ENEMY AMBUSH SMASHED

Southland Times, Issue 24880, 21 October 1942, Page 4

ENEMY AMBUSH SMASHED

N.Z. Division Fights Its Way Out

The brilliant exploit of the New Zealand Division in fighting its way out of an ambush at Minqar Qaim, near Mersa Matruh, during the Battle of Egypt was described by wounded Southland soldiers who have returned to Invercargill from overseas service. Most of the men bore on their bodies evidence of the fierceness of the battle when the enemy broke through, but they obviously felt some pride at haying participated in a dashing exploit which upset Field-Marshal Rommel’s calculations and enabled the New Zealanders to retire to positions where the enemy’s advance could be firmly.held. Gunner J. R. Tocker, son of the Rev. C. J. Tocker, will have more occasion than most to remember Minqar Qaim, because it was when the division was fighting its way out that he received a tracer bullet wound in the jaw. It was a bullet that did more than ordinary damage. It came up through the tailboard of the truck on which he was riding and passed through the arm of another soldier before spending, itself in his jaw. SURROUNDED BY ENEMY

After the division’s fast journey from Syria to Egypt to help in the serious situation which had developed from the break through by the Germans, the New Zealanders spent a week near Mersa Matruh as the battle swept closer. On June 26 they found they had been surrounded by enemy forces, and in the middle of the night they fought their way out in the action which has now become famous.

Gunner Tocker explained the artillery’s share in the action. He said it took the form of “leap-frogging" as sections of each battery in turn undertook the task of providing cover for other forces going through and then moved up fast to the head of the column to repeat the process. Some light enemy action was encountered just after the convoy started on its journey, but it was so easily routed that it was feared it had not come from the enemy’s main forces. This proved to be correct, for about 20 minutes later the division moved into the thick of a fierce action. It was fast and furious, but the division got through safely. Casualties were remarkably light in the circumstances, Gunner Tocker said. As far as he knew he and another soldier were the only two wounded in his own unit of about 200 men.

Describing the same action, Gunner J. McCrostie said the Maori Battalion and another battalion played a magnificent part in the break-through. The Maoris were wonderful fighters and were unequalled in dashing offensive actions. If they had a fault it was that their offensive spirit sometimes encouraged them to go too far before the area gained had been completely consolidated. Gunner McCrostie was in the Battle of Egypt for almost 11 weeks until he received a shrapnel wound in the left leg. FORMER MAYOR’S BATMAN

Private O. J. Henderson, of Panton street, Invercargill, had the misfortune to .contract infantile paralysis while in the thick of the fighting in Egypt. When he first went overseas he was batman to a former Mayor of Invercargill, Lieutenant J. R. Hanan, but he later became separated from his officer. He was in action during the Libyan campaign at the end of last year and emerged unscathed from the fighting. . A veteran of all the battles in which the New Zealand Division has been engaged, Private F. McMurtrie, of Winton, suffered a thigh wound in the Battle of Egypt. He had been in action in Greece, Crete and Libya and was in his fourth battle when wounded. He went overseas with the Ist Echelon.