XVII. Armentiéres

The New Zealanders took over the sector of Armentieres. The place had a reputation for quietness, and for many months had been looked upon as one of the best "rest-camps" on the line. "Doan'e ye fire at him, choom, and he woan't fire at you," seems to have been the principle on which the war was conducted in these parts.

On May 13th, 1916, 1/Auckland went into the line at "La Chapelle d'Armentieres," and on the following day 2/Auckland took over the "l'Epinette" sector. For the next three months trench warfare went on without interruption, and gradually increased in intensity and fun.

The trenches were old, and in many places not in the best condition. A very great deal of work was required, draining, revetting, clearing, sand-bagging, before they could be passed as satisfactory. Lieutenant-Colonel Alderman made particularly strenuous efforts in this direction. "Dig, men, dig! Do you want to live, then dig!" 2/Auckland perforce dug. Two-thirds of war is just sheer hard manual toil, digging and carrying.

Much interest was naturally centred in "No-Man's-Land" and the German territory adjacent thereto. A certain amount of mutual recrimination was always being carried on. "In page 94retaliation for our strafe on Pont Ballot, the enemy vigorously shelled our supports at Vancouver and the Orchard with H.E. and shrapnel, and our front trenches with minenwerfers. Damage done was insignificant." Note these "minnies." They occur and re-occur from this time forward. They are the sirens who sing the song of "Where's your bivvy? Where's your bivvy? Where's your bivvy?" And then, having obtained local directions, burst with a large, wide noise, making a hole in the ground of similar dimensions. For moral effect their radius is seven and a half miles! Much objection is taken to the enemy's display of periscopes. One day "our snipers smashed five of them;" another day they smash three. "Two pigeons passed over trench 74 and settled in the enemy's line." It is evident spies are at work in the town. A certain "Red house" comes in for much attention. "Washing is hung-out" therefrom. Evidently the blood-stained Hun has his clean moments. "A woman was observed in the red brick house—the first woman seen on this part of the front." Who was she, this woman, traitress or slave? "A man was seen working in a sap. He disappeared when fired upon," evidently a man of understanding, this one, by no means void of worldly wisdom. "A man was observed on the parapet wearing a blue cap with a blue band." A rather ornate-looking person, using field glasses, was seen "to drop his field glasses and fall back into the trench, obviously a case for the "field-lazaret," if not for a burial party.

As time went on, gentlemen with blue and red round their field-grey caps made themselves less conspicuous, although the signs of their activities were still to be seen. "A maul was observed over the parapet driving stakes"; deduction would point to the fact of a certain motive power, probably a Hun, at the other end of it. "A dummy gun and a dummy man were perceived on the opposing parapet."

Our L.T.M.B.'s were very active continually bombarding sections of the enemy line. A few "aerial torpedoes" come over, and "our Lewis guns fire 4500 rounds in retaliation."

This mutual retaliation business catches the imagination of page 95both sides. Whirlwind artillery strafes, trench-mortar duels, and continuous raiding become the order of the day. Fritz, who was by no means down-hearted at this stage of the game, made great play with minenwerfer, whizz-bang and "five-nine." The pace grew hotter and hotter, until all pretence of quietness passed, and Armentieres was generally recognised to have grown "hot."

On June 2nd the Germans put up sign-boards giving notice of the sea-fight at Jutland. Mutual recrimination once more followed, with the result that 2/Auckland suffered a number of casualties. On the 22nd the same unit had the misfortune to lose Major Wyman, wounded. He had served with the Mounted Rifles at Anzac, winning the D.S.O. and a very great reputation. In the reorganisation he had been sent to the Infantry, and had been placed in command of the I5th Company. A man of the type of Donald Hankey's "Beloved Captain," he was at once greatly beloved and very highly respected. He naturally knew little of infantry drill, and so made mistakes, which drew upon him the stinging censure of the commanding officer. Such a gentleman, and such a soldier as Major Wyman, could afford a few technical slips in parade-ground orders, for the 15th, to whom he was father, brother, leader and commander, would have followed him anywhere and done anything for him. He was hit through the chest by a chance machine-gun bullet while supervising some work in the vicinity of Tissage Dump, and although he lived, he was never again fit for service. His loss was a very great one.

A few days later, Lieutenant-Colonel W. Alderman was evacuated through the Field Ambulance, suffering from a nervous breakdown. Major S. S. Allen took command of the Second Battalion until the new Commanding Officer, Lieutenant-Colonel C. H. J. Brown, D.S.O., should arrive from England. This officer had already been associated with the Regiment in the affair of Quinn's Post, where he had been very badly wounded. Already he was looked upon as one of the best soldiers in the N.Z.E.F. 2/Auckland were fortunate in securing so fine a man to command them.

