SEA RESCUE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 March 1941, Page 6

SEA RESCUE

NEW ZEALAND TROOPS SAVE ITALIANS EPISODE IN LIBYA. SIX HOURS ARDUOUS WORK. Soaked to the skin by rollers surging repeatedly over them, engineers of the New Zealand Army Troops Company spent six arduous hours in pilch darkness early this month when they assisted the rescue of 500 Italian prisoners of war. with their guards and the crew, from a small ship grounded on a rocky stretch of the Mediterranean coast. The New Zealanders worked like Trojans to drag the survivors out of the sea and hoist them up a perpendicular rock face to safety. Members of the company, which was camped at the time on the shore, made out in the failing light of early evening the dim shape of a ship heading towards land. Uncertain whether the vessel was friend or foe, the troops were called out armed and hastened along the coast. They found the ship stranded in a heavy swell on a ledge jutting out from the foot of a steep cliff.

Rescue plans were shouted across the intervening surf, and a prisoner, wearing a lifebelt, brought a light line ashore, arriving in a state of collapse from which he failed to revive. A snip's fireman who swam in with a second line was hauled up the cliff by the New Zeaiunders with a rope made from rille slings fastened together. A sergeant used the same rope to descend and recover the body of the Italian, who died shortly after he had been pulled out of the surf. "We dragged hawsers ashore with the lines from the boat and anchored them to a heavy truck on top of the cliff,” members of the company related. "Then a party of us went down into the surf to grab the survivors as they hauled themselves in through the I breakers."

Walking out along (he ledge as far as they could, the rescuers were often engulfed by waves. An officer recalled how lie saw one of his men keep disappearing. except for his bald 'plate, only to bob up again as the swirl of surf receded. "We relieved them every two hours. ■ for the sea was bitterly cold." he added. "They did a wonderful job. bringing 590 prisoners ashore in this way.. Then we ferried Hie wounded and other survivors in on a raft which the vessel carried.” Other members of the company stood al the top of the cliff and hoisted the rescued men to dry land. The difficulties of the whole operation were increased by the necessity of using only carefully shielded lights, and the work was not completed until about one o’clock in the morning. The survivors were taken to the New Zealand-1 ers' camp to be dried out, fed and put I to bed. It is believed that a few prisoners lost their lives when (hey were swept from the hawsers after leaving the ship. The unrestrained joy shown by the survivors at having (heir lives was I typified by one Italian who planted an j admiring kiss on the face of a New! Zealander..