MAORIS IN BATTLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 May 1941, Page 5

MAORIS IN BATTLE

ENEMY ADVANCE CHECKED NEAR MT. OLYMPUS HARD FIGHTING DURING RETREAT. EVACUATION ADVENTURES. (From (he Official War Correspondent with the N.Z.E.F.) CAIRO. May 24. Exemplifying the way the New Zealand forces as a whole faced under arduous conditions and with extraordinarily slight losses every form of enemy action, the Maori troops are in fine fettle and ready to resume a fighting role alongside their pakeha brothers. I tramped 10 miles recently to learn fuller details of the action they fought in the wild hill country near Olympus just before they fell back as part of the general withdrawal. They were holding a defensive position spread over an abnormally wide front along one side of the valley at the left of the main pass to Katerini. and there was one eventful day when they drove off strong enemy forces trying to break their line under a shroud of mist. The Maoris struck their first blow early in the morning, when they used mortars to assist our artillery to inflict considerable damage on armoured vehicles massing at the mouth of the pass and approaching their front. In mid-morning, as the mist rolled up the mountains, enemy lorries unloaded troops three miles ahead of the Maori line, and in the afternoon these were seen making their way into the bed of the valley from the opposite side. The Maori machine-gunners peppered them from above,, but when the mist closed again fresh troops moved down and were able to penetrate the front line and encircle the forward platoons. Hot exchanges of fire rang in the misty valley as the- Maoris fought to shake off' the enemy thrust and their comrades outside the circle entered the fray' with bayonets fixed. This retaliation effectively’ checked the German advance. As soon as the mist cleared the enemy was easily driven cut of the Maori positions, for there, as everywhere else, the New Zealander proved more than a match for the German when met on equal terms.

The centre and right flanks of this mountain sector had meanwhile been kept similarly intact by Wellington and South Island troops, and newlyarrived, like the Maoris, from England.

When the night brought a cessation of activity, the whole group fell back in a previously planned withdrawal movement. Carrying all their gear and fighting equipment, the Maoris and South Islanders had to march for the best part of the night over broken bush-clad country to the main pass road where vehicles waited.

They completed the withdrawal and the subsequent evacuation was successful. though not without incident. Some Maoris were aboard a transport which was bombed at sea and sank after every man had been taken off by warships. Others, who by a coincidence were in another of the few ships announced as damaged by the Germans, escaped by diving overboard and swimming ashore, the vessel having been attacked in port.