1/Auckland went into the l'Epinette sector on June 21st, occupying trenches 73, 74, 75 and 76, the strong points SPX and SPY, Willow Walk and Buterne Farm. Willow Walk, Plank Avenue and Japan Avenue led to the front line, which was held by the 15th and 16th Companies. Everything went well until the afternoon of July 3rd, when the Germans commenced to range with a big naval gun. This was an ominous sign. At 9 p.m. a coloured flare went up from the enemy rear line. There was a feeling of impending danger. At 10.30 p.m. hell suddenly broke loose. Every kind of missile rained down upon the front line. The parapet was blown in, dug-outs smashed, men killed, wounded and buried alive. For an hour the noise continued, the detonations filling the night with sound, the flashes lighting up the darkness. The Huns were about to raid. It was impossible to move about, but every man grasped his rifle, crouched down beneath what shelter was left, ready to leap up and fire as soon as the barrage lifted and the raiders should endeavour to push in. The air was heavy with smoke and fumes and the smell of phosphorus. In a little trench ahead of the front line, Corporal Best and five men of the 16th Company were stationed on outpost duty. It was impossible for them to get back, as the enemy barrage was falling between them and their own front line. They determined to fight, and as soon as the enemy barrage lifted fighting commenced. The little party, well supplied with bombs, made a most gallant resistance, and were not taken until their supply of bombs was exhausted and nearly every man wounded. Their stubborn and unexpected tight undoubtedly disorganised the raiders' plans. The telephone wires were all cut, but before communication quite ceased Battalion Headquarters got in touch with the front line, and Major R. C. Allen was ordered to take up a platoon of the Hauraki Company and reinforce. As Plank Avenue and Japan Avenue were both blocked and under very heavy fire, the party went overland, straight through the barrage of high explosive that was falling between the front and support lines. There was comparative quietness for the space of an hour, during which page break

Armentieres—Fleurbaix

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North of France—Belgium—The Rhine.

page 97the wounded were cleared and everything possible done to restore the line. Major Allen returned, and the survivors were congratulating themselves on their good fortune, when of a sudden the German barrage fell once more. This time it was largely a "minenwerfer" strafe. Another hour of terror, more men killed, wounded and buried alive, and then the raiders, reorganised after their first check, tried once more to rush the front line. They tried obstinately, but with no success. The Aucklanders "stuck it" steadfastly, every man fighting just where he stood, shooting and bombing straight ahead at the indistinct figures moving in the wire. After half an hour of constant effort the raiders withdrew, baffled, leaving behind them a large canister of powder which they had brought as far as the parapet (and with which they intended to destroy our mining system), a few hand-bombs, and one dazed man who was found next morning wandering about the line. Major R. C. Allen once more came up through the barrage, bringing with him R.S.M. Thompson and some 1/Otagos from the subsidiary trenches. They helped to put the line to rights and clear the wounded.

Altogether it had been a very bloody and expensive business, 33 O.R.'s being killed, 1 officer and 63 O.R.'s wounded. and 5 O.R.'s missing. The officer, Captain Morpeth, was a very brave and excellent soldier. He was singularly unfortunate, having been badly wounded the day of the Landing, and now, after a few weeks only of trench warfare, he was so badly hurt as to be incapacitated for further service. Sergeant Major Todd, of the 16th, especially distinguished himself in holding the company together. His coolness, resolution and cheerfulness were most marked. When the artillery fire first opened, R.S.M. Thompson was in Houplines, chatting with friends in the 2/Auckland R.A.P. As soon as the uproar was heard, he stopped suddenly, drew himself up, listened for a moment, and then said that he must go to his battalion at once. He was trembling; everyone knew that he feared to go into the bursting hell of noise ahead; but he did go, and went not only to his Battalion Headquarters, but right up to the page 98smashed front line, and there worked like any private soldier to straighten out the smash. Few men with the Regiment ever commanded such genuine respect as R.S.M. "Andy" Thompson. Major Allen's extreme coolness was remarked on by all.

On the 19th July 1/Auckland were to carry out a raid from the Port Egal sector. This was not a success, owing to a certain confusion in the arrangements. Sergeant Fox and three men were the only ones to enter the enemy trenches. All through the Armentieres period Sergeant Fox continued to uphold the very high reputation he had won at Anzac, doing very much fine patrol work. During the preliminary movements before the raid, Lieutenant Gasparich, a hero of the Daisy Patch, and one of the most popular members of the Main Body, was wounded for the third time, and permanently incapacitated.

