Best and Bravest

by Glyn Harper

  At the end of August 1916, the New Zealanders moved south to the Picardy region to get ready for an attack on the Somme. When Donald Brown wrote home, he showed that most of the New Zealand soldiers knew they would soon be in action:

  We have been relieved from the trenches, and are now further south, just behind where the fighting is going on. This country is a great place, and travelling down to here was as good as a month by the sea. The crops all over are just lovely, and France can hold her own for beauty. Shortly you will be hearing of us New Zealanders making an attack, as from what has been said and done, and the solid training we have been putting in, all leads to our making an attack shortly.

  Brown’s last letter home, written just before the New Zealand attack, shows he knew there was a good chance of being killed or injured:

  We expect to get up very soon, and the noise is something deadly, and just here divisions go in and come out in a day or two reduced to less than company strength; so don’t be surprised if I manage a trip. We are all in great spirits at being able to have a hand in this big push.

  The New Zealand Division was on the Somme for three weeks. On the evening of 14 September the New Zealand Division was in the front-line trenches ready to launch a dawn assault. Their objective was to capture German front-line trenches around the villages of Flers and Gueudecourt. This would bring their line forward by around 3 kilometres. The attack would start with an uphill advance to capture the first German trench — Switch Trench — which sat along a ridgeline. The advance would continue downhill to capture two more German trench lines. The final stage would be an advance to the edge of Flers.

  An artillery barrage had been pounding the Germans for three days as the New Zealanders moved into position. After a quick breakfast, which included a tot of rum, New Zealand soldiers climbed out of their trenches at 6.20 a.m. and moved carefully forward behind the protection of a creeping barrage of gunfire. A creeping barrage was where the artillery fired their guns so that the shells landed in a line, which they moved slowly towards the enemy so that the attacking infantry could follow just behind. This was planned so that as soon as the barrage passed, the attackers arrived at the enemy before they were ready to come out of cover or to fight back.

  The New Zealanders were on the left of the line, with two British divisions attacking to their right. Facing the New Zealanders were two German divisions. The German soldiers had been waiting out the artillery barrage in their deep shelters.

  Eight companies from the 2nd Otago and the 2nd Auckland Battalions advanced. They closed in on the German trenches and passed through the broken wire. The New Zealand infantry reached the German trenches just as the gun barrage lifted and took the first two trenches, killing many of the Germans they found there. Taking the next trench was not so easy.

  As they advanced towards it the New Zealanders realised one of their flanks was in danger. Because they had advanced so quickly, they were ahead of the rest of the troops, who had been held up by heavy fighting in the woods. The Germans poured a deadly crossfire into the Otago Battalion. Many of the Otago soldiers were hit and the advance stopped.

  Sergeant Brown and Corporal Jesse Rodgers crept up until they were 30 metres away from a machine-gun. They rushed it, killed the crew of four and brought the gun back. The two New Zealand battalions reformed and got ready to charge Switch Trench as soon as the artillery barrage lifted. While they waited they came under fire from a machine-gun behind them. Donald Brown and other soldiers rushed the gun and killed the crew. Then the barrage lifted and the New Zealanders ran through the shattered barbed wire and stormed the trenches. It was a successful assault. By 6.50 a.m. the New Zealand infantry was in complete control of the Switch Trench system.

  The soldiers set to work improving the defences of the trench in preparation for a counter-attack. Donald Brown played an important part, organising the defence and rallying the men. The weary Otago soldiers stayed in the Switch Trench until they were relieved at 2.00 a.m. the next day. Donald’s company had started the morning with 180 men — only 57 were left. One of those wounded on 15 September wrote about him:

  We advanced on 15th Sept., and to me it looked as though the men in our platoon would have followed him anywhere, for the simple reason that he would never ask a man to go anywhere, or do anything, that he wouldn’t do himself.

  The 2nd Brigade relieved the 1st Brigade in the Gird Trench on the night of 28–29 September and got ready for another attack on 1 October. The weather was atrocious and there was heavy German shelling.

