"DEVILS IN ACTION”

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 16 October 1942, Page 4

"DEVILS IN ACTION”

NELSON OFFICER S TRIBUTE 10 MAORIS < APT AIN \ ( . WOOD IM M lII. TURNS l)KI SSl'ill WOI NDS OF (OI.ONI L 1,0 vu Formerly K.S.M. of the Maori Battalion, with which h«* has l»**«*n continuous!) since, us permanent staff man. he was associated with its earliest training in New Zealand. Captain V ( . Wood is hack in Nelson after In inc in the thick of the fighting for over 2\ years in Greece, Crete and l.ihv.i lie was 23 years of age when he went overseas. Now he is wearing the rihlmn of the IM A|.. this decora tiop having been awarded him for his part in leading havonet attacks against German machine gun nests at Malemi aerodrome in Crete. Subsequently he was commissioned, lie went overseas with the Second Echelon. “They are real devils m action, am it is gloriou to be with them." It i said, speaking with sparkling eye

of the Maori Battalion. He laughei heartily when informed that Germai officers had, reported them as scalp hunters. He commented that thj Germans hated the bayonet in cloa fighting and ran squealing like rabbit. During the fighting at I Alamein, the Maoris were ordered t attack the Germans to relieve pres sure on another part of the Jin They did it so effectively that the swept all before them at the poir ol' the bayonet right past the obje< live set for them and into the enem B echelon (transport). They had i withdraw when British planes star ed to bomb the German transput ' the enemy, took 150 prisoners, ar destroyed four tanks with their tw« pounder anti-tank guns. They suj fered only 84 casualties themselv€ including about 10 killed. Subs j quently, it was reported, the Cor mander of the Eighth Army wro | congratulating General Frey berg < the wonderful attack. CIRCULAR DEFENCE Describing the fighting at Nin Q j Quam, some 20 miles north of Mer ! Matruh, Captain Wood said tl New Zealanders had a circular d ! fence on an escarpment there wh 1 the Germans attacked. Most of t German transport consisted of Briti j vehicles which had been captur earlier in the enemy advance. T ! New Zealanders were under hea artillery fire and their positions we | being plastered when the Germa ; started moving tanks round the ea: i ern flank to the south. A compai of about 100 German engineers i tacked the front held by the Ma Battalion in order to cut the min fields. Tired of sitting down a being fired at. the Maoris charg with the bayonet and killed all t 15 of the Germans, who were tak prisoner. Starting after midnight a moonless night, the Maoris w two other battalions, made the itial movement on foot, and in b< like formation which paved the \v for the divisional break-through El Alamein, during which most of enemy motorised infantry, taken surprise, was wiped out. La Verey lights were sent up. transp arrived, and the Maori Battalion jo | ed ijp with the Fifth Brigade, wh | was in the fortified position kno jas “Kaponga Box.” Mobile colun were formed of the brigades the ) It was the South Africans and New Zealanders who held up the G j man advance and fought off the moured divisions till the Austraiii could come up about a fortnight la It was at the end of a six-n advance, the last mile and a 1' on foot under hettvy shellfire all way from the ridge, that th e Ms Battalion dug in at Alyn Nyle on way to Ruweisat Ridge, and it i there that their commander, the 1 Colonel E. T. W. Love, was morti wounded. While dressing his wour Captain Wood was hit in the a which is now paralysed. Colonel Love’s parents were ami i the first to greet Captain Wood | his return to Wellington.