NOTED NAMES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 170, 21 July 1942, Page 5

NOTED NAMES

FIGHTING REGIMENTS

Britons Engaged In Fierce

Egypt Battles

LONDON, July 20. M ™ e V. he present battle began in o.v, A lca - , near ly two-thirds of the Bth Army s troops were men Home Country. This fact is stated by an observer in Egypt in the course of a tribute to the soldiers of the Mother Country This observer writes: "The work done by British units of the Bth Army lias certainly made me, and every other observer I met, feel full of pride in being British. Of course we know the New Zealanders, Canadians, South Africans and Indians share the British title, just as we know of their magnificent fighting, f °r which no praise is too high. But the people I write about now are the Home Britons, fair-haired men from Sussex, great rouSh friendly Yorkshiremen Irishmen' lth , music in their voices and K S k co°s by Th n e e if'„ ra ? e ° f scots, their praises are too nftpn prefer! to tii r tki ? s defin 'tely others " limelight fall on ih ? b ; servGr said all the crews of the tank forces come from the United Kingdom, so do most of the gunners tanic men £ an say the S unn ers and — £ fh? not foug ht like tigers mat is the expression Rommel himself is reported to have used during the past weeks of bitter fighting. There are countless stories of the rd r S k a^n endUranCe <*

Some Home regiments fighting with General Auchinleck's army art the 3rd, sth 7th, Bth, 42nd and 44th Royal Tank Corps, the King's Dragoon Guards, Coldstream Guards Scots Guards, Queen's Bays, Ist Royal Dragoons, Bth and 10th Hussars, 9th and 12th Lancers, Durham ~'Sht Infantry, Worcestershire Cheshire, and East Yorkshire Regil ments, the Green Howards, King's Royal Rifle Corps, Rifle Brigade, Royal Horse Artillery, and County of London Yeomanry. Fighting France is represented by two battalions of the Foreign Legion two battalions of the Marines and another battalion. The South African Army consists of 13 regiments, while there are at least four Indian regiments.

Units of the Brigade of Guards, the Coldstream Guards and the Scots Guards, which are so particularlv identified with London, distinguished themselves in the engagement at Knightsbridge and, along with a battalion of the Worcester Regiment, beat off numerous heavy attacks. Later, at Acroma, they continued to fight magnificently, and helped to cover the withdrawal of the South Africans from Gazala.

In the return to Egypt, a continued rearguard action was fought from near Tobruk to El Alamein by the Durham Light Infantry, and with it were units of the Rifle Brigade and the 60th Rifles. These men have been fighting almost continuously in the Western Desert since the war with Italy began.

In the recent fighting round Mersa Matruh, two Yorkshire regiments, the Green Howards and the East Yorks, and a Scot'tish regiment, the Highland Light Infantry, distinguished themselves. The Royal Fusiliers is another regiment which has gained fresh distinction.