N.Z. TROOPS GO IN

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 253, 27 October 1942, Page 5

N.Z. TROOPS GO IN

objectives taken BETTER ARMED THAN EVER

(.Official War Correspondent with N.Z.E.F.)

CAIRO, Oct. 25. New Zealand forces, more heavily armed than ever before, are again in the forefront of the 8th Army's full-scale offensive against Rommel's Afrika Korps. When the attack was launched at ten c'clock on Friday night, New Zealand formations fought their way through to their objectives against heavy enemy fire. By the first light on Saturday morning the New Zealanders had gained all their objectives. EL ALAMEIN FRONT, Oct. 24. A chilly autumn evening settled on E1 Alamein front. It was no different from many other evenings when there has been "nothing to report from our land forces." The Germans used the last rays of the sun setting behind them to send across an occasional shell. Infantrymen smoked in their trenehes; despatch riders and liaison officers hurried between office trucks with their mes~ sages. That is how the front last night appeared to thc enerny and to anyone on our side of the line who had not been in close contact with the careful preparations being made for a large offensive action. No un~ usual movement of transport or troops, extra shelling or heavy bombardment indicated to the enemy that we were about to begin an attack that would shatt~r his defences and carry our line into his territory. Weeks of careful planning and manoeuvring of transport had been used so that German air reconnaissance would show no development at any particular part of our line. Night working parties stored ammunition behind the position our guns would take up for their tremendous barrage. Yesterday (Friday) New Zealand infantry lay hidden in slit trenehes they had dug after their march into the line the previous night. At dusk they were equipped ready to begin the attack. "Even his evening hate is less to-night. There were only two shells on that ridge," a Brigadier remarked as he indicated to us a long, low mound that was to be the starting line for the attack. The whole front was quiet as the New Zealanders scrambled from their trenehes and walked out in extended line, rifles and tommyguns hanging on their shoulders, ready for the advance. Most of them were quiet, but some joked among themselves and with the first American war correspondent to watch the New Zealand attack. "What are you going to do when you get there?" he asked. "Ask Rommel in a fortnight!" was the New Zealanders' reply. We walked forward with them and spoke to a veteran sergeant whose main concern a few minutes before — he was among mortars and machinegun bullets — was whether his wife was cutting the lawns around his Auckland home. For many of those men it was their first big attack, but all had rehearsed the action over ground almost the same as their line of advance. They knew that the guns would lay down a concentration which senior officers had thought would be one of the greatest barrages of its kind since the Somme.

FATHER OF ALL THUNDER - STORMS. The line of infantry moved ahead, and just as they were becoming silhouetted against the bright moonlight on the skyline a sound like the gathering of all the thunderstorms ever began behind us. In an almost complete semi-circle behind the attack the flashes of the guns danced madly along the horizon and shot out bright streaks to light the area like day. Then two heavy guns a short distance behind us opened fire, almost blotting out every other noise with thejr road, and with a wide red glow. Our guns were directed at German batteries plotted and checked up to the last minute. . For 20 minutes their screaming shells hammered the enemy guns so effectively that scarcely a shot was answered. Then the whole terrific gun power came down on the defences the infantry were to take. Every three minutes the curtain of fire lifted and fell one hundred yards deeper into the German and Italian lines. Only one-third of the infantry fighting force had so far advanced with the engineers to blast a track

r through the barbed wire and minefields, and they had a force of Maoris for effectively dealing with pockets left in the initial advance. Word came that the first objective had been taken and up towards the lights along the starting line came Wellington and South Island men to press forward and attack towards the final ridge that was to be held. Gaps in the minefields were ready. • Opposition in the first stage of the attack had been mainly from mor-

j* «i r hihi ^ jamar * ,mr mnir jp nrr jr jsatar jr jm tar and machine-gun fire, and again on the second objective our infantry found heavily-armed pockets and snipers. At the first light they were still struggling to drive the Germans from ' the ridge which commands valuable observatioii of much of the surrounding country., One half of the attacking force was on the ridge and the other fighting to capture heavily-defended corners.