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Chapter XXV Of How The New Zealanders Came to Mailly-Maillet and Barred the Road to Amiens

—The French at Verdun.

When the springtime came at the beginning of March the New Zealanders went back to pleasant villages about Cassel. The grey skies had turned to blue. Hedges and trees were green and alive, the grass was springing underfoot. The men were billeted again in pleasant barns and among kindly folk, who laughed and jested and went singing about their ordinary work and were friendly to weary men. Training went on in the mornings and in the afternoon there were games and recreation. Great efforts were made to smarten the men up. Web equipment was taken to pieces and scrubbed, buttons were polished, even the dull steel of bayonet blades was furbished up with emery paper. And all this cleaning had its effect. As clothing and equipment became spotless and shining, the stain of the mud and blood of the autumn and winter from the salient commenced to fade from men's minds. Ten glorious days of sunshine, of returning health and spirits, and page 264then rumours of a great enemy attack upon the Somme. Rumours and fresh rumours. The enemy had been repulsed and mown down by machine-fire! The enemy had broken through the front systems! He had been checked and was being driven back! Wild stories of impossible captures and impossible losses were passed from mouth to mouth.

Then late one evening came news of disaster. The tremendous rush of the German Army had broken through on a wide front. The Fifth Army was falling back on the Somme and the Germans following on its heels were surging on towards Amiens to cut the railway communications, isolate the Channel ports and destroy the British Army. The division was ordered to entrain for the Somme.

As the men marched to the railway siding the village people came out into the streets to bid good-bye to the guests who in so short a while had become their friends. Rough jests flew round.

"Bonsoir, mademoiselle, you promenade with me?"

"After de Prochaine war, per-r-r-raps!"

"Hullo, Marie! How's the beer standing?"

"Allons, gourmand! You have drunk all de bière—no more left for nex soldat!"

"Au revoir, madame! Encore six oeufs when we come back—and beaucoup chips!"

"Ah, Madeleine! You embrassez-moi for bonne chance!"

"Allons! Brigand! You kiss too many mademoiselles—me write your fiancée_t tell her you no good!"

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"Au revoir, petite! Au revoir, madame!"

"Ha, Bârthe! Me see you promenade with officier last night!"

"Allons! Sclérat! You beaucoup zigzag las' night—too much vin blanc."

But under all the merry badinage ran a deeper tone, for after all this was a supreme hour in the agony of France. Who knew what might befall if these men failed to stay the onward rush to Amiens? In a few days other battalions might march along these roads—battalions of men in grey-green uniforms, the enemies of France. The men who marched away were not Frenchmen, but they were the friends of France, and in a few hours they would step into the breach and hold for France.

"Dieu vous aide, messieurs! Dieu vous garde! Vous combattez pour nous! St Jeanne d'Arc vous aide! Nous Prions pour vous!"

And so amid laughter and prayers the men marched away to the Second Battle of the Somme. All night the trains were running through St Omer, and Etaples and Abbeville till they reached the little station of Hangest-sur-Somme, familiar enough to the men of 1916. Each battalion as it arrived dumped its heavier stores and set out at once on foot or by motor lorry for the divisional concentration point in the direction of Pont Noyelles. The day was clear and fine and a cool breeze was blowing so rapid progress was made. For the first few kilometres the road was unfamiliar, but then, as they descended a slope and swept round a corner, old hands recognized a familiar estaminet, and half page 266an hour later the companies were resting in the market-square of Picquigny.

Once through the town and marching along the highroad refugees commenced to pass. Some rode on wagons piled high with their household stuff; others trundled handcarts in which they had hastily flung what could quickly be moved; some had little else beside the clothes they wore. They were worn and tired, frightened and hopeless. Behind them lay the little well-loved homes and before them they knew not what! A world tumbling into ruins it seemed! They hardly knew where they were going, but there was terror behind and they stumbled on.

The sight of these poor folk hardened the resolution of the marching men. All that day they pressed onward. The sun shone brightly. Sweating and footsore they tramped on. Many were still soft from the winter at Ypres, and the pace commenced to tell, but no man dropped out. The strong took heavier burdens upon themselves, carried extra panniers, bags of rations, took a comrade's rifle or his spare bandoliers of ammunition. Platoon officers and sergeants walked up and down the lines of their men giving encouragement, cracking jokes, anything that would help weary men to keep the pace. Some of them were loaded up with the equipment of men who could only just stagger along. At last late in the afternoon the men bivouacked under trees, and here they dropped their packs and greatcoats and endeavoured without much success to sleep. At midnight motor lorries ran up and they climbed on page 267board, and for hours jolted over pave roads through Amiens, and so on to Pont Noyelles. There was no stay. The march recommenced, and dawn found them still marching on. Hour after hour the steady tramp, tramp, tramp, ate into the tale of kilometres. There was a short spell while they ate a cold breakfast, and then again came the steady move forward through a country-side that appeared to be curiously deserted. The houses were empty. There was no smoke rising from the chimneys, and yet the pleasant country-side was unmarked by the ravages of war. Albert was passed some distance on the right.

