MAORIS IN ACTION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 January 1942, Page 3

MAORIS IN ACTION

STORIES OF WAR EXPLOITS DELIGHT IN ATTACKING WITH THE BAYONET. GERMANS & ITALIANS YELL FOR MERCY. (From the N.Z.E.F. Official War Correspondent.) CAIRO, January 1. (Dispatch dated Western Desert. Boxing Day.) Five hectic actions by Maoris attached to the New Zealand Fifth Brigade were described to me today by a young Maori officer who has 'Deen in bed in a desert hospital suffering from a shrapnel wound in the mouth. After the Maoris had taken the Solium barracks with brilliant daring, they were given various roles around the Solium area, and were only once able to charge with the bayonet, as they revelled in blood-curdling yells which struck terror into the hearts of the Germans and Italians around Gazala when attacked with bayonets at night. Arawas and Ngapuhis combined in a daring attack with the bayonet on a fort on high ground. As soon as the enemy realised the • Maoris were attacking with the bayonet, the Germans and Italians scattered in confusion, many surrendering and yelling for mercy. Many Germans who attempted to escape were later rounded up. DAYS OF BATTLE. One day a Maori battalion found themselves on a patrol job in the proximity of the Sollum-Bardia road, and found themselves against Rommel’s heavy panzer forces, while along the road came a big concentration of motorised forces. The Maoris quickly consolidated, one company taking up position on the left of the road and another on the right. The Germans were coming from the direction of Tobruk. Some distance away the Germans stopped for a conference, and the Maoris watched through their glasses till they decided to continue. The Maoris waited till the Hun was 100 yards away and then opened up with everything they had. For three hours the battle raged, and the Germans cracked under the relentless Maori onslaught. One hundred and fifty German prisoners and much material and equipment were Maori prizes from the battlefield littered with German dead totalling 300. Not long after the Maoris had taken Solium they were given the task of preventing a convoy moving from Hellfire Pass to Bardia. One company took up a commanding position at Musaid on the Egyptian side of the frontier wire. Three times heavy German concentrations attacked, but could not budge the Maoris, who gave them a terrific pasting. After the third attempt they retired with badly depleted forces, leaving blazing transport. ADVANCE ON GAZALA. When the Fifth Brigade moved up past Tobruk to Gazala over ground where the New Zealanders had done some of the heaviest fighting of the campaign, they had an uninterrupted journey across the desert. Not till in the proximity of Acroma, well west of Tobruk, did they run into trouble, and the way was found barred by heavilyarmed, well dug-in Germans and Italians, the Maoris finding themselves under a hail of mortar and machinegun fire. A hectic period ensued with one German .machine-gun post causing considerable trouble. With skilled smoke-screen work, a Maori corporal led a section across the battlefield and rushed the machinegun nest with the bayonet. The smoke was now starting to clear and the officer could see the corporal, leading the section with a rifle in one hand and a Verey light pistol in the other. A minute later the Verey light rocketed skyward as a signal that the machine-gun post had been captured. The section had taken the post and also 100 other Germans and Italians were rounded up at the bayonet’s point.

This was the prelude to a day’s solid fighting, but as the Fifth Brigade pushed forward pressure was exerted and the Germans withdrew, leaving the Italians as a screen to cover their retreat. . Then came the Fifth Brigade’s last brilliant effort—the capture of Gazala. They had moved along the Trig-Capuzzo road which stretches for miles across the. desert in a westerly direction. With a brilliant encircling movement they captured Gazala, and with that achieved the job was ovef. Now the Fifth Brigade, which had been in the field longer than any other,New Zealanders, went back to join the'division at a resting place in the desert.