"GRAND BLUFF"

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 178, 30 July 1942, Page 5

"GRAND BLUFF"

WITH SOUND EFFECTS New Zealanders Cause Diversion During Raid N.Z.E-F. Official War Correspondent CAIRO, July 29. The British, Australian and South African raid on the northern sector was at its height on Sunday night, and hours before it opened the New Zealanders in this sector were causing a diversion with full sound effects. New Zealand patrols went in tank hunting, but were handicapped a good deal by the moonlight. The New Zealanders continued with their grand bluff in an effort to lead the enemy into the belief that a large scale attack was about to be launched by them. Parties of sappers went out as if to clear the minefield, and infantry moved as if forming up on the starting line for another of the New Zealanders' feared bayonet attacks. Appropriate sound effects were provided by Bren carriers, and motors of trucks roaring in the stillness of the desert, and frequent flares shot up into the moonlit sky from the German lines. There was everything to indicate a coming attack. Then the New Zealanders' artillery opened up shortly after midnight on a predicted shoot. Twenty-five pounders crashed away at the enemy for several hours to assist in the thrust by United Kingdom, Australian and South African troops from the north. The New Zealand positions were shelled spasmodically but not with great intensity. The Germans were too busy driving off the attack in the north.