended that the bearers in a field ambulance be increased in numbers, as in quiet sectors there would be no employment for them."

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A number of items of Ambulance equipment proved unnecessary or excessive in quantity had been recently handed in.* A collapsible field kitchen capable of cooking for 250 men presented to each ambulance by the New Zealand Red Cross Society had been found to be eminently satisfactory. In further comment on these operations it is well to note that the numbers of bearers within the brigade areas and under the control of regimental medical officers was markedly increased: the regimental stretcher bearers were now 32 per battalion; 20 N.Z.M.C. bearers had been attached to each Brigade and one squad of six to each R.A.P. Having in view the fact that the Division, fighting on a two brigade front, had as a rule only four battalions in the front line, and that the strength of battalions while in action had been compulsorily reduced to 640, the total number of bayonets in the front line was much less than, say, at Messines or Passchendaele, and the strength of bearer parties immediately available close to the front line proportionately increased. With a two battalion front a combined R.A.P. is often feasible where stretcher bearers can be pooled and directed to the point of maximum losses. A further innovation of moment was the attachment, before action of Infantry detailed as bearers to the ambulance held in reserve: so increasing the total bearer personnel by over 100 per cent. The infantry bearer detachment furnished by the reserve Brigade, numbering 150 under an officer, were provided with red cross brassards, and were used forward of the A.D.S. under the guidance of N.Z.M.C. N.C.O.'s.

The casualties for the Division, from the 21st August to the 31st inclusive, are estimated to have been: 411 killed; 1848 wounded. The number of wounded of the New Zealand Division passing through the medical posts during this period was 80 officers, 1847 O.R.; and in all the two ambulances engaged, dealt with over 2,500 wounded in eleven days; the heaviest day being the 25th, when 20 officers and 319 O.R. wounded of the New Zealand Division were safely evacuated; the grand total of wounded for that day being 482. About 250 German wounded are included in the gross total of the operations. The proportion of lying to sitting cases was 41 per cent. and 59 per cent, respectively.

Our losses by sickness during August averaged about 180 cases evacuated to base hospital per week, the strength of the Division over 18,200, making an average weekly loss of about 9 per 1000 per week, which corresponded to the average wastage page 419of the Third Army. Diarrhoea was increasing and clinical dysentery was recognised in many instances towards the close of the month. All troops were supplied with water sterilizing tablets to be used in emergency if the supplies of authorised water failed. Throughout the fury of the battle the domestic life of the Division was but little deranged: some 150 patients were accommodated in the D.R.S., the total turnover being about 1500. There was a certain allotment of leave to Paris, the baths were available as far forward as Irles, where our Divisional Canteen opened to supply the wants of messes; and the Divisional Soda Water Factory, conforming to the movements of the troops, was advanced from Doullens to Couin.

The days of the 1st and 2nd September saw stubborn fighting in our advance beyond Bapaume, towards Haplincourt; some progress was made each day and we took many prisoners, but our casualties were not inconsiderable. On the evening of the 2nd our line lay in front of Haplincourt, the 2nd Brigade now holding the divisional front. On the 3rd, the German resistance seemed to weaken, fires behind his lines indicated retirement, our troops pushing on without severe opposition passed through Haplincourt and advanced to Bertincourt. At 5 p.m. the A.D.S. was moved into Bancourt and a car and relay post was advanced along the road leading to Bertincourt to the site of a feld lazaret recently occupied by the German medical corps. The M.D.S. opened in the buildings once used by the 29th C.C.S. near Grevillers and it was found that the huts although somewhat damaged by shell fire, were still quite serviceable.

Each day the Division made rapid progress, the German rear guards falling back hurriedly on the Cambrai defences, until about the 8th, increasing resistance on our front made it clear that the retirement was coming to an end, and that the approaches to the Hindenberg line were to be held in force and with determination. The divisional headquarters had reached Villers-au-Flos; the main body of the New Zealanders was in possession of reserve line trenches held by British troops in March, 1917, about Havrincourt and Metz-en Couture. In front was the Treseault spur and a trench system originally British, known as the African trenches. The 3rd Brigade had relieved the 2nd in front line and on the 8th received orders to advance up the Trescault ridge to occupy the African trenches in co-operation with the 17th Division, now part of the IVth Corps. From his office at Reincourt, about a mile south-east of the D.R.S. at the old sugar factory on the Bapaume-Cambrai road, the A.D.M.S. page 420issued instructions to the field ambulances to open an A.D.S. at Ytres and a M.D.S. at Barastre, both to be ready for the reception of wounded at 4 p.m. the same day. At Barastre Lieut.-Col. Craig, with the 1st Field Ambulance, found excellent accommodation in Nissen huts with dugouts adjoining at a site originally prepared by a British field ambulance and later occupied by a German feld lazaret. The A.D.S. opened at Ytres opposite the church., Lieut.-Col. Hardie Neil in charge. A car post was established at Mill Farm on the south-western fringe of Havrincourt Wood, on the road from Metz to Ruyaulcourt. At the D.R.S. site near Bapaume close to the old sugar factory, a quantity of serviceable material had been abandoned by the Germans in their retirement: malthoid roofing, wire netting suitable for bunks, a pile of soft woodshavings with which to fill palliasses, and a variety of stores all of which proved most acceptable to Lieut.-Col. Murray and his 2nd Field Ambulance in reconditioning the old C.C.S. site as a D.R.S. Amongst the booty was a German horsed ambulance waggon now a trophy in the New Zealand War Museum.

