LIBYAN CAMPAIGN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 January 1942, Page 3

LIBYAN CAMPAIGN

EXPERIENCES OF MASTERTON GUNNER OPERATIONS AT SIDI REZEGH. FIGHTS AGAINST TANKS. An informative account of the activities in which New Zealanders were engaged recently in Libya is given in a letter from Gunner Reg Clarke, formerly a member of the staff of Messrs T. Borthwick and Sons, Ltd. A passage in Gunner Clarke’s letter states:— “We moved on up to the Sidi-Rezegh area, and were here for over a week. The first few days were all our way, our infantry had done quite a few attacks and had captured quite a number of both German and Italian prisoners. They were a ragged and poorly dressed crowd. The weather wfis very cold, especially the nights and \ve had quite a number of cold, heavy showers. We were troubled by some of the enemy’s heavy artillery, which outranged ours, but fortunately very little came our way. Then our luck ran out. One morning a crowd of trucks approached on the escarpment behind us. We were told that they were the South African Brigade. The next thing we knew we were opening fire directly into his M.T. at fairly close range, and did they scatter. We were then shelled by his artillery ’ and took a thrashing having three of our four guns out of action in a very short time, and just took cover in our slit trenches. Later his mortars were brought on the job and they are really deadly. Mother Earth never tasted better! For some unknown reason he finished shelling around 4 p.m., which gave us an opportunity to repair our guns and do other jobs. Rumours were going round fairly strong that he had been attacked in the rear, so although we had taken a bit of a lashing we thought that it was not so bad after all. The. next day was a repetition of the previous one. We started the ball rolling by opening fire on some of his mechanised infantry and promptly got fireworks again. Finally in the afternoon some of his tanks came into action and we were sadly depleted in strength and while our tanks held them off we were able to withdraw. We were taken right around to the rear, placed on a ridge, told that we were only to act as an anti-tank roll. Told early in the morning that as long as one man stayed on the gun the remainder could catch up with some much-needed sleep, so thought it was not such a bad show after all. Had hardly settled down when about forty tanks attacked from our end and we had a royal scrap for about an hour. They managed to fire several of our trucks and after a few minutes what with dust and smoke could see very little. His infantry and machine-gunners started to do some damage; quite a number of the boys stopped them in the legs. His artillery began opening up again and that’s where I lost all interest in the proceedings. One landed alongside and I was knocked out, and was lucky enough in only getting concussion and one wonky leg, otherwise not a scratch. We had a real rough trip back . . . finally finishing up in an English hospital. We received wonderful treatment there. Our air force played a great part during the scrap, and our bombers were always on the job. The funniest incident there was that we were so accustomed at seeing only our planes over- 1 head all the time, no one troubled about ! digging slit trenches. One afternoon ' about twenty bombers plus fighter escort came over. Nobody took any . notice until they dropped all they had just behind us. They were Jerries. ' Then to see all the picks and shovels working overtime would have gladdened even Bob Semple’s heart.”