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The Auckland Regiment

XXVIII September

page 242

XXVIII September

"Boots, belts, rifle and pack,
All you'll need till you come back,
All you'll doff when you lie down to sleep.
All they'll take off when they bury you deep.
Boots, belt, rifle and pack."

The first few days of September were spent by the 1/Brigade in resting and reorganising. 2/Auckland were in huts and bivouacs on the Bancourt battlefield. Their cookers were brought up and the men received back their overcoats. It can hardly be imagined what a comfort an overcoat is after living in the open without one for a fortnight. If a man rolls himself into a round ball, tucks one tail of the coat over his head and the other under his feet, and then stops up the chinks with his tunic, the amount of heat generated is quite surprising. A heavy downpour of rain flooded a number of bivvies, but apart from the discomfort caused by this, the time passed pleasantly and quietly enough.

Reinforcements joined up in such numbers that a man who was slightly wounded at Grevillers and rejoined after Bancourt felt himself a stranger. The new men were of good quality. Throughout the whole of the war the New Zealand standard of manhood was maintained in the most remarkable fashion—the difference in this respect between the Main Body and the very latest of the reinforcements being relatively small. Many of the men in each draft were just of age, and had been for years eagerly looking forward to the time when they would be able to follow their elder brothers overseas. A very excellent leaven was also provided by older men, who, long before the war, had been settled in positions of responsibility, and with whom the breaking up of home and business was a serious matter.

Colonel Allen rejoined on September 5th, his wound having been quite a slight one.

page 243

1/Auckland on the 3rd of September moved from outside Bapaume to the area between- Bancourt and Fremicourt, from whence a day later they moved to Haplincourt, and then to Riencourt, where they stayed for the remainder of the rest period, drilling and working;.

In the meanwhile the advance had gone well forward. The 2/Brigade followed the enemy closely through Haplincourt and Bertincourt to Ruyaulcourt, from where after further fighting the pursuit continued through Neuville-Bourganval and Metz-Couture past Havrincourt Wood, and so to the Hindenburg line, on which it was the intention of the enemy to make a resolute stand. The German line ran along the high ground from Gouzeauocurt Wood, through the villages of Trescault and Havrincourt, and included a portion of the old British line—African Trench—which was particularly well sited for defensive purposes. The Rifle Brigade were now in the line, and after carrying out an attack on the 12th were to be relieved by the 1/Brigade, who on the 11th commenced to move up in readiness for the change over. That night 1/Auckland bivouacked at Ytres and 2/Auckland between Haplincourt and Bertincourt. At dawn the 62/Division and the Rifle Brigade made a successful attack, and as the 1/Brigade marched up prisoners were coming back in numbers. Many of them were Jaeger troops, whose green uniforms patched with leather were conspicuous amongst the more common field-greys. They were good men, and had fought with much determination. 2/Auckland, going into brigade reserve, took over some trenches, deep dug-outs and huts round the village of Metz, where they remained until relieved. Except for some shelling they had a very quiet time.

During the night, 1/Auckland relieved the 3/N.Z.R.B. in captured position east of Metz. Here they were heavily shelled, for the enemy, being now as he thought on a secure line, had his artillery in the old gun positions, and was shelling freely, using a good deal of "ground-shrapnel" and gas. This ground-shrapnel was a particularly objectionable form of frightfulness, which was fortunately only used to any great extent page 244during the last two or three months of the war. Up to this time the enemy had relied on the air-burst and the ordinary type of H.E., which buried itself some feet in the ground before exploding. Both types had obvious disadvantages. The first wasted much of its energy on the empty air, while the second was inevitably to a large extent smothered by the dead weight of earth which had to be thrown out. By fitting an exceedingly sensitive fuse to the H.E. shell a "ground-burst" was obtained. Every fragment of the shell thus became potentially destructive against troops advancing in the open. A well-placed barrage of these shells would have been as nearly impenetrable as anything of the sort could be.

Great numbers of dead Jaegers were lying about in the captured line, and many more live ones were obviously assembling in the trenches opposite, with the idea no doubt of launching a counter-attack. Bombing raids were carried out to disorganise the enemy. They were very successful, and the parties inflicted severe losses on the enemy and managed to withdraw with very light casualties themselves. Later on in the afternoon the enemy attack took place. It was a strong one, and he succeeded in driving in the advanced posts. At midnight he attacked once more, using liquid fire, and, coming in both on flank and front, caused a further retirement of the posts back on to the main line.

