DESERT BATTLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 December 1940, Page 5

DESERT BATTLE

NEW ZEALAND DRIVERS TAKE PART PASSENGERS FOLLOWED INTO ACTION. FIGHTING UNITS HELD IN RESERVE. (From The Official War Correspondent attached to the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in the Middle East. WESTERN DESERT, December 24. Drivers of the Army Service Corps are the heroes of the hour among the New Zealanders serving in the ’Western Desert. To them has fallen a fuller share of the British offensive than any other section of the N.Z.E.F. has been allowed.

It is now revealed that a party of men of a reserve motor transport company actually took part in the storming of at least one lalian position.

This party consisted of the drivers of a large convoy of trucks which carried British troops to the starting point of their lightning attack. In broad daylight the New Zealanders drove unhesitatingly to within a few yards of the outermost defences, almost under the barrels of enemy guns. Before the trucks stopped the British troops were tumbling out and beginning to charge. Not to be outdone, the New Zealanders grabbed their rifles from the racks in the cabs, followed hot on the heels of their erstwhile passengers and flung themselves into the thick of the confusion of surprised Italians. When the brief battle was over they returned to reload the trucks with the troops, and push on to the next objective.

These facts have been revealed by an English officer, who said that the New Zealand drivers were magnificent. With the company, which is continuing transport work in advanced areas, details of the impromptu engagement are at present unobtainable. Its drivers are doing a splendid job which has won unstinted admiration. Ever since Italy entered the war they have been carrying every conceivable form of war material to the forward areas. SIGNALLERS’ GOOD WORK. Other A.S.C. units have been doing similar work. Close enough to the battle at times to have had a grandstand view of exchanges of artillery fire by night, a detachment of the divisional signals is playing a less spectacular but no less important part in the present operations. This company has been attached to the Western Desert force for even longer than the drivers, having ■ been engaged since early June in maintaining vital desert communications. Today its wireless and telegraph operators and line men are working with other British signallers in advanced positions, and their responsibility grows as the push continues.

Except for isolated cases of men attached to other British formations, these drivers and signallers are the only Mew Zealanders who have been in action in the current offensive, and the battalions and the other fighting units making up the bulk of the contingent have not yet had a taste of battle. Though this is a cause of dismay to every soldier, specially when Australians have gone past them to the front, it. is in no way an indication of their unpreparedness. The circumstances have necessitated their merely standing by, and their disappointment will serve to increase the eagerness for opportunities which they feel sure the future will bring. ■ A SECOND EXPEDITION. Scenes of confusion which tell their own story of the utter rout of the enemy in the Sidi Barrani area have formed the background of fresh experiences enjoyed by New Zealand regimental transport drivers in a second and longer supply expedition. Its convoy of trucks has passed through several large Italian forts and defended camps littered with, vehicles, armaments, supplies and equipment of all kinds. The camps seemed crude in comparison with our own scientifically-planned and Skilfully camouflaged defensive positions. Some consisted of rough stone buildings within a wide circle of tank traps and others were partly dug into the ground and similarly ringed with tank obstacles and gun positions. “I’m happy to see we are not the only ones who have been digging," remarked one New Zealander when passing these earthworks. A feature of the camps was the principle which was apparently adopted by each soldier of living alone in his own canvas-covered pit, cooking his own meal and (to judge from the litter) spending many waiting hours reading, writing and hopefully studying maps of Alexandria and Cairo. English tank crews who showed us battle scars on their vehicles told how in some camps the Italian gunners stood to the last man behind their weapons, while at others the enemy troops walked out with suitcases and kitbags under their arms, surrendering after hardly a shot had been fired. He chuckled when he recalled the capture of a huge lorry which was the wheeled home of an Italian general, complete with furniture, including an Iron bedstead. and a water closet. LONG DISTANCE COVERED. Some of us had tea with a party of New Zealanders engaged in salvage work in a former officers’ mess which had been abandoned as it stood. This journey took the New Zealand convoy to a short distance from the border, and brought the mileage since the trucks first left our sector to more than 1000. Ending the first expedition with a hot meal sent from a camp 40 miles away, which was eaten with relish in a howling sandstorm, we made fresh tracks westward to carry further essential supplies to advanced points, one of the most arduous phases of the trip was a night-long drive through moonlight, the parly having had no sleep for 36 hours. Today the drivers are back with their battalions, and their fellow New Zealanders are listening with envy to their account of the journey.