The first assault on the Trescault spur was on the 9th September, the New Zealand Division being to the south of the village on the road to Gouzeaucourt, where the 3rd Brigade attained all objectives and took nearly 100 prisoners. A copious use of gas shells by the enemy had marked the last two days of his retirement and on this day there was very considerable gas bombardment of the forward areas. A total of 36 gassed patients was tended during the morning, many suffering from the effects of "blue cross" gas, Dichlor-arsene. The wounded of the 1st and 2nd N.Z.R.B. came in early to the A.D.S. at Ytres; the total wounded for the Division being 3 officers and 127 O.R.; only two battalions were concerned, whose combined R.A.P. was in the "Quotient" trench line just in front of Metz-eu-Couture, while the bearer relay posts were at Mill Farm and Neuville. In all, including wounded prisoners, 216 casualties cleared the M.D.S. en route for a C.C.S. at Colincamps. On the following day the 10th, the situation remained generally unchanged, although enemy counter attacks realised minor successes in the African system about Dead Man's Corner. There was heavy gas bombardment of the forward area, our losses from this source being 17. The forward chain of bearer posts was reorganised: from the R.A.P.'s in front of Metz and on the southern edge of Havrincourt wood, a first class road in good condition from Trescault village led into Metz. Just half a mile from the latter village on this road page 421there was a wayside crucifix, here the roadway was sunken and provided dugouts for a bearer relay. Further north and east of Havrincourt Wood on the road to Trescault, a quarry 30 feet deep was utilised as an advanced bearer relay with overland route through the wood to the Crucifix, just under a mile back.

Meanwhile preparations were in hand for a more important assault on the recalcitrant Trescault spur and the African system, once the old British front line and the point of departure for a portion of our stormers in the surprise attack on Cambrai in November, 1917. Four miles to the north was Burlon Wood and the village of Moeuvres where the 56th Division—the Bow Bells our neighbours at Sailly in 1916—fought the German counter offensive on November, 30th, 1917. The 10th was a cold day and showers fell at intervals; a conference of the A.D.'sM.S. of the IVth Corps was held at Grevillers where the D.D.M.S. had established his office. The 56th C.C.S. had now been advanced to the old C.C.S. site on the road to Biefvillers, previously occupied by us as a M.D.S. The day was "quiet" on our front, the casualties numbered about 60, with a proportion of gassed much above the normal. The following day, the 11th, was spent in preparation for the second attack, which had been postponed 24 hours and was to take place on the morrow. The weather was cold, with intermittent showers. The A.D.M.S. held a conference of his field ambulance commanders at which the divisional orders for the assault, timed for 5.25 a.m. were discussed. With the 38th Division on the right and the 37th on the left, the New Zealand Division was to form the centre of the Corps front and would have three battalions of the 3rd Brigade in the front line. Under a strong barrage furnished by our own and additional batteries of the divisions in Corps reserve the assaulting waves had as final objectives the African system at the top of the ridge dominating Gouzeaucourt and the railway from Cambrai to Peronne less than three miles from the Hindenberg line. The medical arrangements made were these:—No. 3 Field Ambulance with the bearer sections of No. 1 Field Ambulance and a detail of 50 infantrymen attached as stretcher bearers was to evacuate the forward areas to the main car post at Mill Farm, thence to the A.D.S. at Ytres. The most forward R.A.P.'s were in a sunken road leading up towards Dead Man's Corner, a road junction on the top of the ridge about three quarters of a mile eastward. From the sunken road the route was by hand to the Crucifix Corner, just a quarter of a mile out of Metz on the road page 422to Trescault; in this neighbourhood the road was also sunken and had many dugouts in its cuttings. The R.A.P.'s about 1200 yards east of this point were supplied with N.Z.M.C. squads and wheeled stretchers as the road surface was quite satisfactory and it was hoped that light cars could reach the Crucifix post. The route then lay through Metz to Mill Farm where heavy cars would have rendezvous. The Havrincourt Wood was on its western edges still leafy and afforded concealment, but no roads practicable for ambulance transport ran east and west except a planked road used by the artillery and unsuitable for the evacuation of wounded. There was considerable shell fire about Metz and that portion of the wood which lay north of it, but as yet the roads were operable and the best route of evacuation by cars lay through the ruins of the village. An alternative car post was sited on the extreme western edge of the village to which carriage by hand could be adopted in case the village route proved impassable. At the M.D.S. at Barastre preparations were made to receive a large number of wounded. Extra horsed ambulance waggons were provided by the resting division to be employed in conveying the walking wounded to the entraining point at Bihucourt, where the main line, Arras-Albert-Amiens was tapped by the Cambrai-Bapaume branch. The 21st M.A.C. stationed at Le Barque detached four motor ambulance cars and a motor cyclist to each of the divisional M.D.S.'s so that lying cases could be cleared in a continuous stream and without delay, to the 56th C.C.S. at Grevillers.

