WOUNDED MEN RETURN

Southland Times, 16 October 1942, Page 4

WOUNDED MEN

RETURN

“Germans Finished In Middle East”

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, October 15. Most of them walking wounded, another’party of New Zealand soldiers arrived back recently after . taking part in the big battle m Egypt and 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 «>d 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 Feild-Marshal Rommel, with all his skill, weight of men and equipment, has gone as far east as he will 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’ll see him pushed back this winter.” This view was expressed with some emphasis by a member of a 25-pounder crew, who said the Germans were facing such a solid wall of our artillery that he did not think anything could advance against it. He said 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 German tanks. “Our biggest day was when we fired 1000 rounds,” he added. “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 “10 minutes of hell.” The Germans were waiting for the New Zealanders, he added, and let them have everything they had. “We lost a lot of our men in those 10 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 many Germans. We just ran them down.”