  The attack was timed for 3.15 that afternoon, and in the morning an eight-hour British artillery barrage began. The signal for the attack was to be a barrage of 36 oil mortars, a terrible weapon that would smother the German trenches with flames and thick smoke. As the German trenches disappeared under a wall of flame and black cloud, the New Zealand infantry attacked. There was heavy fighting and in just a few minutes the two Otago companies on the right had lost all their officers. Sergeant Brown’s company suffered heavily when they attacked the Circus Trench, and again they were held up by a machine-gun. Donald went forward, alone this time, found the gun, shot the crew with a German Luger pistol, and captured it. Once he had dealt with the machine-gun the New Zealand infantry attacked and took the trench. Donald Brown, who was at the front of the attack, was killed when he was hit in the head by long-range machine-gun fire.

  His company commander wrote to Donald’s father:

  In the first trench we took he did some very good work, and I sent forward a recommendation for a D.C.M. to Headquarters. I enclose a copy of my recommendation, but I regret that owing to his untimely end nothing further came of it.

  Donald’s battalion commander wrote to his father that ‘if he had lived I had hoped to recommend him, at least for the D.C.M., and he might have got a Victoria Cross’. The officers of his battalion wouldn’t let the matter rest and lobbied their superiors. On August 1917, the Governor-General of New Zealand, the Earl of Liverpool, presented the nation’s second VC of the war to Donald Brown’s father at Oamaru.

  Another Anzac VC

  PRIVATE THOMAS COOKE

  Two other VCs were earned on the Western Front that year by men with strong connections to New Zealand. Private Thomas Cooke of the 8th Infantry Battalion, AIF, was the first. Private Cooke was born in Kaikoura but moved to Melbourne a few years before the war began. He earned the award at Pozières, in the Somme region, on 24 July 1916.

  When the Australians had taken Pozières, Private Cooke was ordered to take his Lewis gun team out into a dangerous part of the line. Thomas and his team went off and set up their gun in the position.

  When they began firing they quickly cleared the area around them of German resistance but their post came under attack from long-range machine-gun fire. One by one Thomas’ men were hit and the Germans launched a counter-attack.

  Thomas stayed at his post, firing the gun until he ran out of ammunition. Even then he stayed at the post, pretending he was still firing until he was killed. Thomas’ VC was awarded on 9 September 1916.

  A Kiwi Connection

  CAPTAIN BERNARD FREYBERG

  Captain (Temporary Lieutenant Colonel) Bernard Cyril Freyberg also earned his VC in the fighting on the Somme. Bernard Freyberg was born in England in 1889, but his family moved to New Zealand in 1891. Bernard trained as a dentist and was a junior officer in the Hauraki Regiment.

  He left New Zealand in 1913 and travelled to London at the outbreak of the war where he was given a commission in the Royal Naval Division. Bernard served in Gallipoli, where he earned the first of four DSOs, and in France.

  During an attack on Beaucourt village by two brigades of the 63rd Division, heavy German fire cut the attacking force to pieces. Bernard Freyberg’s Hood Battalion had been badly affected but under his inspiring leadership it still managed to take its objectives.

  Unfortunately it was the only battalion that did and the survivors plus some stragglers from other units found th
emselves several kilometres deep inside enemy lines. Despite being hit twice Bernard Freyberg rallied the men and prepared to attack the Germans again. The next day they captured the village of Beaucourt. Bernard was hit again but stayed to organise his defences against a counter-attack. While making a final inspection of the new defences he was hit a fourth time, this time very badly. He still managed to issue his final instructions as he was carried away on a stretcher. His men were able to fight off the attack and the village of Beaucourt was held.

  For his inspiring leadership during the attack Freyberg was awarded the Victoria Cross. Many people regarded his actions at Beaucourt as the most courageous of the war. During the next war Freyberg was the general officer commanding the 2nd New Zealand Division and the 2nd NZEF. He is remembered as one of New Zealand’s finest military commanders and served two terms as Governor-General.