Zero hour was at 5.30 a.m., there was heavy fighting. Our left battalion in touch with the 37th Division, early attained the final objective, but resistance increased from the centre to our right, where touch was not obtained with the sister division. Confused fighting in a complex trench system followed and was accidented by strong bombing attacks by the Jägers, which drove in our line—especially bitter the struggle about Dead Man's Corner. The first walking wounded arrived at 6.25 a.m. at Mill Farm about two and a half miles from the front line. They reported the barrage to be "lovely" and all going well. The first lying case was carried down by hand by German prisoners; some time later, Ford cars were able to get up as far as Crucifix Corner. Owing to heavy shelling by high velocity guns the A.D.S. was moved back from Neuviile to Ytres, at least for lying cases, but a small staff remained on at the former post to collect walking wounded. The R.A.P.'s were clear by 11 a.m.; there were few casualties on our right near Gonzeaucourt "Wood: wounded from page 423this area were chiefly Germans and men of the 37th Division. By midday about 180 wounded had cleared the M.D.S. Horsed ambulance waggons, ehar-a-bancs, and lorries were used to couvey the walking wounded to Bihucourt over seven miles back from Barastre. By 6 p.m. the total casualties cleared was 12 officers, 256 O.R. including German wounded. During the afternoon the D.M.S. Fourth Army, Major General Sir T. M. Irwin, visited the M.D.S. where evacuations were proceeding smoothly and without any congestion. In the evening about 8 o'clock, during a fierce counter attack, there was heavy shelling about the R.A.P.'s and the Crucifix Corner, both gas and high explosive being used. One N.Z.M.C. stretcher bearer and eight German prisoners who were assisting with the wounded were killed and 13 N.Z.M.C. were gassed later during the night. The gas was not detected, being in low concentration. Most of the bearers affected were in dugouts, some 12 feet below the road level but the whole area was polluted and a six hour exposure to the diluted gas had cumulative effects which compelled evacuation. It had rained most of the day, the humid air increased the persistence of the poison vapour. Many gassed men passed through during the night, bringing the total casualties to 363 wounded or gassed, including 79 German wounded.

The struggle with bomb and bayonet continued during the 13th and 14th, and culminated with a fierce counter attack at night by the Jägers headed by flame throwers, which did not wholly re-establish their line, although we lost some ground. There was increased shell fire on all roads forward of Mill Farm but light cars still penetrated as far as the Crucifix. No alteration in medical dispositions were made, the wounded evacuated being over 160 each day with increasing numbers of gassed. Night bombing, the terror of the moonlight, was severe in the back areas, about the A.D.S. especially, and although there were many casualties in the neighbourhood none actually in the N.Z.M.C. parties. But those who, on the night of the 13th, saw two German bombing planes blazing a fearful cometlike trail through the dark as they crashed to their doom, forgot to rejoice.

Relief was at hand, and, on the 15th, the 5th Division took over our sector. Parties from the 13th and 14th Field Ambulances infiltrated our medical posts, and the Division went into rest after four weeks almost continuous fighting, the divisional headquarters at Favreuil, the ambulances about Bihucourt and Biefvillers.

* Field Medical Panniers, 1; Field Surgical Panniers, 1: Field Fracture Box 3; Surgical Haversacks, 12; Medical Companions, 2.

Waites' Collapsible Camp Cooker.