HARSH RULE

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

HARSH RULE

EST AFRIKA KORPS

Discipline Weaker After Desert Fighting

■United Press Association.—Copyright. Rec. 2 p.m. LONDON, July 20,

There is definite evidence, says the Daily Mail Cairo correspondent, that the discipline of some units of the crack Afrika Korps is being maintained by harsh measures. Court martial sentences provide a valuable index of the army's discipline.

A German corporal was. recently convicted of drunkenness at Barce and sentenced to 18 months' gaol. A private guilty of a breach of guard duty received IS months" *" hard labour, and a private guilty of '"conduct likely to affect military discipline"' was sentenced to five vears' hard labour.

These heavy sentences are appari ently not exceptional. They infer real pre-occupation concerning discipline in supposedly one of the best disei- | plined armies in the world. It is i likely that the German desert troops l are suffering from morbid melan- ' choly traditionally associated with men of the Foreign Legion. Another | cause is believed to be the introduction of inferior material into the j German Army. j Escaped British prisoners tell how ' enemy lorry drivers are apt to stam- ! pede under attack, but it must be ; emphasised that There is never the slightest sign of this demoralisation i among the fighting troops. The < Italians are basically still unstable ! soldiers, hovering between flashes of extravagant braverv anrl abject inefficiency. The Ariete Division has fought well, but the Sabratha is thoroughly in disgrace, even among the Italian divisions. The Sabratha is blamed on all sides for the abvsmallv feeble behaviour when the Australians forced their salient westwards of El Alamein. A Bersagliere officer described the Sabratha as "a bunch of ignoran- peasants, whose only aim is to give themselves up." Large numbers using considerable ingenuity have succeeded _ in doing