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Chapter XIV.
Departure for France.

The 1st Battalion left Moasear Camp on the 6th and 7th April. Hawke's Bay and Wellington-West Coast Companies, leaving camp on the 6th, proceeded by train to Alexandria and embarked on H.M. Troopship "Arcadian." The vessel left port at 6.30 p.m. on the 7th for Marseilles. The balance of the battalion, consisting of the Battalion Headquarters' details, and the Taranaki and Ruahine Companies, marched to Ismailia, entrained to Port Said, and there embarked on H.M. Troopship "lngoma." The transport details, with horses and wagons, left on the 6th from Alexandria on H.M. Troopship "Eleele."

The 2nd Battalion left on the 8th, entrained for Alexandria and, on the following day, embarked on the two troopships "Knight of the Garter" and "Llandovery Castle," both of which port on Monday, 10th April. No trouble from enemy submarines hampered the voyage to Marseilles. All precautions were taken against such an eventuality. The guns mounted on the vessels were manned continuously and the troops were instructed in boat and life-belt drill. The voyage across, owing to crowded conditions, made it well-nigh impossible to continue any serious training. The best that could be hoped for was to practise rifle drill and do a little physical training. On the 12th and 13th the troopships "Arcadian" and "Incoma" respectively reached Marseilles, while the "Eleele" page 94arrived on the 14th. The 1st Battalion thereupon entrained for the North of France. The troopships containing the 2nd Battalion reached Marseilles on the 18th April and the same day entrained for the British Sector in the North of France. After a short rest and somewhat scrappy training, much interfered with by reorganising units, Battalion orders were received to move into the front line sector and, on the 9th May, the 1st Battalion marched from its billets to Estaires. This was the first time our troops encountered the pavé roads of France and Belgium, and toll was taken from them by causing a good number of the men to fall out on the march. Perhaps the fact was partly to be accounted for by the great shortage of boots, supplies not by any means meeting the insistent demands of the quarter- masters. Perhaps the fact might be explained, too, by both battalions possessing a large leaven of raw troops, recent rein- forcements who, apart altogether from the question of esprit de corps, were too soft physically to stand a march which, even to hardened troops, was a big undertaking. The rounded stones of the pavé were torture to march on, and the only way satisfactorily to cope with them was to have boots sufficiently thick and comfortable to minimise the discomfort. On arrival at the billets, the troops quickly settled down in the places selected for them by the officers who had gone ahead in advance for that purpose. The next day the Commanding Officer and company commanders went up to the front line and inspected the sector which the battalions were about to take over.

The New Zealand Division was now to relieve the 17th Division in front of Armentieres. The relief was carried out according to plan. As the troops entered the area of the 17th Division, they came under that Divisional Commander's orders until the infantry relief was complete. In order to facilitate the relief the New Zealand Division took over all the telephone lines and instruments of the 17th Division and handed that Division its telephone lines and instruments. The New Zealand Division also took over the trench mortars, excepting the Stokes mortars.

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The Division was distributed by the 1st Brigade taking over the right sector, the 2nd Brigade the left sector, while the Rifle Brigade were in divisional reserve. The 1st Brigade had two battalions in the front line and two in reserve, while the four battalions of the 2nd Brigade were in the front line.

To ensure that the relief would be effected without, any hitch and so that (on the relief being complete) the troops should be ready for all emergencies, all the officers of the battalions reconnoitred the positions to be relieved, the intel- ligence officers and the snipers took over their positions two days before the Divisional relief.

On the 12th May, the 1st Battalion moved into the town of Armentieres preparatory to moving into the line the next day. That night they occupied billets in the town where they were quickly recognised as new troops by the large number of French civilians who still remained. Armentieres at that time had suffered very little from hostile gun-fire and was practically intact. The village of Houplines on the outskirts of the town was not so fortunate, and it was largely in ruins when our troops took over the Armentieres sector. In Armentieres there were shops of every description, and these restaurants —ran entirely by civilians—found ready patronage from the troops. At Half-past Eleven Square (so-called because the clock on the Town Hall in the Square had been stopped by a shell at that hour), there was always a crowd of civilians to be found. Market Day was observed in the Square of the Notre Dame Church and, in many respects, Armentieres pro- ceeded apparently unperturbed by the fact that it was sitting on the front line dividing friend and foe.

On the 13th May, the relief of the front line took place, the First Brigade taking over the line held by the 51st Infantry Brigade, 1st Wellington relieving the 7th Lincolnshires.

The relief was, of course, carried out in darkness. The battalion began to leave its billets at 8 p.m. and proceeded in companies with an interval of 50 yards between companies.