2/Auckland during this period were holding the line in front of Houplines, and continuing to have quite an uneventful time. On the night of 12/13th August, Captain Armstrong carried out a highly successful little raid. The party had been carefully trained. Captain Armstrong had with him Lieutenant Cooper, one of the best and ablest of the Gallipoli men. The ground had been most carefully reconnoitred, and everything went exactly according to plan. The party assembled in No-Man's-Land under a covering barrage, moved up toward the gaps in the enemy wire, dashed in the instant the barrage lifted, bayonetted a few Huns, captured a machine-gun, the first taken by the New Zealanders in France, and two prisoners, and then, having achieved their purpose, withdrew without loss.

The only other incident of any importance during the time in the line was the discovery by Dr. Nelson of 1/Auckland of a large store of red wine in one of the abandoned buildings at La Chapelle d' Armentieres.

After the barren life at Anzac and the isolation of the desert, Armentieres was a good place. It was a quaint old-world town, built almost entirely of red brick. The churches, the religious foundations and the schools were the most prom-page 99inent buildings. The streets were the famous "pave" roads of France, a barbarous survival of medievalism. Five-sixths of the population had fled long before the arrival of the Division. Those who remained were for the most part the most courageous of the poor folk, who were prepared to risk much rather than leave the humble homes which meant so much to them. Most were women and children, for the men were under arms.

Armentierès, except for certain parts, was a city of silence. Grass was growing between the cobble-stones. Street after street was empty and silent. The glass in the windows was smashed by the detonations of the bursting shells. Every here and there a house was torn by a shell-hole in roof or wall. Some had been burst open, and all the pitiful relics of the once happy homes were lying in confusion amidst the tangle of rubbish on the floor. The life of a happy and industrious town was gone. More tragic than the loss of prosperity and the shattering of bricks and mortar was the death and wounding of women and children. Every day some of them were hit. The sight of a woman horribly dead, lying in the shattered smash of her home was terrible; to hear the groans and cries of a girl who half an hour before had been the life and soul of a crowded estaminet—a superb example of bright and splendid womanhood—and to realise that she was dying in agony was very terrible; and to find a little maid of six, goldenhaired and blue-eyed, the very picture of hundreds of the little sisters of our own homes—dying on the stones of the street from shock, was most terrible. War is horrible. Imagine the tragedy of this French town, with its shattered and desecrated homes, its silent streets, its long roll of women and children killed and wounded. But tragedy was never allowed to obtrude itself. The French folk were far too brave for that. Armentierès was for the New Zealanders a most cheerful place.

In between trench spells the Battalions were billeted in the town, 1/Auckland in the basement of the large blind factory at the rear of the town, and 2/Auckland in the Breuvert Fac-page 100tory, off "Barbed-wire-square." Both of these billets were exceedingly popular and very comfortable. 1/Auckland were roused in the morning by a troop of "gamins" and "mademoiselles" entering their dormitory in the "Blue Blind Factory" to sell the morning paper, eggs and chocolate. Mademoiselle was an adept at rough wit, and the jokes flew round fast and furiously. People arising to wash found another "troop of damsels glad" arriving for the day's work in the factory. As often as not the day was free, for the working parties on which the Battalions in rest were employed were for the most part required at night. Quite close to the factory was the "Ecole Professionale," a very fine structure, though now of a somewhat dilapidated appearance, resulting from an intensive application of Hun "Kultur." This institution was the centre of the Divisional social life. The Y.M.C.A., the Church Institutes, the Canteen, the Picture Theatre, were all established in various parts of the great building. In close proximity were numbers of estaminets and cafes. To the Anzac men, in particular, this seemed a very fine kind of war. Nevertheless, it was war. Even at the best of times there was some reminder. One day the Hun left his visiting card at the door of the picture show, in the shape of a huge shell-crater. For the next two or three sessions the patrons were not as enthusiastic as heretofore, and sat somewhat lightly on their seats, ready to beat a hasty retreat in case of need. The aeroplanes, either a "Fritz" or one of ours, were always passing overhead and drawing to themselves the attentions of the anti-aircraft guns. The unconquerable optimism of human nature was never better displayed than when men, after three months in the town, still watched for the result of each shot, in the hope that something interesting might happen to the "flieger" up aloft. The planes themselves were a never-ending source of interest. As a rule they flew backwards and forwards without any tangible result, as far as the infantrymen could observe; but just now and again something did happen. One day a British plane dashed over Houplines and flew straight for the line of German captive balloons. He was over the first, and a second page 101or two later it burst into flames, the next and the next came down burning furiously. It was a great sight, and the cheering that went up was most exasperating to the Hun, who replied after the objectionable manner of his kind by turning on the "Minnie-guns."