On the 14th, the New Zealand Division was relieved, and the 1/Brigade marched back to the vicinity of Bapaume, behind which the whole of the Division was concentrated. The next fortnight was given up to rest, reorganisation and training, in preparation for the heavy fighting which was to take place in the next few weeks.

At this time there were few who imagined that the end was as close as it actually proved to be. Certainly it was evident that Germany was weakening fast. In a succession of great victories nearly all the ground lost in the disasters of the spring had been reoccupied. The submarine campaign was being more than held. American troops were pouring into France by the hundred thousand. But still, the winter was page 245close at hand—the enemy were back on strongly fortified positions; they still had enough war material and enough men to fight on for months, and it seemed to many that, although perhaps there was just a possibility of a quick decision, it was more probable that another winter and spring campaign would be necessary to carry the Allied arms to the Rhine.

Training was easy enough, and the men recuperated quickly in the good billets and pleasant surroundings. During this time Dr. Holland-Rose, of Cambridge University, the famous historian, gave a series of lectures on various historical subjects. These lectures were attended by hundreds, and the lecturer was very pleased with the attentive and intelligent hearing given to him. Lectures of this sort were the chief success of the educational scheme with the men in the field. Another feature of the work, which was carried on under extreme difficulties, was the divisional library, which had been commenced during the winter spent in the Ypres salient. This library, consisting of the best books in all departments of knowledge, was a rallying point for all the students of the Division.

The New Zealanders were sufficiently far back to be out of the range of gun fire, but at night Hun bombing 'planes were particularly active against Bapaume. The town was a most important centre of communications. Roads radiated, from it in all directions, and a very great deal of traffic was continually passing through. In the old days, when the Division was in rest outside Bailleul, the night raiders had been located by searchlights and then heavily shelled by the antiaircraft guns. A very fine pyrotechnic display was thus given for the benefit of all who cared to watch the proceedings; the raider dropped his bombs and then departed, trailing shrapnel bursts behind him. Anti-aircraft gunners and the searchlight people felt after the commotion had subsided that they had really done something toward winning the war, while the Hun, from his point of view, was just as satisfied—he had dropped his bombs, and they had burst with a loud noise. No one was hurt, and by morning the various participants were sleeping page 246the sleep of the just. Times, however, had changed, and the "strafing" of raiders had become a much more scientific business. As the drumming in the air grew louder, the throb of the German engine became more clearly discernible, and as the big Gotha approached the town the searchlights flashed out, and half-a-dozen dazzling beams crossed and recrossed each other in the darkness. At last the beams converge on the raider and hold him fast in a point of intense light. Then a British fighter that has been up on patrol flies up to within fifty feet of the blinded Hun, and rattles in a short burst of fire. In a few seconds the Gotha commences to fall. Streaks of smoke and flame burst from her. She is on fire, and falling fast. A thousand feet from the ground she tumbles out of the searchlight beams, and then in a sheet of her own flame crashes amongst the ruins of the town—her bombs exploding as they fall to earth. For a couple of miles round the infantry in all the camps have been looking on with eagerness, and the fall of the enemy raider is greeted with a cheer. Then the searchlights went out, the patrol machine took up its beat backward and forward along the railway line, and the spectators went back to rest.

One of the principal events of the rest period was an inspection of the Battalions, carried out by General Russell. Much trouble was taken by everyone to reach a very high degree of polish, 1/Auckland in particular being highly successful in this endeavour. "Spit and polish" presented certain difficulties, owing sometimes to the shortage of the requisite supplies, but enthusiastic company officers usually managed, by scouring the country, to obtain sufficient for the purpose. Equipment was "blancoed" with khaki bianco, and its life thereby shortened. Eayonets whose surfaces had been dulled by a chemical process in the course of manufacture, were furbished with emery paper. "Soldiers Friend" and brasso made all brasswork shine like fire. A battalion polished up in this fashion presented a very imposing sight. The British Army was the only one in Europe to maintain the tradition of polished brass on active service. All others—French, German, American, page 247Belgian, Italian and Portuguese—having adopted the dull metal. On a sunshiny day a battalion marching along a dusty road would, at a distance of a few hundred yards, be almost indistinguishable, when of a sudden a ray of sunlight would strike on all the shoulders swinging in unison, and a shimmer of shining brass ran like a line of flame from one end of the column to the other. This was an extraordinarily beautiful sight, especially against a background of green fields.