MOPPING UP

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 December 1940, Page 7

MOPPING UP

NEW ZEALANDERS GATHER IN PRISONERS OPERATIONS IN WESTERN DESERT. IN WAKE OF ADVANCING BRITISH TROOPS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright l (Received This Day. 9.15 a.m.) (From the Official War Correspcnclcn attached to the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in the Middle East.) WESTERN DESERT. December 24. By the clear light of a full moon this message is written as the last of ovo two hundred New Zealand trucks arc discharging a load of war prisoners a' i nearby concentration point and five hundred drivers and reliefs are bedding down far the third consecutive night in a bleak, open desert. A huge convoy of vehicles drawn from the first line transport resource: of the New Zealand contingent serving in the desert has just returned from a mopping up expedition in the wake of the westward push by British troops. It carried war material to : forward point and brought back nearl; three thousand prisoners from remot: temporary depots. This was first anc so far the only opportunity affordec the Nev/ Zealand fighting units to par take in the advance and for the driver: selected it was some compensation for the disappointment shared with ,ai! other troops who had been left out of the picture at the start of the offensive. When they sped westward to begin the expedition they passed the checking point with thumbs up and a broad grin of anticipation on every face. Slogans like “skypu gogetters, and “bring’em back alive" chalked on the trucks reacted- the high spirits. That was nearly three days ago and tonight, after long hours at the wheel over the trackless desert and through choking dust, nights of biting cold and scratch meals at odd hours thej' seem to have lost none of their enthusiasm.

SELF-CONTAINED UNIT.

The convoy was a self-contained unit, complete with workshops, doctor and navigators. At the head of the convoy was Major J. Burroughs, Canterbury Battalion, and Captain H. Parata infantry brigade transport officer, whe guided, the column as if it were a convoy of ships at sea. Once the few welldefined tracks were left behind they spread maps and compasses across their knees and turned almost imperceptible mounds and depressions into sign posts that led unerringly to a point where we were to dump a big load of vital war supplies. Passing through the area, which’until lately the enemy had. charitably been allowed tc believe he dominated, we answered a greeting wave from New Zealand signallers attached to the advancing British forces and later chatted with New Zealand Army Service Corps drivers who were veterans in supply work ir which we were being initiated. They had driven two thousand miles in the past few clays.

PRISONERS COLLECTED.

At dawn the next day the convoy loaded the first prisoners, a small party of Italians held by a platoon of a famous English regiment. The party included a sailor who was violently landsick after a few bumpy miles. The convoy collected from two depots, nearly 3000 more of whom half'were Italians of a good type and the remainder a motley crowd of Libyan natives in shabby multi-coloured clothing. They scrambled aboard .the trucks almost eagerly and at dusk were filing into this concentration area. The scene here was one which the New Zealanders were never likely to forget. Dust from a thousand shuffling feet hangs like a cloud over the camp, of which half is bluish-grey with the uniforms of true Italians and half a gaudy patchwork quilt of Libyan colours. Strange tongues mingle in the weird chatter rising through the still night