SPOILS OF BATTLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 January 1941, Page 9

SPOILS OF BATTLE

AFTER TAKING SIDI BARRANI NEW ZEALANDER DESCRIBES SCENE. EVIDENCE OF SURPRISE. Writing in an Italian field post office, with an Italian fountain pen on Italian notepaper. Sapper C. J. Edwards of the N.Z.E.F.. in a letter, gives some interesting ■ shots" of the battlefield after the first attack by the Army of the Nile on Sidi Barrani and Solium: —

“The Italians live very differently from us and just seem to scratch a bit of a hole in the ground, put their ground sheet over it and crawl in. They do not live in nearly the comfort that we do. although from signs about it seems pretty evident that they were well supplied with food. I came across an Italian cookhouse in rny rambling today. It was a hole about six yards square with a fireplace in one corner and on it was a huge pot filled with a stew of some sort, and there was also a pot containing dried peas all ready to cook. Apparently they were just taken by surprise and didn't have time to do anything but surrender. . . . SviNE AND CIGARETTES.

“Just by the way, they also left lots of Chianti wine behind —I didn't care for it. it tastes just like very sour vinegar. and is terrifically potent, as many of our lads have found out (to their sorrow the next day). . . . Every Italian soldier seemed to have a very considerable supply of cigarettes, and as it was all just abandoned there are literally millions of them around, just for the taking. They are very mild and are something like American cigarettes. although I can't say I care for them very much. . . .

“There are thousands of Italian rifles and millions of rounds of ammunition. One type of rifle they use is a carbine which is only half the size and weight of our service rifle and gives a much inferior performance to ours. On this rifle the bayonet is attached and folds back against the barrel, while the bayonet itself is a three-corner affair, as I say, much inferior to our equipment. . . . GOLD BRAID—DRESS SWORDS. “And the thing which struck me very forcibly was the fact that their equipment is by no means uniform. Whereas everyone in the British Army has exactly the same stuff, the Italian Army has many varying types of the same article. The Libyans appeared to be fairly poorly clothed, but this is not the case with the Italians. In the case of their N.C.O.’s and particularly the officers, their uniforms are magnificent. The material is excellent and they appear to be tailor-made. They are ab-. solutely covered with gold braid and, they certainly make a great show. Making a great show seems to be about] all they are capable of, because it has been proved both in Greece and in the! Western Desert that they are pretty poor scrappers. I have seen magnificent dress swords taken from their dugouts —heaven knows what their owners intended to do with them in the Desert. . . .

ITALIAN HOSPITAL TAKEN. “After two days in the battlefields 1 am now in a position to tell you more in detail. The first place I visited was an Italian Hospital and only the word magnificent will describe it. The tents are the most wonderful I have ever seen. . . . The sheets and blankets had just been thrown aside as though tho patients had vacated them and beat a hasty retreat as the British forces approached the hospital. In one tent we found their mess utensils.all filled with food—apparently they were just in the process of eating when the fatal blow fell upon them. Their operating theatre was intact and was full! of valuable equipment. including a J very elaborate set of acetylene light-1 ing. Fortunately all the equipment fell into the hands of the Medical Corps] and no doubt they will make good uscj of it. . . . | ENEMY'S FOOD EXCELLENT. ] “We came across several Italian] food dumps, and, of cours we had to have a good dekko at these. One in particular was quite interesting and I contained a terrific amount of stuff all of which can be used in the British Army. There was lime juice, mineral water (excellent stull tool, salmon. | bully beef, chests of tea. cases of ground coffee, tomato paste, macaroni etc. Their salmon is a kind of Tunny in olive oil and is very nice indeed I '['heir bully beef is a kind of steak and j is quite pleasing to the palate, whilej the tomato paste makes spaghetti very ( easy to eat. There’s not the slightest i doubt that his food was very, very ] pod. although we did not find any fresh] meat and vegetables, but there were! stacks of oranges and lemons, There; were big dumps of cereals too, and would appear that he goes in for that type of food in a big way , “On a hillside commanding a good deal of the surrounding countryside the Italians had endeavoured to make] a stand, fl*here were between 30 and j 40 and literally hundreds of machine guns. and as. there were 5.500 ] prisoners taken from this place and ■ al! had thrown their rifles away, you i can imagine just how many rifles there] were amund. Apparently every Italian! ■cldier carried several hand grenadi and there were thousands and thi.u-i sands just lying around—-they make an; awful row b.it ■■■> very little damage :v ] far as we could sec ' In the flood we had some time ago i 1 lost, among other things my pyjamaand this proved m be my chance “ replace them. Just to make sure I g.<‘[ hold of three pair : -.o they should ee me through for while One pair just magnificent, and they will sure rock the boys They arc pale create with a blue edging and on the tw pockets is a dragon ivrry fla-.h* work ed in blue Incidentally they arc ail: ;a> now I consider my elf t<« be one nf the best dressed men in the .terr. D-l-l ! A ROAD MISNAMED, “You will know from the papers that from Sidi Barraps '.o Solium ■he

