CYCLING AND MOTOR NOTES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXX, Issue 72, 29 June 1916, Page 7

CYCLING AND MOTOR NOTES.

It is good, but not surprising news to learn that the motor-cycle machine gun sections under General Smuts in Africa have played an important pari in the work of driving the Germans from the last post of their colonial empire. The work of the machinegunners and of the despatch-riders alike was greatly facilitated by' the fact that the German engineers had provided some lino roads—for their own use of course-in East Africa, and little thought that they would

over eome to bo utilised to their own undoing. Recent telegrams show ihatthe Kpoortunuy was seized by Gen- ( oral Smuts in the middle week in 1 March''for roadrrepairing and other preparations for the rapid advance which soon threatens 10 cut from Germany the last of her oversea pos- [ sessions. ' I Brief cabled particulars of the Duke of Westminster’s fine exploit in j i rescuing prisoners from the Egyptian j desert by means of an armed motor ear fleet, were published a few weeks hack. Details of this great motor charge are published in the Daily Mail. London, and will he read with interest by motorists. Four officers v who took part in the exploit, state, “Tn many ways fortune favored us, , but it was only by complete disregard of the tremendous difficulties and a j display of high qualities $ Tourage l f ■ :and resource that the ex pedition was [successful. The discovery of the place of concealment was of a i otuantk- lea'ure. When General Lukin re-occu-pied Solium he found the enemy had burned the camp and the Germanowned munition factory near. Ten armored cars following the enemy’s tracks came upon n remarkable road which, starving; in the desert, runs to Tobruk, ninely miles into Tripoli. According to English notions the road surface was execrable, but the armored car enthusiasts declare it splendid. Over it the cars made a speed of thirty-five miles an hour. At Aziza, nineteen miles from Bir Waor, the cars suddenly came upon the enemy. They dashed into a Turkish mountain gun .with two machine guns, killing every gunner by Maxim fire. - Then, without a halt they charged in > dine over boulders, stiff scrub and i £«ndy patches';, the • scattPl'ing ■ foe, ■taking to thei| heels at the approach lof the raagicaf in3tri|mg^aj;T f ftfr the ihfidil. Tile, I’harge for i sevetti niilos, il|it the enemy, thrown - into the wildcat eopfum«vyfWpld not ; be i fuiLHci, 1 ; ehlsed tontf&Mltt shori ’age, of pcreroL? Many of tjie emuyv wore killed. Three field .guns, nw?> : (.machine guns, hundreds of rifles and t [spare pi\iKs, dynamite, Iraveiling workshops,and 250,000 rounds ■ of 1 rifle enpi-twed*-Somo of the camels when caught in the 2 range of the machine guns, blew to [ pieces as if struck by a high explosive . and then burst into flames. It was f found that the Ainbs'hsid Hiem ta ,witjiu bombs' (md petrol. On Tetflrnr - ing-to Solium the ’'iVillte ’of Wesfniih--3 - ,«FtferHwHil r Utfdrmed of a letter picked r up in the* ruins of Tiir* Waer. frmn ' Captain • AVatkih '''Williams to * Bey, complaining 1 ' (hfit 4hd ; Tara pl'l'J f starving and ill and sirg■<f gestiiig that medical'coiftforts should! .■ be- proopred frem 'vSol'Tii'nl.'’ Tlie’letter' ■;> nientiqnod Bir Ha'kihi'takt the ‘place of »■; the pifisonota’ ddtantibn. Every pri- ' sonei- and- refiigpe )w«s’ 'interrogated,- , but Ixbiip knew > Bit Hakihi except a v mail'who'said he had fed a flock there 1 thirty years ago. Subsequently anJ other man who had been guard over the prisoners, was discovered. Ibo 3 Duke asked permission to attempt 1 the rescue. Every man of the motor [ batteries sat up all night *»nd next day tuneing up the machines. The 5 bat:erics were reinforced by light oars carrying guns, and all the motor- [ ambulances within travelling range of 1 Solium were brought in. By midnight t of March 16 were gathered at the old Turkish fort on the ridge above Solium nine armored Rolls-Royce cars, five touring cars with guns, light cars with supplies, and ambulances —12 motors altogether. Mo Tofirist Trophy:, cars were ever more carefully prepared than these. At three o’clock on St. Patrick’s morning the column moved out of the fort across the .few miles of trackless desert till the Tobruk road was picked up. Aziza, ■ the scene of the charge two days before, was reached in darkness. They halted for the first rays of the sun to light up the sky behind them. The cars then hummed ahead, gathering pace as the shadows disappeared. At Oo miles a small party of Arabs were disarmed, but the men were sot free, as there was ho room for prisoners. For miles vho tracks ol a car had been scon. At 81 miles a captured Wolsojley, belonging to the Royal Naval Armored Car Division was found with [the engine in good order, but ono of (the back wheels buckled. It hud improvised tyres. A great quantity of sheet rubber had been washed up on this coast, presumably part of a cargo of a torpedoed ship. The Arabs had rolled it up, tightly bound with camel (hide, and fastened it to the rims with 1 wire. Ah officer went out a few days [later for this car and found it burnt. .When the column bad travelled 80 miles on the Tobruk road the cars ebanged direction. The two Arab I guides were arguing whether they 1 were on the right track. The man who bad not seen Bir Hakim since ■boyhood thought they were wrong. I, The other Arab would not say much, / j although circumstances proved him a{ zealous guide. He thought the pace 'of the cars greater than it really was, i‘ land expected to arrive sooner. The desert was now very stony, but the • going was fairly hard. A hundred miles went by, then 10j; that was be- | lieved to he the limit of the distance, 1

but still there was not the faintest sign of the Tara prisoners’ camp. Between 110 and 115 miles nobody spoke; the silence suggested fears of failure, A mile farther on the Arab became animated. A mound was seen, whilst through the mirage appeared a small mountain. This, the guide said, was the cud of their journey. A halt was called,' At two o’clock the Duke sent forward the armored cars to attack. .They raced up to within 200 yards of the mound, and, as one would expect, the first car was that of William Griggs, the famous jockey, who regards this as the biggest of the classic races in which he has 1 taken part. Before their relievers the prisoners, totalling nearly 100. ' were standing silhouetted against the skyline absolutely motionless, silent as ,statues, dumb with amazement at 'the appearance of the strange, throbbing fleet. At last one man threw off the sack covering him and faintly cheered. The crowd staggered lovward with the rolling gait ol starved (men, swarmed round the cars crying, “Are we free?” They could not.lt persuaded to leave the cars anu (slightly hindered the advance to tacikle the guards, all of Whom subsequently were killed. Meanwhile the remainder of the column, seeing the prisoners leave the mound, started a tremendous race to the spot. They ran abreast, caring not for obstacles or punctures, just tore forward as fast as the engines would propel them, and the air was filled with the cheers of the crews and the noisy ox- ! lift lists. The prisoners’ condition was desperate. A heap of white shells showed that snails had been their staple diet. Occasionally they had

had goaf. flesh, but “the amount served us was reduced to the size of a skinned mouse,” as one prisoner said. Some parties had gone out daily to find edible roots. These had been col looted from a wide area,, and as the captives’ strength diminished they made the painful journeys with small results. I think in five days their resources would have ended.”