OPENING BATTLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 April 1941, Page 5

OPENING BATTLE

OUR TROOPS IN GREECE WELLINGTON MEN WIPE OUT ASSAULTING FORCE. ARTILLERY & MECHANISED UNITS IN ACTION. (Received This Day, 10 a.m.) (From the Official War Correspondent with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in Greece). NORTHERN GREECE, April 15. Dawn today brought New Zealand infantrymen their first taste of battle in an engagement crowned with complete success. Stemming an attack, launched by Germans who had crossed the Aliakmon River near Servia, a company of Wellington troops disposed of , the whole assaulting force without loss to themselves. Forty Germans were killed and 150 captured. News of the encounter sent spirits soaring, as it spread like wildfire among other New Zealanders waiting at mountain battle stations. Dominion detachments, operating separately, had made earlier contacts with the enemy, but without such an opportunity to engage him, and today’s clash was what one soldier called “An answer to many long months of prayer.” The troops involved were • members of the oldest section of the Expeditionary Force.

The engagement was the supreme moment of the noisiest and most exciting two days we have ever experienced. Last night’ New Zealand gunners joined in an artillery duel, which is still raging between the German and British positions through a gap in the mountains.

The British guns had been registering so effectively that the Germans used air fleet after fleet,'each up to thirty in number, in a desperate attempt to silence them. With all the ceremony and striving after effect of which the Luftwaffe is capable, divebombers screamed at us and their fighters raked the ground with ma-chine-gun fire. But the blitz bark is far worse than its bite to soldiers who know how to protect themselves, and each attack, however furious, proved in the long run little more than a thrilling show. No sooner had the smoke from tfi'e last bombs drifted 1 away, than I heard firing orders ring out and our guns crack into action again. It was a heart-warming sound. ENEMY FORCE BLASTED. The New Zealand infantrymen, who had taken up new positions in rain and snowstorms, were “ready and willing” when German foot troops made this morning’s cocksure attempt. The enemy force was blasted from cover by trench mortars and slashed with ma-chine-gun fire. Trying to retreat, the Germans ran into a second line of fire from another New Zealand company and surrendered, after suffering heavy casualties.

Under cover of a bombing attack, the Germans made a fresh advance this evening, but were thrown back by hot New Zealand fire.

Today’s events have convinced the New Zealanders that, man for man, they are more than a match for the Germans. Their morale was never so high. During the weekend, other New Zealand forces made contact with the enemy. A detachment of machinegunners gave valuable support to British Imperial troops, while . these were withdrawing to their new positions under difficult conditions, and one report tells how some gunners took parting shots at Germans from their speeding trucks. The New Zealand mechanised cavalry earned praise on another sector for a hide and seek game, whose object was to delay enemy movement. Avoiding engagement on any serious scale, they worried the Germans at river crossings, chased patrols away and generally carried out their assignment to the letter.

AEGEAN ISLANDS

THE REPORTED OCCUPATION OF SAMOTHRACE. ATTACK MADE ON LEMNOS. LONDON, April 22. The Ankara correspondent of “The Timer.” says it is reliably reported that German forces operating from Kavalla, have occupied the Greek island of Samothrace, and are also reported to have attacked Lemnos.

Both, of these Aegean islands are

strategically important for any Power seeking to control the entrance of the Dardanelles. It is believed that some Greek troops are in Lemnos. The German operations were conducted by sea, but it is not known where they obtained the necessary craft.