BACK FROM EGYPT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20916, 16 October 1942, Page 3

BACK FROM EGYPT

WOUNDED N.Z. MEN BATTLE EXPERIENCES GERMAN PUSH CHECKED (P.A.) WELLINGTON, this day. Most of them walking wounded, another party of New Zealand soldiers arrived back in the Dominion recently after taking part in the big battle in Egypt. They were officially welcomed home at Wellington. When they left "Egypt nearly half the casualties were stretcher cases, but when the ship tied up in New Zealand only 20 wounded had to be carried off. As with previous drafts, the sea voyage and the splendid attention they received on board, did much to restore them to health. The Minister of Defence, the Hon. F. Jones, welcomed them back on behalf of the Government. The men, who were in the thick of the fighting during the recent German drive to Alexandria, are convinced that General Rommel, with all his skill, weight of men and equipment, has gone as far east as he will go. “The Germans are finished in the Middle East,’’ declared one of the returned men. “We have him held and unless there is a big blunder somewhere, I think you will see him pushed back this winter.’’ This view was expressed with some emphasis by a member of a 25-pounder gun crew, who said the Germans were facing such a solid wall of our artillery that he did not think anything could stand against it. He said that the New Zealanders were up near the Turkish border when the Germans attacked in Egypt and word came to our troops to move in a hurry. “We were on the road without any waste of time,” he said, “and in five days we travelled 2000 miles.” The New Zealand 25-pounders, he said, were very effective against the German tanks. “Our biggest day was when he fired 1000 rounds. At that time we were right out on the open desert, without gunpits. They have got bulldozers over there now digging gunpits.” A New Zealand infantryman, who was present at the historic break-through at Mersa Matruh, described the episode as “ten minutes of hell.” The Germans were waiting for the New Zealanders, he added, and let them hove everything they had. “We lost a lot of our men in those ten minutes, he said, “and I think we must have left behind many of those who jumped from their trucks to dodge the enemy shells. Coming out we got a lot of Germans though we just ran them The following N.Z.E.F. personnel from the Gisborne district recently returned to the Dominion:— Manley, Pte. J. S. Father: Mr P. Manley, 206 Kahutia street, Gisborne. , r . . Niania, Pte. A. Wife: Mrs. D. Ntama, North Clyde, Wairoa. Thompson, Pte. R. Wife: Mrs. K. Thompson. Box 8, Tokomaru Bay.