NEW ZEALANDERS ATTACK

Southland Times, Issue 24885, 27 October 1942, Page 5

NEW ZEALANDERS ATTACK

Fight With Germans On Ridge

(Official War Correspondent)

EL ALAMEIN FRONT, October 24. A chilly autumn evening settled on the Alamein front. It was no different from any 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 trenches and dispatch riders and liaison officers hurried between office trucks with their messages. . , , That is how the front last night appeared to the enemy and to anyone on our side of the line who had not been in close contact with the careful preparations made for a large offensive action. No unusual movement of transport or troops or extra shelling or heavy bombardment indicated to the enemy that we were about to begin an attack that would shatter his defences and carry our line into his territory. Weeks of careful planning and manoeuvring had been used so that the German air reconnaissance would show no development at any particular part of our line. Night working parties stored ammunition behind the positions our guns would take up for their tremendous barrage. Yesterday the New Zealand infantry lay hidden in the slit trenches they had dug after their march into the line tlie previous night. At dusk they were equipped and ready to begin the attack. “Even his evening hate is less tonight. 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. U.S. CORRESPONDENT PRESENT

The whole front was quiet as the New Zealanders scrambled from their trenches and walked out in extended line, rifles and tommy-guns 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 a New Zealand attack. “What are you going to do when you get there?” he asked. “Ask Rommel in a fortnight,” was a New Zealander’s plyWe walked forward with them and spoke to a veteran sergeant whose main concern a few minutes before—he was among the mortar and machine-gun 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. 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 semicircle behind the attack the flashes of 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 their roar. Our guns were directed at the German batteries, which had been 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. MAORIS IN ADVANCE 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 100 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 through the barbed wire, and minefields and a force of Maoris for effectively dealing with the 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 the attack towards the final ridge that was to be held. The gaps in the mine-fields were ready. The opposition in the first stage of the attack had been mainly from mortar 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 tire ridge, which commands a valuable observation of much of the surrounding country. One-half of the attacking force was on the ridge and the other was fighting to capture the heavily-defend-ed corner ends. BOMBING OF MILAN Great Load Of Incendiaries (8.0.W.) RUGBY, October 25. While the first Lancasters to return from yesterday’s daylight raid on Milan were landing in England, Stirlings, Halifaxes and Wellingtons were continuing the attack by night. Their crews saw the afternoon’s fires still burning. The Lancaster’s crews’ orders were to reach Milan well before dark. The first bomb was dropped at 5.04 p.m., British standard time, and not until they were back over the Alps did the sun set. At the same time a full moon rose and over Northern France, German night-fighters were up to make the most of the suitable conditions. Despite such a test only three of the whole force of Lancasters are missing. The Lancasters dropped a great load of incendiary bombs, as well as 40001 b and 10001 b bombs on Milan.

“I have always wanted to see a 40001 b bomb go off in daylight,” said one pilot, “and now I have. It simply blew a factory to pieces. You think the factory is there —and then it isn’t.” The Air Ministry announced that Fighter Command Spitfires without loss attacked an enemy camp near Le Havre this morning, many huts being left on fire.