Once the road was blocked by a 6-inch howitzer whose gunners said that they had been retiring for days. A few wandering Tommies and Scotchmen were met with, but there was no sign of an army, nor of any organized resistance. Just outside H$#x00E9;dauville a naval-gun was firing at intervals on some distant target. It seemed a lone survivor of a war that had been. By midday perhaps two-thirds of the division had concentrated in a large field some twenty kilometres from Amiens and about the same distance from Doullens. One thing was clear. The New Zealanders had marched straight into the gap that had developed between the Fourth and Fifth corps. At all costs this gap had to be closed, and closed without an hour's delay. The crowded happenings of the last few days had worked something like a miracle. The cloud of depression had lifted. The English line had been broken. Our flanks were probably in the air. The triumphant enemy were page 268driving into the gap. But what of it? The New Zealand Division was going into battle, and what the Turks had failed to do on Chunuk the Germans should not do on the Somme.

The general plan of battle was for the 1st Brigade consisting temporarily of 1st and 2nd Auckland and 1st Rifle Brigade to advance through MaillyMaillet along the Puiseux Road, in the direction of Serre, while the 2nd Brigade on the right were to go through Auchonvillers and, if possible, to Beaumont Hamel.

The Germans, flushed with victory, had crossed the old battlefield and were pressing on eagerly to complete their task. They passed their old front line, they passed the British line of 1916, and in high spirits set foot on what for four years had been inviolate soil. Amiens was before them! Amiens which meant victory for the German arms. Amiens which would give the supremacy of the world with Deutschland! Deutschland über alles! and peace, peace, after all their bloody strivings. They were not far from the city of their desire. At any moment, as they topped one of the rolling ridges, they might catch a distant glimpse of the spires and belfries of the famous town. For four days their advance had never ceased. They had brushed aside the thinning opposition with ease. They were marching into the blue and had almost crowned the last ridge. Another kilometre or perhaps two and the war was won, because that distance would give observation on the great arterial railway upon which the British Army depended for its communication. So they swept on page 269eagerly and proudly, victorious troops who despite their losses had found none to stand before them. Their patrols, advancing boldly and with no particular caution were pressing into Mailly-Maillet when suddenly there was a rattle of musketry, a shout of alarm, men falling, killed and wounded. They had encountered the leading sections of the riflemen.

The Germans were driven in and the Rifles formed an outpost line in front of the village. Now it was a race for the ridge running roughly from in front of Beaumont Hamel to Hébuterne. If the enemy could gain it they would be in an excellent position to push further attacks. If it were taken by our men, we would have observation far up the valley of the Ancre. The Germans won, but they could not hold it all for the 2nd Brigade on the left moved forward and swept them back to the left of La Signy Farm, while the 1st Brigade, moving at first in column of platoons, deployed out into artillery formation until they reached the apple-trees and a long hedge where they commenced to encounter intense fire. They were temporarily checked, but just as evening fell they made an irresistible rush and carried the ridge in front of them. The darkness deepened, and in strange contrast the sugar refinery that lay to the centre caught fire and blazed luridly throughout the night. Only in the centre in front of La Signy Farm and toward the Serre Road did the enemy hold the high ground. The race had been a close one and the result was by no means certain.

The night was bitterly cold. The reserve bat-page 270talions shivered in the biting wind and the men walked to and fro unable to sleep, although they were desperately tired with the strain of the long march. Those who received orders to go into the line rejoiced because this meant movement and perhaps shelter. The position was very obscure, and until morning came they could not tell which was front or which was flank. The Germans were also confused, and during the night one of their men rode straight up the road on a bicycle into the very heart of our position. The poor fellow probably never realized his mistake.

In the first dim light of dawn men straining out into the gloom ahead could see the enemy streaming up the road towards them, boldly walking across to their front line without the slightest attempt at concealment. Even after the first shots rang out they took little heed. They were evidently stormtroops who had become so used to victories that they held their opponents in utter contempt. There was an amazed shout from the sentries:

"Look at the b——————b——————s coming up the road!"

In a second the parapet was lined with excited men firing magazine after magazine. Such an opportunity had not come to most of them during the whole war. The self-confidence of the enemy was rudely checked, but they still came on. When they found that it was impossible to walk up leisurely with their hands in their pockets, they tried running, and then crawling, but with little success. Along the line the ascendancy rapidly passed to the New Zealanders who, although the German line was in page 271places packed with men, showed themselves freely, came right up on to the parapet and shot and shot at every movement.