The relief was completed without incident at 11 p.m. The disposition of the battalion was that the sector was divided into two. The right, or No. 1 locality, also known as Pigot's page 96Farm, was held by "Wellington-West Coast Company with one- platoon, while the left sector (No. 2), called "The Mush- room,"' was held by Hawke's Bay Company, with two pla- toons. The balance of these companies comprised the company supports. Ruahine Company was in the right half of the sub- sidiary line, while the other half Taranaki Company occupied. Battalion headquarters was situated at Chapelle D'Armen- tieres. The quartermaster's store was at Armentieres, and the transport at the village of Pont de Nieppe, which was two and a-half miles from the town.

The 2nd Battalion reached the town at 4 p.m. on the 14th May, "West Coast Company with Taranaki Company moving that night up to the line, the latter taking over the front line with the former in the support trenches. Battalion headquarters, with the remaining two companies, stayed the night in the town.

Next day the whole of the 2nd Battalion took over the- portion of the line allotted to it, the relieved battalion being the 9th Duke of Wellington. Both Hawke's Bay Company and Ruahine Company took over front line trenches. The relief was carried out without incident or casualty and in fine weather.

The condition of the trenches made it imperative that they be built up and strengthened. They had been allowed to fall into a condition of disrepair that would never have- passed muster by the G.O.C. Division. The work done naturally attracted the curiosity of the enemy, who endeavoured to satisfy his curiosity with shell fire without, fortunately, doing any harm to the new work. Our artillery had been registering on new targets and shelling any movements to an extent apparently out of all proportion to what the enemy had been experiencing for some time at least. On the 17th May he bombarded a locality about 500 yards from 2nd Battalion Headquarters, searching for one of the batteries. The battalion suffered its first casualties as a consequence, two of our men being wounded.

At this time there was a good deal of suspicion that spies were operating behind our lines. A good deal of the suspicion page 97was due tn the fact that civilians were living within a few yards of the trenches the records show that the 2nd Battalion Headquarters' staff noticed pigeons rising about 7 p.m. from the rear of the Headquarters. Pigeons, however, were commonly found in the district during peace time and, no doubt, the novelty of the situation and the proximity of civilians gave rise to many rumours that had no facts to support them.

The troops quickly settled down, rumours became less frequent and the first efforts to obtain superiority in No Man's Land were taken in hand. The Artillery, too, began to assume a habit of shelling, which at first drew on them the concentrated shell fire of the Hun. It was only after many dules that the enemy realised that it paid him better to give up that superiority of shell fire he undoubtedly possessed, and his replies to our bombardments gradually dwindled in comparison.

It is appropriate here to mention how the troops were fed in the line in France. In this respect, it affords a happy contrast to Gallipoli. While, naturally, it was impossible to bring horses and transport up the Battalion Headquarters in the line during daylight, as soon as dusk fell, the quartermaster, who lived in Armentieres and had his store there, dispatched the Regimental transport with supplies to the line.

Each quartermaster-sergeant, who lived at the store, also, came up with the stores and reported with them to the company commanders. The food stores were packed in sandbags, each bag containing eight men's rations. The company commanders gave their instructions to the quartermaster-sergeant each evening, and on account of the locality the troops were able to buy luxuries undreamt of on the bare hills oE the Dardanelles Peninsula. The only stores not handled by the quartermaster-sergeants were the trench stores. These were relegated to the regimental sergeant-majors, who took them over, supplied them as required and handed them over to reliefs. The convenience of being able to bring stores in the transport within a few hundred yards of Headquarters reduced the arduous task of carrying by men to a minimum. It was characteristic of all commanding officers of the Well-page 98ington Regiment that transport and stores were compelled to do everything conceivable so that the troops in the line should be spared as far as possible.

One of the difficult tasks that fell to the 1st Wellington was holding and defending a sharp salient known as "The Mushroom," which jutted into No Man's Land and to within a very few yards of the enemy front line. When this sector was taken over, "The Mushroom" had not been much occupied and its defence rested largely on flank fire from machineguns posted for the particular purpose. On the 15th May the enemy blew up a good deal of the already imperfect trench line in that salient and, throughout the night, played on the gaps made with his machine-guns. During the shelling, "The Mushroom" was cleared of troops, yet the enemy succeeded in killing one man and wounding five.

Two days later, the 1st Battalion carried out a relief between companies. The relief was held up for a while on account of gas alarms being mounded three times through the night. Gas was a weapon of war that the troops had little or no experience of at the time, and although much literature had been read by the officers and imparted to the troops, and gas drill had been taught and all ranks had been through a gas chamber before entering the trenches, yet it required experience of the real thing to make the troops realise what they had to do in the event of an attack. During the stay in the Armentieres sector there were many false alarms, which can be ascribed to inexperience rather than nerves.

