HEROIC EFFORT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 November 1941, Page 6

HEROIC EFFORT

BV BRITISH REMNANT j FOURTEEN MEN CAPTURE 600 GERMANS. IN..SIDI OMAR BATTLE.' (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.35 p.m.) ’ LONDON, November 28. Fourteen men—the only surviving members of one company of a British county regiment —with one tank and one three-inch mortar, captured 600 Germans. Their feat was one of many heroic incidents in the capture of Sidi Omar Nuovo. During an attack a battalion of Bren- gunners left their carriers 400 yards from the defences and advanced on foot. A minefield, eighty feet deep, blew up several tanks, killed two company commanders, and injured .a third, but the men pressed on unhesitatingly, sometimes ahead of the tanks. A corporal, though wounded several times, continued to lead his section until he was too weak through loss of blood to stand.- He then gave covering machine-gun fire while the section silenced an enemy machinegun post. A platoon commander, wounded in both knees, staggered to his feet and went on until he was shot in the head within fifteen yards of the enemy. The remainder of the men captured the trenches which were the platoon’s objective. Strong post after strong post fell to other units, including the heroic fourteen, and by dusk the fortress was captured.