The enemy were, however, determined to thrust aside the vexatious opposition that had developed at the last moment. All through the morning they brought up their men under cover of the La Signy Ridge. By noon the guns that they had rapidly pushed ahead were barraging heavily behind the various battalion headquarters. Their trench mortars and light anti-tank guns commenced to search the trenches, and their machine-guns opened up a heavy and continuous fire. The whole position was a tangle of old saps which connected to form what was originally a British front line system. The Germans did not rush bodies of men across the open in the face of our machine-gun fire but coolly, scientifically, and with determination they worked forward, taking every scrap of cover, bombing down saps, and seeking for weak spots that they could overwhelm, and so work in on the flank or to the rear.

The New Zealanders had no bombs. The Germans were well supplied. In consequence they were able, in perfect safety, to creep up within a few yards of our posts and shower in bombs while our men were powerless to retaliate. A German scout appears round a traverse. For a fraction of a second he fails to focus rightly. The enemy he expects to be standing at least breast high is lying flat. In that little space of time a rifle cracks and the pioneer falls, killed so suddenly that the half smile is still upon page 272his face. His comrades are close behind him and they rain the stick bombs upon their foe. Some are caught and hurled back before they explode. Others burst and scatter splinters all around. A wounded man staggers out and is carried away by the stretcherbearers. Another has his head half blown off by an explosion. The remainder huddle up against the wall to gain what little cover they can and await tensely the sudden rush. It comes, but their rifles are ready, and the foremost German falls. The rest draw back and once more commence to bomb. And so it goes on all through the long afternoon.

In some places the enemy came overland in determined rushes, but before the steady rifles and the rattling bursts of the Lewis-guns these attempts also failed. In one place as it was growing dusk they filed down a sap clad in British helmets and greatcoats and calling out in English. But the trick was seen, and they, too, were shot down. From our observation posts it was easy to see their battalions moving up in preparation to attack, and again and again the machine-guns found excellent targets and rattled belt after belt down the valley. Throughout the 27th, 28 th and 29th, the enemy continued to search for a gap through which he could pour and so bring us to ruin, but with every passing day our hold grew firmer. The resolute defence, although it was not tested to anything like the breaking-point, was too strong for the attack. During the afternoon of the 27th the first batteries of the New Zealand artillery came up through Mailly-Maillet, and were in action before evening.

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Lying in front of the New Zealand position, and in some parts dominating it, was the ridge and farmhouse of La Signy. Possession of this would not only greatly strengthen the line and drive the enemy elsewhere into the valley below, but would also give observation for some miles to the eastward. The 4th Rifles with 2nd Auckland in the centre and 1st Wellington on the right were chosen for the operation which was to be attempted at 2 p.m. on Easter Sunday, 30 March. There was no preliminary bombardment but a shrapnel barrage went down just on zero hour.

The German sentries were extraordinarily careless. They evidently had not the slightest fear of an attack, and especially of an attack in daylight across the open, and so when the first shells burst they stood down until the little "strafe" should be over. Their comrades in the line had finished dinner and were taking their ease. Many had flung off their equipment and were peacefully asleep. Others were in the comfortable concrete dugouts writing home on captured British Y.M.C.A. paper. They were' careless and secure, in great numbers, and with machine-guns enough to stop an army. The idea of an attack over those two hundred yards of level grass never entered their heads.

And so 2nd Auckland were half-way across before there was a shout or a shot. While the bewildered Germans struggled into their equipment, crawled slowly through the narrow dugout doors or sprang towards their guns, they crossed the remaining space to the enemy wire, scrambled over and through it, page 274shooting and bombing. The bewildered enemy panicked. Some ran. Many surrendered. Inside seven minutes from zero streams of prisoners were going back and carrying parties were moving over what had been No Man's Land, bringing spades, bombs, ammunition, and everything necessary for consolidation. The fleeing Germans were shot down in scores, and the few points of resistance quickly overwhelmed. Casualties were light on our side, but the Germans lost three hundred killed at least, three hundred prisoners, some hundreds of wounded, one hundred and ten machine-guns, and fifteen trench mortars. It was the first successful attack of any size since the German offensive.

During the next few days there were frequent bombing fights and incessant patrolling, heavy work endeavouring to consolidate the new line which was now wet and muddy, much firing by the artillery on the enemy communications. On 5 April the enemy made his final attempt against the Rifle Brigade and the 2nd Brigade, who were then holding the line. They brought up a considerable power of artillery and shelled with intensity front and back areas alike. All communications were cut. For three hours the storm continued, and then they flung in their infantry. The first attack broke down completely thirty yards from our line. Two hours later they came again in great force and overwhelmed the advanced post to the east of La Signy. This gave them some room in which they could deploy and bring their trench mortars into action. They sent bombing parties up every sap, but were stopped page 275and beaten back time and time again by steady riflemen who did not dream of running; by Lewis-gunners who manoeuvred to get out on flanks; by bombers who concealed themselves in front of our posts and fell suddenly upon the enemy as they crept cautiously toward our blocks. Next day rain fell heavily. There was for the time being little infantry activity. The German offensive on the Somme had been brought to a standstill.