BITTER OPPOSITION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 November 1941, Page 6

BITTER OPPOSITION

MET BY NEW ZEALANDERS IN ADVANCE ALONG COAST. COMPLETE SURPRISE SPRUNG AT GAMBUT. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 1 p.m.) LONDON, November 27. In their drives from Capuzzo, through Gambut and along the coast, the New Zealanders met with bitter opposition from German tanks and infantry, which took a heavy toll of men and machines, a military spokesman in Cairo states. Dead and wounded, with wrecked tanks and lorries, from both sides, littered the desert for ever a hundred square miles. ■ The -New Zealanders, throughout these operations, closely followed up the tanks, but when the tanks were 'engaged in running fights the New Zealanders moved on alone, against German artillery and machine-gun posts dug deep into the desert. The junction with the Tobruk forces occurred before dawn today, when. British tanks sighted a battle formation of tanks ahead. Identification was difficult in the grey light and both sides manoeuvred warily until dawn revealed that all were British. The New Zealanders, when they captured Gambut, completely surprised the Germans, who thought their tanks had smashed up the British miles away. The New Zealanders captured nineteen Messerschmitts and their crews on the Gambut aerodrome.