DESERT COMRADES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 October 1940, Page 5

DESERT COMRADES

4 FIGHTERS FROM MANY PARTS OF EUROPE SERVING WITH BRITISH FORCES IN EGYPT. PREPARATIONS TO MEET ITALIANS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, October 7. The Cairo correspondent of “The Times’ says that international fighters from many parts of Europe are filtering down to the Near East, and the Australians and New Zealanders find themselves beside Czechs, Rumanians, Austrians, Finns and Poles. They have come to carry on their war against Hitler with cavalry, artillery, infantry, machine-gunners, and anti-aircraft gunners. Under a starlit sky some were found mustered at a spot where they will be close at hand when Graziani really tries to advance into Egypt. Others are encamped across a thousand miles of desert, some under the palms, which are now heavily laden with dates, som,e in coves by the sea, and some burrowed into ancient Roman baths and catacombs. The British advance troops are amused by the Italians’ new trick bombs resembling bully-beef tins, beer cans and thermos flasks. The bomb explodes when the cap is removed. The troops have gathered several thousands of these, which have been exploded in a large dump. Another set of trophies is the Italian motor-cycles which led the advance to Sidi Barrani. British staff officers now bounce across the desert on them.