DESERT TREK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 August 1941, Page 7

DESERT TREK

TWO AUSTRALIANS SAVED BY BUSHCRAFT. Bushcraft, courage and endurance brought two Australian soldiers safely to Tobruk after a trek of 300 miles in 16 days across Cyrenaica from El Abiar, between Barce and Benghazi. They are a 30-year-old former railway worker from Morelia, Queensland, and a 21-year-old former farm hand from Aur, Quenesland. The elder of the two told the British United Press at Tobruk that he and his pal, after a German attack, made for the hills, hoping to reach Derna, “We came across an Arab tent, where we were given water and food. A badlywounded German air gunner, who had been shot down by a British plane, was in the tent. We collected his maps and tried to take the compass from the plane, but it was an electric one. “Putting the German on a donkey, we made for Gerdasabid, where, we were told, there were British offices. When we arrived, four Egyptians, who were travelling to Egypt, volunteered to take us with them. We went from Arab camp to Arab camp on foot, but they had a pack donkey to carry the blankets, food and water. We left the German at Gerdasabid still unconscious.

“Arabs brought two more Australians to the camp, and they joined our party. When we were told that Italians were at Derna, we trekked right across the desert, using my companion’s knowledge of bushcraft. “The last three days were the worst because we had no food or water. Every' well was dry, so we chewed grass to try and extract the moisture. Finally, we got through the enemy lines outside Tobruk without being fired on.”