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Chapter III Equipment of the New Zealanders

The New Zealand Expeditionary Force was first equipped with Stokes Trench Mortars at Armentieres early in 1916. It was decided by the Headquarters of the New Zealand Division in April of that year to inaugurate three batteries, and four representatives—two officers and two N.C.O.'s—were sent from each brigade of the Division to a Trench Mortar school at Erquehiem, about eight miles from Hazebrouck, for a course of instruction, and these officers and N.C.O.'s later acted as instructors to their respective batteries.

The New Zealand batteries experienced the same difficulties about firing at first as the English, Canadian, and Australian batteries had experienced. The Infantry complained that the trench mortars made it impossible to keep a sector of the line quiet, and as orders page 20were issued that, whatever happened, no gun was to fall into the enemy's hands it was necessary when a raid was likely to take place against any portion of the line we were holding to remove the guns from the front line.

At first they were removed every night to a prepared position in the support line. No battery fired more than ten rounds per gun per day, and in some cases so strong was the hostility shown to the gunners that days passed without a round being fired. Meanwhile the men carried out firing practice in the fields to the west of Armentieres, and as they learnt to understand the guns their enthusiasm for the new weapon grew stronger day by day.

Early in June it was decided that raids should be carried out at the same time as the Australian attack at Flerbaix and Levanté. To the lst Battalion of the Wellington Regiment fell the task of conducting a raid from the Mushroom sector on the La Chappelle front. It was arranged between General Earl page 21Johnston, Colonel Hart, and Captain Morgan were in advance signalling to the mortars at that the trench mortars should co-operate with the infantry, and accordingly two guns, under the control of Lieut. A. R. C. Smart, with 200 rounds of ammunition engaged in the preliminary bombardment. At nine o'clock 60 mortars opened fire simultaneously with the Artillery. In the opening stages Lieut. Smart was severely wounded by machine-gun fire and had to be taken away, Captain Morgan, who was present, taking command and acting as observer. The Stokes kept up a barrage about 40 yards in front of the Infantry, and as soon as the raiding party were in the German trench the length was increased on to the communication trenches. The German artillery was quickly on to the mortars and subjected them to a heavy fire, in which Captain Morgan was the only one injured, but only sustaining slight cuts about the arms. The raid was a most successful one, and the page 22Infantry were loud in their praise of the mortars when the raiding party returned. From then on the attitude of the battalion commanders towards the trench mortars underwent a marked change. The guns were asked to fire on every conceivable occasion and on all sorts of objects, the work of demolishing strong points and snipers' "possies" being a main feature of the work. A daily straafe, however, did not become a fixed institution until after the Battle of the Somme. During the remainder of the summer of that year our trench mortars did very heavy damage to the Bosche trenches in that sector until the Division left for the Somme.

The continuous daily harrassing fire of several of our mortar batteries on to the enemy front and support lines had a tremendous moral effect on the Hun, besides killing many Huns and destroying their trenches, blowing up machine guns and war materials. Unfortunately, however, the Division that took over page 23this sector from us when the New Zealand Division left for the Somme seemed to lack initiative and did not straafe the Hun as much as we had done, and the consequence was that when our Division returned from the Somme it found the Sailly sector, adjoining its old sector, very quiet, compared to Armentieres; and the Hun had actually the cheek to build cookhouses in very conspicuous positions right under the eyes of the troops in our trenches. Once more our mortars got to work and the old Hun soon found this sector a very uncomfortable one, and cookhouses and other abodes of luxury quickly vanished in the air.

The battalion commanders were very good to the Stokes battery commanders in supplying the latter with large carrying parties for carrying up ammunition, especially when the mortars were going to collaborate with the infantry in raids on the enemy lines. This we often did. These carrying parties had to be drawn from the Infantry, as the personnel page 24of a battery—viz., sixty-five—was so small that it was impossible to work the guns efficiently and also carry up thousands of rounds of ammunition. For instance, on some occasions we pumped a few hundred shells "rapid" into the enemy front line, and then over went the raiding party, while our mortars lifted their barrage and concentrated on the communication trenches and support line of the enemy while our men were doing their work in the Hun front line.

In connection with the formation of New Zealand Stokes Batteries the name of Captain F. Morgan, M.C., who afterwards died of wounds, must be mentioned. He was an officer of a very fine type, of untiring energy, and always looking for a stunt to show what the mortars could do; he loved them, and nearly every moment of his spare time was occupied in trying to bring the working of these weapons to a stage nearer perfection.

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In the Battle of the Somme our batteries did excellent work destroying enemy strong points and machine-gun positions which held up the advance, and in many cases it was only necessary to fire very few shells, so accurate were our gunners and so deadly was the effect of their fire.

Co-operation of all arms was everything on the Somme, as well as everywhere else, and on one occasion, through bombers who were in advance signalling to the mortars at a critical time, two machine guns of the enemy were silenced, a party of Germans holding some shell craters behind their front line were forced to surrender, and a half-mined village was cleared of the enemy. A few shells judiciously placed allowed the bombers to creep within a few yards of the German barricade and effectively bomb them out. There are many similar instances of the sterling work of the Stokes in this battle.

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On the 25th September, 1916, on the Somme, during the attack of the New Zealanders, the Stokes Mortars put up one of the finest shows during the whole war. The opinion of the War Office was that this co-operation of the Stokes with the Infantry and machine guns was a classic example of the ideal cooperation between these three branches of the Service.

The attack was launched from a trench in front of a Flers village called Grove Alley, and was directed against Factory Ridge. Over 3000 New Zealanders took part in this attack, and, owing to the thorough mopping up prior to the advance, of all enemy strong points and machine-gun positions, there were only three casualties sustained by our men during the attack. Two very strong enemy positions were discovered by our aeroplanes just before we went forward, one in No Man's Land in front of Grove Alley on the right of our position and one at the Sugar Factory on Factory page 27Ridge Against the strong point in front of Grove Alley was directed the fire of two Stokes Mortars at a range of 250 yards. Forty-four German dead were counted in this strong point when it was captured by us. Forty other Germans were captured here, besides the enemy brigadier-general and his staff, six enemy machine guns, and 200,000 rounds of ammunition. The German General, when this strong point was taken, said that if it had not been for the concentrated fire of our trench mortars on his position, this strong point, with its six machine guns, would have annihilated our Infantry in its advance, as 200 Germans had been specially picked for the job of defending it. Before our trench mortar fire had finished its devastating effect on the strong point in front of Grove Alley numbers of the enemy commenced to jump out of the strong point and run back towards Eaucourt L' Abbaye, and they would have made good their escape at once beyond the range of the page 28stokes Mortars at that time had their action not been seen by Sergeant George Hulme, of the First Auckland Battalion, who put his Lewis gun over the parapet and rushed forward to a point where he was able to sweep the whole of the ground over which the Huns were retreating. He was under heavy fire from two enemy Maxims during the forward move, but he kept his fire directed on the fleeing Germans and did great execution among them. For this act of gallantry he was recommended for the D.C.M., but, like many another deserving case, his was one of those of which nothing further was heard from the seat whence the gods give out their favours.

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