Kiwis played big role in Hindenburg breach
By early 1918 the British Allied Command in World War I were pleased they had convinced their senior officers to keep the New Zealand and Australian units in the line of battle. Some officers had become frustrated with the refusal of the colonial units to observe the traditional deference of British working class people to the upper classes to which most officers belonged. Tugging the forelock and saluting officers, particularly English officers, was something the New Zealanders and Australians did only grudgingly.
There had been a suggestion that this lack of military discipline indicated a lack of ability as fighting soldiers but, when it came to close quarter fighting, particularly with the bayonet, the New Zealanders had few equals.
This brutal and deadly form of combat required courage but most of all it required very quick, strong and aggressive men who could ram the 14 inch Enfield bayonet through heavy trench coats and into the bodies of their enemies without flinching.
For many years afterwards veterans of the war suffered nightmares and pangs of conscience for the terrible things they were required to do to other human beings in the trenches of France. At the time however it was just another dirty job which had to be done and they were very good at it.
After a series of major German and British offensives in the quagmire of the French countryside the stalemate of trench warfare on the Western Front was finally broken and the German Army began to collapse.
During these actions the New Zealand units played a major role in the breach of the infamous Hindenburg Line and the capture of the walled town of Le Quesnoy during the last few months of the war.
Prior to these battles the war seemed to be turning in favour of Germany. The collapse of the Russian army, following the Bolshevik revolution in November 1917, had allowed the Germans to transfer more than 50 divisions to France. With these additional troops the German high command launched a massive offensive with the goal of ending the war before the full might of the United States, which had entered the war in April 1917, could alter the balance of military power.
When this German tactic failed they decided to fall back on defensive positions and hold them and creating another stalemate.
The British, realising what was happening pursued the retreating German army with the intent of turning retreat into a rout.
On August 21 the Battle of Bapaume opened and for nearly three months the New Zealanders were constantly moving forward. In fact they moved so fast that they often overran their daily objectives with some forward units walking straight down the main road and finding no one in their path.
In a few moments the New Zealanders had passed through the German infantry screen and had reached the enemy guns which they captured.
Looting has always been part of war but the New Zealanders were less than impressed with a Red Cross private who was so intent on robbing prisoners that he forgot his duty. A group of German prisoners included a young soldier who had obviously been seriously wounded.
A New Zealand soldier raised his overcoat, to reveal an arm hanging by threads of skin and not much else. The wound had not been dressed and the man was in danger of bleeding to death.
The Red Cross private was asked to attend to the man but refused and went on plundering. He then found he was looking down the barrel of a rifle held by a very angry New Zealander and the wound was attended to.
In the last village the New Zealanders received a rapturous welcome from civilians who had hidden in the cellars until the fighting was over.
The New Zealanders had advanced eleven miles in five days and with a total casualty list of five hundred and thirtysix, but had inflicted massive casualties on the Germans they encountered. They had captured thirteen guns, and over fourteen hundred prisoners.
On October 23 the New Zealand Division commenced its last advance and swept through Vertigneul and Ponta`-Pierre and Beaudignies to the outskirts of Le Quesnoy, where, on November 4 they captured the village and released the terrified inhabitants in an action which is still recalled in the village today.
Under cover of a smokescreen, a scaling ladder went up and men worked their way across the outer bastions and at last discovered an assailable point in the great inner wall. Fifteen minutes later the gates were flung open and the men of the Rifle Brigade marched into the town.
As the New Zealanders passed the houses, heads appeared cautiously at windows and then the families came streaming out, men and women and little children. There was a scene of wild enthusiasm.
The war was finally over and the New Zealanders could at last think of going home.
Of the 100,444, soldiers and nurses, from a population of just over a million, who served in the war 16,697 were killed and 41,317 were wounded.