RIDGE STORMED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 July 1942, Page 4

RIDGE STORMED

AND PRISONERS TAKEN NEW ZEALAND ASSAULT ON THURSDAY NIGHT. ONE OF THE FIERCEST OF DESERT WAR. (Official Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) CAIRO, July 17. Once again the New Zealanders were the spearhead of an Eighth Army attack. Once again, with the bayonet, tommy-gun, bren-gun and grenade, they launched a largescale attack against an objective in the central sector, where the enemy was heavily armed, with superior numbers. That was last Thursday night. On grounds of security, it has not been possible till now to tell the story of the gallant manner in which the New Zealanders took a vital ridge in one of the largest and most fiercelylaunched infantry attacks of the Desert war. Information about the New Zealanders’ action is so far scrappy. A New Zealand despatch rider, who returned to Cairo in the early hours of this morning, said it was believed that the New Zealanders had captured a substantial number of prisoners. The brigades which had already fought brilliant actions when the New Zealanders first rejoined the Eighth Army to assist in the Battle for Egypt were again in this week’s action.

WORK OF DOCTORS TWO GALLANT AUSTRALIANS. MANY LIVES SAVED. (Received This Day. 11.50 a.m.) LONDON, July 17. An Associated Press of Great Britain correspondent in the Western Desert pays a tribute to two Australian doctors at the most forward Army field hospital, where English, Australia, New Zealand, Italian and German wounded men were borne in side by side, in a steady stream, on the afternoon and night of July 16. The Australian doctors are doing virtually all the work in a tented mobile surgery. They have saved countless lives. The correspondent watched the doctors work one of their marvels on a lad shot through the thigh. The doctors said this type of wound caused numerous deaths in the last war, but, although working with limited equipment and often forced to improvise, they were satisfied that the patient would soon be walking again