DESERT SPARTANS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 March 1942, Page 4

DESERT SPARTANS

THE LONG RANGE GROUP NEW ZEALANDERS & BRITISH TROOPS. OPERATIONS FAR BEHIND ENEMY LINES. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, March 28. An Associated Press correspondent with the British in Libya reveals that the band of audacious volunteers, called the Long Range Desert Group and comprising mostly New Zealanders and British troops, is operating behind Rommel’s lines without hope of support from its own forces. Sometimes they shoot up an enemy post before returning; sometimes they bring back prisoners; always they bring back information. They wear ordinary uniform and use ordinary camouflaged lorries.

The band includes a number of bronzed young Spartans from New Zealand, Rhodesia and Britain, who have been selected for their mental and physical keenness. The Middle East correspondent of the “Sunday Times” states that members of the group answered a call for volunteers, which specified men “who do not mind a hard life, scanty food, little water, lots of discomfort, and possess stamina and initiative. ’ A member of a New Zealand desert group patrol described the ordeals members of the group were sometimes obliged to endure. “We were far behind the enemy lines when two Stukas appeared, seeking their own back for The trouble we were causing,” he said. “When the dust died down, we found no one injured but the trucks were smashed. There we were stuck in the middle of the desert without transport. We decided to head for an oasis 200 miles distant. Our resources were not impressive. Foi’ navigation, we had two prismatic compasses and a small map. Food stocks comprised one packet of biscuits and three gallons of water. . , , “Constant raids limited the first day’s progress to five miles. The following night we covered 30 miles and reached the road where one man was left behind. He had previously walked 50 miles on another job and his feet were in a bad state. He intended to make for an enemy base where he Would hold up a truck. Walking continually for three days, the men were in dire straits as the result of hunger, thirst and weakness. A heavy sandstorm sprang up. It was so cold chat the men took turns to shelter in a barrel which we found. They reache the oasis four days later and all are now back on the job again.