'MUSSO'S" ARMY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 265, 31 January 1941, Page 2

'MUSSO'S" ARMY

NEW ZEALANDER'S LETTER

IMPRESS! ON'S OF ITALIANS

In his letter from an Italian field post, following, the first attack on Sidi Hamuli a id Solium, Sapper C. J. Edwards, of the N.Z.E.F... gives some interesting sidelights on the Italians and their ways oJ waging war. "You will probably have read about a number of our tanks catching a whole Italian Division of 14.000 men on the march. ]<Rom my own observation the column of marching men covered about 5-7 miles of road and were caught like rats in a trap when our tanks swept over the hills dominating the road, and the Italians did the only thing possible and surrendered promptly. A diyision, of course covers every branch of the Army, and the scene On the road is indescribable. There are lorries (big and small),, motor cycles, field guns (in • most eases 1 with the breech covers still on them), anti-tank guns, machine guns, A.A. guns, rifles,, hand grenades, by the thousands, and many technical tractors containing marvellous engineering equipment. In addition to all this, the equipment (personal, I mean) is littered all round the road, and believe me, 14000 men can make a very large Mess! . . .

"To sum up. my impression is very difficult—suffice it to say that we covered 80 miles each way and during the whole of lliat tim? T don't think at any period we were out of sight of abandoned Italian material. That, I know, sounds ridiculous,, but it is just the plain and utter truth.

"The Italians in every place wc went had ripped down the English and Arabic sigus and replaced them with Italian ones, and from places he had built, and from stores and dumps tliat he had created, it is perfectly obvious even to a layman like myself, that lie was in Egypt ta stay; and just as obviously it never entered his head that he would ever be pushed out. Buildings everywhere were just plastered with signs, and a frequent one was "Vive il Duce"—

they were certainly well versed in the Fascist ideas, but either their hearts were not in the war or they have not got the guts to fight . . .

A Second-hand Shop

"'We even cat our meals (a good deal of which is Italian) on plates which Musso's boys left behind; while I have a first-class acetylene lamp which is now doing excellent service. Three hundred yards from here are two Q.M. stores containing enough - stationery to keep the G.P.O. in Wellington going for many months . . . All. the lads are very busy writing at the moment, and all arc smoking Italian cigars which are very nice. Of course, everyone is armed to the teeth with Italian revolvers and automatics, and to-day we had a spot of revolver practice. Another of the lads is busy (unsuccessfully from his language) to sharpen a cut-throat ra<or he picked up. As a matter of fact, the whole place is l'ike a see- 1 ond-hand shop . . .

"Bad luck I haven't got a girl friend in Italy to write to, as I've got a lot of Italian stamps. They look nice and interesting, but they are just like Musso's Army—very pretty and not much use."