Italians had constructed a metal road with plenty of width and beautifully curved and banked as it sweeps across the sandy wastes. Apparently they were short of read bitumen, as none of it is sealed. Till Italian, you know, is given to making flowery speeches, and gets all worked up over nothing, and to please his pride he called the road ’Dolla Vittoria’ which means ‘The Road to Victory.’ Unfortunately for him it turned out to be the Road to Retreat, and he has left millions of pounds worth of material lying about the place. . . .

si “You will probably have read about ;!a number of our tanks catching a whole Italian Division of 14.000 men on t the march. From my own observation 5 the column of marching men covered - about 5—7 miles of road and were ? caught like rats in a trap when our tanks swept over the hill dominating the road and the Italians did the only thing possible and surrendered prompI tly. A division, of course, covers every -1 branch of the Army, and the scene on s I that road is indescribable. There are M lorries (big and small), motor cycles, ■field guns tin most cast's with the r j breech covers still on them), anti-tank C guns. machine-guns. A.A guns rifles, H hand grenades by the thousands and ’-many technical tractors containing .marvellous engineering equipment. In i addition to all this, the equipment (personal. I meant is littered all round ‘itho road, and believe me 14,000 men 'lean make a very large mess' .... ’I “To sum up. my impression is very I I difficult—-suffice it to say that we cov1 ' ered 80 miles each way and during the ‘ whole of that time I don’t think at any .period we were out of sight of aban|dened Indian material. That I know, (sounds ridiculous, but it is just the j plain and utter truth. . . . 1 "The Italians in every place we went ; had ripped down the English and Ara- | bic signs and replaced them with ItalI ian ones, and from places he had built i and from stores and dumps that he had created, it is perfectly obvious even to a layman like myself, that he was in Egypt to stay: and just as obviously it I never entered his head that he would ever be pushed out. Buildings everywhere were just plastered with signs, and a frequent one was Viva il Duce’ j —hey were certainly well versed in the | Fascist ideas, but either their hearts I were not in the war or they have no! j ll'** the gms to agh.. A SECOND-HAND SHOP. I “We even eat our meals <a good I deal of which is Italian* on plates* I which Musso's b >ys wry thoughtfully; left behind, while 1 have a first ela><l acetylene lamp which is now doing i excellent service. Three hundred yard- ; from here are two Q.M stores contain-! j ing enough stationery to keep thej | G.P.O. in Wellington going for many' j months. . . All the lads are very; blew writing at the moment, and all, j ar<- smoking Italian cigars which are I very nice. Of course everyone is arm-1 ( ed to the teeth with Italian revolvers i lam! automatics and today w<- had ■> spot <>! revolver practice. Another of; 'the lads is busy trying (unsuccessfully; I from hi-: Janguagei to sharpen a cut-; I throat razor he picked up. As a matter! j of fact, the whole place i . like a sec-; ; end-hand shop, ( “Bad hick 1 haven't got a girl friend! in Italy to write ’,<• as Evi- got a lot. of Italian stamps They look nwr and i interesting, but they’re jm t hke Mu - .Arm} -very pretty and i-’ much i