The "estaminets" and "chip-shops," whether in the vicinity of the Blue Blind Factory or Barbed-wire-square, were centres of great revellings, where many a tall story was told in a dialect which consisted of distorted French mixed with English of an elementary and often sulphurous sort, accompanied with much gesture and more laughter. Chips, eggs, coffee and beer were all good in their way; but brave, cheerful, generous, good-natured mademoiselle was much better than them all What a wonderful creature she was—jamais fachee, jamais vexee; how willing she was to "promenade avec monsieur apres la guerre," or to go back with him to New Zealand "after de next war per-r-raps." "Mademoiselle from Armentierès," you were a good friend to the New Zealanders. You and they went through some hard times together, and you are not forgotten. Men in the bush camps and on the sheep runs, in the mine and factory, busy town and quiet countryside still talk of and think of you. They have married their old fiancees now, or are looking round for better ones—and you, your heroic men have come back, those who are left, and you, too. will be marrying and settling down. Fate and chance sent you the New Zealand men for a little while. For a brief space you were their womenfolk. You opened your hearts and your homes. You said that the "soldats de la Nouvelle Zelande étaient beaucoup bien aimés." They thank you, and do not forget.

The trenches were only twenty minutes walk from the town. At three o'clock in the morning a man might be wiring in No-Man's-Land, every now and again dodging the bursts from "Parapet Joe," whose favourite melody, "Where is my wandering boy to-night?" went to all hearts. At dawn, or a little before, he would file down through the saps and the silent town, have breakfast, sleep for a few hours, and then page 102go down to Pont Nieppe for a bath. These baths at Pont Nieppe were the most famous in France. Never were such baths. Great round vats, capable of holding a dozen and more, were filled with water five feet deep, steam-heated. Into these vats the bathers piled themselves, and commenced a jolly scramble. Then emerging like giants refreshed, they clothed themselves in clean underclothing and received back coats and trousers, minus sundry boarders, who had succumbed to the "pressing" attentions of the mademoiselles armed with hot irons, whose presence behind certain screens of sacking was betokened by frequent outbursts of song. That afternoon, clean and well "swanked up," the soldier would be cracking jokes with plump and jolly Marie in the coffee and pastry shop near "Half-past-eleven-square," or buying luxuries for tea from Marie, Madeleine and Bertha Vandamme.

Until "eight o'clock fineesh" there were the estaminets of innumerable madames and mademoiselles, Simonue, Louisa, Darkie, Ginger, and many another, at that time known to fame. Of course, all this sociability and real good fun gave opportunities for espionage, which otherwise would not have existed. Nevertheless, the "moral effect" of the civilian population was more than worth any harm that ensued. Armentieres, without its shops, estaminets and cafes, would have been as bad as Anzac.

Armentierès was only a trench spell, yet the casualties were by no means light. 1/Auckland lost a total of 265 officers and men, of whom 62 were killed, while 2/Auckland lost a total of 149, 22 being killed. The majority of the dead were carried back and buried in the cemetery behind the town. This cemetery will always be a sacred place for New Zealanders, as more than 300 of our dead are buried there—more than in any other one place in France.

July 1, 1916, the storm burst on the Somme. At that stage of the war there was no opening for brilliant strategy, no hope of large movements. The German was almost at the climax of his strength. He had guns, he had able commanders, he had brave men. The only thing that could be done was page 103to stand and fight face to face; to join battle; to feed the furnace with the fuel of fresh divisions; to co-ordinate into one mighty machine the full force of Britain and France and to strike with it a weightier blow, and, if possible, a faster blow, than the German machine could strike.

All through June a mighty prelude was played on the whole line from Nieuport to Verdun. Every week the artillery fire grew more intense. Every week raids were more frequent. There was a tense feeling in the air—the expectation of battle. In the darkness of the night men looked southward to see if the sky was red with 8ame; in the quietness of the long night watches they listened for the rumble of the massed guns beating on the German lines. The battlefield of the Somme, like some huge magnet, drew to itself the imagination of all the Armies.

For six weeks the struggle waxed greater and greater, and then toward the middle of August the 51st Division marched into Armentierès with German pickelhaubes on their heads and the souvenirs of famous Prussian regiments in their haversacks. There was a wild time in the old town that night, with New Zealanders and Jocks holding high revel, greeting and parting in the same night. A wild night! and Fritz, to make it wilder, threw five-nine's about and therewith slew certain Scotchmen.

Next morning the Battalions fell in and marched to Steenwerck railway station. "Good-bye, madame! Good-bye, mademoiselle! Good-bye piccanins! Nous allon kill beaucoup Bosches, come back promenade avec vous! Au revoir! Bon sante!" It was a straggling march. No one had done any marching for over three months, and everyone was soft. Moreover, it was the morning after the night before, and loads were heavy. Not a few dixies and other essential parts of the impedimenta were shamefully abandoned by the wayside.