TERRIFIC WEIGHT OF METAL

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 31, 31 October 1942, Page 7

TERRIFIC WEIGHT OF METAL

Eighth Army Barrages N.Z. TROOPS HOLD VITAL LINK

(Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.IT.) EL ALAM.EIN FRONT, October 25.

On the western side of the ridge which they captured on _ Friday night, our men are firmly in position forming a vital link in the new desert front.

Throughout yesterday, the infantry, could only remain low in their slit trenches, leaving to artillery and machineguns counter-activities to the persistent enemy gun positions and machinegun posts. Our tanks were there, too, returning determined antitank gunfire and silencing many machineguns. It was a difficult, day for infantrymen after a night of hard lighting, but the weary troops, long used to this type of warfare, were not to be caught moving. The artillery gave the enemy little respite during the night. Further gaps •were made in the minefields. It was hazardous work for the forces engaged, for an alert enemy took strong measures in an endeavour, to prevent it. One strong patrol went out and surprised the crews of three anti-tank guns. They captured all the guns and crews and a lorry as well. The lorry and one gun they brought back, to our lines, leaving the other two guns in positions where they could not be retrieved iby the enemy. A dusty haze this morning hindered our artillery fire, but the enemy has been similarly handicapped. In spite of strong fighter protection there has been occasional bombing of our forward positions. The tremendous effect of the artillery barrage put down for the initial attack on the German and Italian defences on the El Alamein line has been shown by the hundreds of dazed prisoners, and in reports of the infantry who advanced behind our continuous line of creeping explosions. Even the German prisoners were glad they were able to be captured. They had not believed that an attack of such ferocity could be launched so suddenly. Some prisoners came through the barrage to surrender. Many had dressed hurriedly and had not even stopped to lace their boots. Infantrymen who made the long advance toward the second objective spoke this morning of the huge pattern of shell bursts in front of them. “Some of the ground we went over had shell holes a few feet apart all over it,” one Bren-gunner said. “Parts of it looked almost like a carpet of shrapnel. We were told to catch the Germans by surprise. We did, and there were shells bursting in front of us all the way.” Germans Leave Hurriedly. Many platoons in the second advance met little opposition till they were close to their objective. The first line trenches they came to had been left hurriedly by the Germans. Some idea of the intensity of the .barrage can be gained by comparing it with the defensive fire our guns laid down against the Afrika Korps attack in the south of the line at the end of August. In four hours in this attack one gun alone fired more than twice the number of rounds put through in the whole of their defensive action. Guns were put in their lines as carefully and secretly as the infantry movements before the attack were made. The gunners, who had prepared gun positions and dug in supplies of ammunition, were keen to begin the battle, but not a shot was fired before the barrage began. “Everyone gave a hand to keep the guns going,” an artillery officer said today. “Some of the ack-ack gunners joined in our gun teams and cooks and bottlewashers and every spare man in the regiment helped with the ammunition.” Asked to compare the fire of our guns with other artillery barrages he knew of in this and the last war, he said that probably no heavier concentration of fire had ever been put down in the Russian war. “I would compare it with the barrages of July, 1918,” he said. “The difference is that very little of our fire was wasted.”