SMASHED FORWARD OVER TWO MILES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 173, 24 July 1942, Page 5

SMASHED FORWARD OVER TWO MILES

RELENTLESS PUSH Strong Resistance By Enemy Forces N.Z.E.F. Official War Correspondent. WESTERN DIV. H.Q.. July 22. The New Zealanders gained their first objective after fighting their way through fierce enemy resistance when the Sth Army launched an attack in the central sector last night. They smashed their way through for over two miles under heavy fire. Scattered enemy forces were rallied and counter-attacks were launched against the New Zealanders, but the Kiwis pushed on relentlessly. By dawn they had reached their objective. A dark pall of dust and smoke lies just to the north-west over the area where since early last night the New Zealanders have been in fierce combat with the enemy. It is a major engagement against German panzer and light divisions—an engagement in which reports this morning indicate that our troops gre fighting sternly after their advance of about two miles. Strong resistance has been met from tanks and infantry. The advance has been made in a north-westerly direction through an area which patrols the previous nights found unoccupied by the enemy. Last night the enemy were there in force with tanks iix close support. RAF. Support The thunder of artillery fire began before dusk as our every guns shelled enemy positions. Flash upon flash lighted the sky when darkness fell, distant spurts of flame shooting high into the air as a transport was hit. Overhead roared R.A.F. planes as they returned from their first task of action—the bombing of enemy forward concentrations. Machine gun fire traced a close pattern across the sky when the infantry moved forward about 9 o'clock. Fighting was hard almost all the way. It was not long before our troops were at close grips with the enemy infantry, which fell back before the determined bayonet attack. A strong counter-attack was dealt with in a similar manner, but the enemy were far from finished. Near their objective, one body of troops encountered a large tank formation in a depression, and engaged them with stick bombs and machine gun fire. The rattle of bullets against the tanks' sides could be heard, and three were soon blazing. Engineers Clear Away Mines To the north-east Indian and New Zeailand engineers were working under heavy shell and mortar fire, clearing mines from a wide gap to allow armoured forces to come to our support. Our tanks were to be forward at dawn, and the engineers worked strenuously in the darkness searching for isolated mines, which might hinder their advance. The infantry were fighting a confused battle for forward positions, when our tanks arrived to engage the German armour. Between occasional artillery exchanges this morning, the muffled roar of tank fighting drifts back toward our lines. After night artillery fire and bombing by the R-A.P. the hot still morning is strangely quiet.