  A VC at Messines Ridge

  LANCE CORPORAL SAMUEL FRICKLETON

  Samuel Frickleton was born in Slamannan, Scotland, on 1 April 1891. He immigrated to New Zealand in 1913 and worked as a miner in the West Coast’s famous Blackball coal mine.

  Samuel Frickleton enlisted on 12 February 1915 and sailed for Egypt as a corporal in the Canterbury Battalion. When he arrived in Egypt Samuel became seriously ill with tuberculosis. He had to return to New Zealand and he was discharged from the army as medically unfit. When he recovered he re-enlisted and sailed again for the United Kingdom with the 15th Reinforcements. He was sent to France in late 1916 as a rifleman.

  On a cold June morning in 1917 Samuel was one of many soldiers waiting to attack the Messines Ridge. The plan was to explode huge mines, which were tunnels packed with one million pounds of explosives that had been secretly dug under the German trenches, and then the infantry would attack. While only 19 of the 21 mines exploded, they caused massive destruction and the shock waves were felt as far away as London. This eruption stunned the Germans, but there was more to come. An artillery barrage from 2266 field guns and howitzers and the fire of 144 machine-guns followed the explosion. Behind the barrage came British and Anzac infantry attacking on a 16-kilometre front, as the Allies tried to snatch Messines Ridge from the Germans. This ridge was a vital piece of ground, as it looked down on the British lines around the town of Ypres.

  Just after 3.00 a.m. the New Zealand infantry moved forward in darkness and into the smoke caused by the explosions. They moved down into the valley and crossed the shallow Steenbeek Stream and started advancing up the ridge. The two infantry brigades in the front took the trenches on the slopes and another brigade passed through the new positions and captured a line beyond Messines village.

  On the other slope of the Messines Ridge they met their first real German resistance when the Rifle Brigade ran into a well-defended line of trenches on the outskirts of Messines. Machine-gun fire forced the 3rd Battalion to take cover. The New Zealand advance was stalled, and there were many casualties. The fire was intense and many New Zealand soldiers were hit, including Lance Corporal Frickleton’s company commander, who was killed.

  Samuel Frickleton, already slightly wounded in the right arm, decided to deal with the worst of the machine-gun posts. Signalling his section to follow, they advanced into their own artillery barrage and attacked the machine-gun post. Hidden by the noise and debris of the barrage, Samuel was able to get just a few metres away from the post before he threw in a Mills bomb. When it exploded, he rushed the machine-gun and bayoneted the surviving crew. He then went on to deal with a second machine-gun post about 20 metres away. While his men provided covering fire, Samuel crept up to the edge of the post and destroyed the gun and crew single-handed. As a result of his actions the advance was able to continue and the final objective was reached.

  Samuel Frickleton continued to lead his men until he was wounded again, this time in the hip. He then inhaled German phosgene gas and was badly affected. He had to be carried from the battlefield, and evacuated to the United Kingdom.

  His VC award was announced on 2 August 1917 and King George V later presented him with his VC.

  The lasting effect of the gas and a recurrence of his TB meant he was too sick to fight any more and he returned to New Zealand.

  A Special Mission

  CORPORAL LESLIE ANDREW

  Leslie Wilton Andrew was born on 23 March 1897 in Ashhurst, in the Manawatu. His family moved to Whanganui where Les’s father, William, was head-master of Whanganui East School. Leslie went to school at Whanganui Boys’ High School and Whanganui Collegiate. After leaving school Les Andrew worked as a railway clerk until he joined the army in October 1915, when he was 18 years old. To make sure he would be sent overseas, he said he was 20 and left New Zealand with the 12th Reinforcements in May 1916.

  The 12th Reinforcements spent three months in Egypt before sailing for France. Eight days after joining the 2nd Wellington Battalion Les was wounded in the neck by shrapnel on the Somme in September 1916. Nine months later he earned the VC at La Basse Ville.

