"WORSE THAN GREECE"

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 6, 21 January 1942, Page 6

"WORSE THAN GREECE"

i CAMPAIGN IN LIBYA 1 1 TARANAjKI SOLDIER'S STORY "We knew nothing and saw nothing until we got the signal for action, though shells and bullets could he heard." So writes Private L. S. Price in a letter to relatives at Oakura in which he vividly describes the campaign in Libya. So scattered aa'as the action that no one knew what was happening over the next ridge or how other brigades were getting on, he states. No mail was forwarded for some time before the unit moved from its base and none was received in Libya. The "New Zealand Division, says Private Price, was well up on the border at the date the offensive Avas 1 officially due to commence, having covered Avell over 100 miles to get into position and moving almost entirely at night. "We lads of the machine-gun 'club' came through very Avell but considerably the AA'orse for wear. ' suffering only nine wounded out of 1 the company," lie states"The commencement of the efTen- ' sh'e Avas humorously termed the 'no- 1 wash' period," says Private Price. 1 Men soon became smothered in thick < yellow dust. They emerged from « their blankets dirty and Avere back ' to them again dirtier. The strange thing about it was that, although it lasted Aveeks, the men appeared to enjoy the experience. On November 24 Private Price's 1 unit was in action with a South Island battalion. This he described as a fierce' engagement, but the enemy uA'entually ret.i.r,cd at high speed, leaving many dead and some prisoners. Ho\A'eA T er, next morning the unit received a "pasting" from shell* and mortars and got out just in time. All that day they Avere heavily shelled on the bare ridjje Avheie they lav. At drtybreak the battalion was at It again, but it took three days of rain and intense cold, Avith still fighting all the time, betcTe the enemy cracked. I'n the finish hea\ r y tanks were brought up, and a bar- . rage of artillery fire with machinei gun bursts and mortar concentrations AA'as laid doAvn. "It AA'as a grand sight to see the 800 Germans, the blonde Aryans, the super race of the world, toss it in and surrender Avith their hands up," lie adds. "We heard • that they had no food or Avater, but they light Avell for hungry men." The next three days, November 28, 29 and 80, Avere confined to heavy artillery duets, continued Private Price. During lulls the NeAV Zealanders colletced large quantities of enemy gear. The pen used to write ' the 1 letter Avas found after the engagement. Cameras, binoculars, revolvers, scent, poAvders and many other articles Avere also collected. Other material found in enemy packs included beef and biscuits, and even ? towels made in Ncaa' Zealand, while envelopes marked O.H.M.S. and New Zealand patriotic and Y.M.C.A. paper AA'as recoA'ered from the tunics of the dead. The New Zealanders also recovered big trucks left behind in Greece and English motor cycles.