It became manifest to the Germans that new troops of a particularly active kind were in front of them, and they took measures to prevent surprises Tn front of the sector taken over by the Wellington Battalions the enemy had six balloons in the air for observation purposes. Our aircraft now began to display fresh activity over the sector and caused many a balloon to descend in haste.

The left flank of the 2nd Battalion, resting on the river bank, was exposed to the view of the enemy from the ruins of Frelingheim, opposite, and also from the other side of the river. The enemy took the opportunity this observation page 99afforded them by shelling the line at the extreme left, trenches 87 and 88 receiving most attention. It was noticeable at that time that the enemy were using either very old shells or their manufacture was very defective. Our own Artillery at the same time were complaining of the poor quality of their ammunition.

In the first days of trench warfare in France, purely through inexperience, our snipers were no match for the enemy; but in a week or two they obtained the mastery over the wily German sniper and thenceforward our snipers could watch and snipe almost with impunity. The mastery was not obtained, however, easily, for the German sniper was a highly trained man with the very best equipment for the purpose. Our equipment at first was, on the contrary, most unsatisfactory: the telescopes were limited in number and the sights for the rifles as well as the Observation Posts were quite inadequate. It reflected the greatest credit on the officers in charge of these snipers for the manner in which they organised their sniping, and, gradually and intrepidly, asserted their superiority over the German.

On the 23rd May, the 2nd Battalion was relieved by the 4th Battalion of the Rifle Brigade. The relief was delayed through the enemy selecting that night for a bombardment of Armentieres. Lieut.-Colonel W. H. Cunningham had resumed command of the battalion. The 1st Battalion had already been relieved by 1st Canterbury and were in billets.

The two battalions, while out of the line, laid down a programme of training, which included the making of wire entanglements, sniping, signalling and bombing. Unfortunately, the programme was never in full operation as demands were made on the companies for large working parties for the trenches, and many guards had to be, mounted over bridge-heads, cross-roads and dumps.

The demands for working parties were enormous, and batmen and other ranks such a bootmakers and incidental employees on Headquarters had to do their share in these parties. This was an innovation of which these comparatively privileged persons did not at all approve.

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The whole of the Divisional front concentrated on improving the local defences and, with that end in view, wiring was pushed ahead. Patrols would go out and up to the enemy front line, and, behind these protective troops, the wiring would go on. At first a few enemy patrols were met with, and possession of No Man's Land was contested; but, very soon, the enemy was content to leave that strip of land in possession of our troops. Of course, now and then, when his front line Was blown in or his wiring blown away, repairs would be effected: but, on the whole, the enemy refrained from trespassing on land, possession of which had been wrested from him.

On June 1st our troops had their first taste of intensive shell fire. The Germans shelled with all calibre of artillery the sector held by the 1st Battalion, partly concentrating on the front trenches and partly just in rear of Pont Ballot. Retaliation was forthcoming and, after an artillery duel, which had resulted in little damage to us, all was quiet. An incident worth recording was the escape from its anchor of one of our balloons. It was observing from near Pont De Nieppe. The wind was gently blowing over the line towards (he enemy. As soon as the balloon broke away, it rapidly aseended, and then steadily drifted over towards No Man's Land. It was elearly lost to us and anxiety was felt for the two observers in the carriage of the balloon. They left it rather late to parachute down; but, as the balloon was passing over our lines, they jumped out and, from the ground, it was impossible to see if they would land on friendly or enemy soil. Luckily, they both landed on the right side. It was characteristic of the Hun's strange sense of sportsmanship that, as soon as the men were seen tossing in the air beneath their parachutes, they opened up seemingly every machine-gun in the area to try and riddle those helpless men. Both sides then opened on the balloon with their artillery, and the "Archies" could be heard popping away and bursting their shells all round the target. The shooting was ineffective: not one hit was recorded and the huge ballon slowly drifted over into enemy country, despite the determined efforts of our and the enemy artillery. The "Archies" were always looked on as page 101almost futile and probably that incident laid the seed for that impression.

It seemed that the Germans were making what proved to be a, spasmodic attempt to reassert themselves. The shelling increased. It was at this time that the British won the Baltic of Jutland and for ever drove the German Fleet from the sea. Opposite the sector occupied by the 1st Battalion, the German troops hoisted a large board announcing the annihilation of our Fleet, giving figures and boats in detail to lend strength to the lie. The Australians had a battery nearby and shelled the notice. The enemy, in his attempt to assert himself, brought up a powerful high veloity gun, apparently a naval gun, and shelled Armentieres, choosing as a target the dome of Notre Dame Church. The shelling was very accurate, and many of the shells found their allotted billets. Those that missed continued on and hit a large brick building used as a hospital. Owing to the gallantry of the medical orderlies, the casualties were, happily, very small.