  On 31 July 1917, the British Second Army carried out a dawn attack to extend its hold on the Messines Ridge. In this attack, two New Zealand infantry battalions were given three tasks. They were to take and hold La Basse Ville village, then clear a hedgerow system 500 metres to the north of the village and set up outposts. Finally they were to raid the German defences. The 2nd Wellington Battalion was to take and hold La Basse Ville and clear the hedgerow system, and the 1st Auckland Battalion was to raid the German defences to the north.

  The New Zealand infantry were woken in their rain-flooded trenches at 3.30 a.m., given a tot of rum and prepared to move forward at 3.50 a.m. Right on time the British artillery fired a creeping barrage and the New Zealand infantry advanced behind it.

  The village of La Basse Ville had been taken in an earlier New Zealand attack on 26 July, but a German counter-attack had retaken it the next day. During the attack a German machine-gun post in a two-storeyed inn on the Warneton Road caused heavy casualties and stopped the New Zealanders. Plans were made to deal with them. That cold, wet morning Lance Corporal Andrew led two sections from the Wellington-West Coast Company on a special mission to attack and destroy the German machine-gun post.

  On the way Les Andrew saw a platoon from the Ruahine Company was having trouble reaching the railway line. It had run into heavy machine-gun fire. Les spotted the machine-gun and decided to help them out. With one section providing covering fire, he led the other along the railway line and took the German machine-gun crew by surprise.

  His men then continued with their main mission against the inn, but the German defenders spotted them and opened fire with the machine-gun. Les halted the attack, reorganised, and then attacked the Germans from a new direction, making a detour through a patch of thistles. His small force, now down to four men, was able to reach the back of the inn without being detected. They threw in Mills bombs and stormed the building. It was easily captured.

  Les Andrew and Private L.R. Ritchie crept forward towards Warneton as far as the British standing barrage would let them. This was a distance of about 300 metres, which brought them to the outskirts of the village. On the way Les attacked and destroyed another machine-gun in an open trench. He and Ritchie also attacked German soldiers sheltering in a cellar and nearby dugouts before they returned to the inn.

  His VC was announced on 6 September 1917. Les Andrew continued to serve on the Western Front and was promoted to sergeant on 1 August 1917. He was lucky to survive the war — he was wounded twice and buried three times in the debris created by exploding German artillery shells. Les became an officer and stayed in the army after the war. He commanded a battalion in the Second World War on Crete and in the desert.

  Attacking a Chateau

  PRIVATE HENRY NICHOLAS

  Henry James Nicholas, the first soldier from Canterbury to receive the VC, was born at Lincoln, about 32 kilometres south of Christchurch, on 11 June 1891. He sailed for the United Kingdom in May 1916, arriving in France as a private in the 1st
Canterbury Battalion. He was still a private when he earned the VC in the New Zealand attack at Polderhoek Chateau, near Gheluvelt in Belgium, on 3 December 1917.

  The New Zealand attack was trying to remove the Germans from the chateau, a large building that sat on an important piece of high ground overlooking the New Zealand trenches. A plan was made to attack the chateau early in the afternoon of 3 December.

  The attack started at noon when three brigades of artillery started firing a creeping barrage. Unfortunately, the attack was in trouble from the start. Because of the muddy conditions, most of the artillery barrage fell short, causing heavy casualties among the 1st Otago Battalion, one of the two lead battalions in the attack. As soon as the attack began an icy wind sprang up from the west, blowing away the protective smoke.

  The 1st Otago and 1st Canterbury Battalions set off in two waves beside each other. The ground was muddy and torn up with shell holes which slowed them down. There wasn’t much German resistance until the battalions reached the rise of the spur, when heavy machine-gun fire came at them from all directions, causing heavy casualties. The 12th Nelson Company of 1st Canterbury was badly hit, but its company commander, Captain G.H. Gray, rushed one of the machine-gun positions in a ruined pillbox, attacking it with Mills bombs. He captured eight Germans and the gun.