SCENES OF BATTLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 December 1941, Page 5

SCENES OF BATTLE

ON LIBYAN ESCARPMENT GOOD TANK & AIR SUPPORT FOR NEW ZEALANDERS. SHORT & SHARP ENGAGEMENT. (Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) (Received This Day, 10.30 a.m.) CAIRO, December 8. A dispatch dated outside Tobruk, November 26, states: “A ringside seat at the desert tank battle is the hardest thing to find in this campaign, but I have been lucky enough here, on the Libyan escarpment to see most phases of a short, sharp engagement in which the enemy came off second best. It was like witching a naval -action between '.the British and Italian fleets, for the enemy put up a running fight—running the other way. Through field glasses I saw a column of tanks, armoured cars and motorised infantry swarming along under the crest of the ridge two miles away, in an apparent attempt to outflank part of the New Zealand force. It cruised boldly past us, leaving a trail of dust, until our our brigadier ordered British tanks under his command to sally forth and investigate. The approach of our fleet of squat, heavy machines was enough to send the enemy column scuttling over' the ridge, firing as it went. The British tanks opened fire and gave chase. They look like desert battleships at any time, but now, as they roared over the Desert with their guns flashing red, the similarity to a naval formation was most striking. One shell caught an enemy armoured car squarely and it burst into flames as I watched. Dust and

smoke soon obscured the scene, but I could still see dull flashes and hear the sharp crack of tank guns as the enemy column disappeared over the horizon. Our tanks stopped five armoured cars in all and shot up several lorries full of troops.

“Later, in a grand reconnaissance sweep, they came across 150 South African wounded lying in the desert under Italian guards. They had been there since the German tank and infantry attack on the South African force. Our tanks brought back as many as they could and we sent ambulances out for the remainder today. The desert for miles around here has been a tank arena since the campaign began. We have seen three or four battlefields littered with damaged or burntout machines belonging to both sides. With the tide of battle sweeping past them, the salvage of many has been possible. Tanks and planes have given us assistance we once only dreamed of. Ohly twice have I seen enemy aircraft in action, and in neither case were our front line troops attacked. On the other hand, the sky yesterday was filled with British bombers and fighters three times, plastering enemy territory just ahead of us. Under the new system of close and direct co-operation between ourselves and the Air Command, the New Zealand force had asked for specific air support and got it. There has been an Air Force liaison officer, himself a New Zealander, at New Zealand headquarters since the campaign began. And for one last detail in the cheering general picture, I need only look 200 yards across the desert from here at a silent airfield, thick with. . well grounded enemy planes—fifty of them and all dead as the wrecked guns - which failed to stop our armoured lightning columns smashing this drome almost as soon as we crossed the fron-JL tier.”