AXIS EQUIPMENT RECOVERED

Southland Times, Issue 24819, 11 August 1942, Page 5

AXIS EQUIPMENT RECOVERED

NEW ZEALAND PARTY’S

WORK (Official War Correspondent) RUWEISAK RIDGE AREA, August 8. Out in the maze of minefields and shell-tom desert that is the No Man’s Land of the strategic battle for the Ruweisak Ridge area, five New Zealanders have been working night and day to beat the Germans at one of their specialties—the recovery of knocked-out guns and transport. By sheer daring persistence they have beaten the enemy and have brought back to our lines guns, trucks and ammunition that are now being used against the Germans. Their latest prizes are four German 50millimetre anti-tank guns. German salvage units work under cover of their tanks, but this New Zealand anti-tank officer and his four gunners—all of them tradesmen whose normal work is repairing guns—have worked without any sort of protection within 1000 yards of the enemy lines. They have been under shell and machine-gun fire. Powerful night flares have sought them and fighting vehicles have stalked them, but in three weeks none of the party has been injured. EXPERIENCE WITH MINES One night while recovering. an antitank portee the front wheel of their break-down truck was blown off by a mine, “We had dragged out one of our six-pounders and were on the way back to get its portee when we hit a mine,” the captain in charge of the party told me today. “Fortunately, we were able to replace the wheel with one from another knocked out portee nearby.” Next day they returned to drag out the portee. Quite casually he spoke of other hair-raising experiences—of anti-per-sonnel mines that explode in the air, of flares that showed clearly every nut and bolt of the guns on which they were working. A device which was fixed to the trail of the first German anti-tank gun they tried to recover gave them some difficulty. “We were a bit shy of them at first. We didn’t want to use a hammer while the opposition was waiting for us,” he said. Last night, when they had to wait while two German fighting . vehicles moved from the area in which they were to work, was described as uneventful.” They had returned with only firing mechanism for two German guns. It was not until they had made four night journeys through the mine-fields that the New Zealanders were able to get their second pair of German antitank guns. Once a path through the mines was made for them by Indians, but normally the party leader, an expert on mines, makes the track. GUNS IN QUICK USE One of the German guns which had been knocked out by mortar fire had been rushed up to the Ruweisak battle so quickly that part of the paper wrapping and original grease was still on. Recovery work is not new to these gunners They are some of the same men who went out in the Tobruk battle-fields during the winter campaign to salvage our own and German artillery. Their work in this campaign began after the first New Zealand attack on Ruweisak Ridge. Before the 'battle reached its present static stage they went out every day to recover guns and transport for their regiment. They have been able to put some of our guns in action again, but wherever they have worked wrecked German equipment has greatly outnumbered our own.

TWO ALL BLACKS IN DESERT INCIDENT

(Official War Correspondent)

CAIRO, August 9. Two well-known Auckland All Blacks, H. E. McLean and R. G. Bushinseparable friends before the war and since they arrived in the Middle East—were associated in a spectacular incident in the recent New Zealand attack cn Ruweisak Ridge. Bush has since been posted missing, believed prisoner of war. Both All Blacks were members of the same Auckland infantry battalion, Bush as a platoon commander and McLean in charge of the Bren carriers. When Bush found his men being heavily mortared on his sector he decided to swarm the enemy post with his platoon. With a rifle he led the charge and captured four trucks and 16 prisoners. Further back with the Bren carriers McLean could see this incident through his binoculars. He watched the amazing charge without bayonets led by his friend Bush. He decided to go forward to give a hand, but by the time he got there Bush and his platoon had four trucks and 16 prisoners. All was well for Bush and for McLean, who stayed behind and searched the captured trucks to find excellent German tinned food, which kept himself and the platoon living on double rations for days. It had been a good little coup, but later in the day misfortune overtook Bush. He was captured, but escaped. He took the wrong turning and was captured again. “Now he’s in the bag,” laughed McLean. Bush and McLean were like that. They always laughed over each other’s misfortunes. Club opponents for years ■when Bush played for University and McLean for Grafton, they had a rivalry on the field that produced many comic incidents on Eden Park.