STORM OF BATTLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 December 1941, Page 5

STORM OF BATTLE

GREAT PART PLAYED BY NEW ZEALANDERS BRILLIANT DASH ACROSS DESERT. MAY HAVE OPENED WAY TO VICTORY. (Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) TOBRUK, December 5. ■ New Zealand’s part to date in the Libyan campaign has been one of the highest importance to the success of the British drive in the Western Desert. It may yet be proved that the brilliant dash across the desert by the New Zealanders who flung themselves fearlessly against the pick of Hitler’s forces in Africa laid the foundation for British victory in this theatre of war. !■ Through the haze of smoke from the swiftly-changing battlefields and through the dust clouds created by the wheels of hundreds' of vehicles, I look back to the day, over a fortnight ago, when the first spectacular raid by New Zealanders began. Here in shell-torn Tobruk, in a dugout which was formerly the home of an Australian signals officer, I write this dispatch in retrospect. Occasionally shells whistle overhead from German long-range guns. I can see again that amazing spectacle as 3000 vehicles of the New Zealand Division roared through the night across the desert to go into the first action in the Libyan campaign. I can see again the quiet smiles of satisfaction on the faces of the G.0.C., Major-General Freyberg, and his staff, when the first news came through of the capture of Fort Capuzzo by one of our infantry battalions without a shot being fired. Simultaneously came the cutting of the vital pipe line from Capuzzo to Halfaiya Pass and Bardia —the result of swift work by our engineers. Then came the spectacular dawn attack on the Salum barracks by the Maoris, whose electric dash across the flat in front of the barracks was too much for the enemy. The Maoris drove the Hun out of the barracks down into the township of Salum. SHOCK TACTICS. I Farther west and to the north other New Zealand infantrymen with ma-chine-gunners successfully contained Bariad. The Hun could not get out so on the first day of the attack the shock tactics of the New Zealanders had resulted in the capture of Fort Capuzzo and the successful bottling up of the enemy in Bardia and Halfaiya Pass. Across the desert toward Tobruk raced more New Zealanders to the aid of the support group of one of our armoured brigades which had struck trouble where the enemy forces were at their strongest. Hard on the heels of this formation came more New Zealand infantrymen who had been diverted from one task to add their weight to the attack.

On went the New Zealanders. The spearhead of the main British offensive, they flung themselves with all their force and skill against ■ Hitler’s special Africa corps. They inflicted terrific casualties and captured hundreds of prisoners. German staff cars with the sign of the Africa corps, a swastika shaded by a palm, painted on them, were now being used by olir troops. Within three days Hitler’s crack troops were in confusion. The New Zealanders had driven them off all the important heights of Side Rezegh.