BEFORE THE BATTLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 July 1942, Page 3

BEFORE THE BATTLE

LIMITED WITHDRAWAL BV ENEMY LINE STRAIGHTENED. FROM EIGHT MILES WEST OF EL ALAMEIN. (Bv Telegraph—‘Press Association —Copyright) LONDON, July 21. The Germans, taking advantage of the present lull on the El Alamein front, have fallen back at some points to straighten up their lines. This was forced on them by the failure of their repeated tank and infantry attacks. Last week they were squeezed by the Australians to the south down the Quattara track between the El Alamein and Tel el Isa stations and also by our stonewall resistance against their tanks in the central sector. Rommel has withdrawn some of his forces from the salient a few miles south of the El Alamein area. The South Africans immediately moved up, taking some prisoners as the enemy forces, mainly Italians, slipped back. The British United Press correspondent reports that the enemy is now holding an almost straight line north and south from a point eight miles west of El Alamein till it reaches a point about 20 miles inland, where it veers slightly to west for three or four miles before going south again. . The Associated Press of Great Britain says it is estimated that the British and Allied forces ■ last week knocked out or captured at least 50 heavy artillery pieces, 45 anti-tank guns and 32 tanks, mostly heavies. Nearly 500 of the enemy taken prisoner were artillerymen, clearly a heavy blow to Rommel.

NIGHT SURPRISE

NEW ZEALAND DESERT PATROL. ENEMY UNIT WIPED OUT. (Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) WESTERN DESERT, July 19. It was one o’clock this morning. Thirteen days before these men had been sitting in the sun at Galatos in Crete, and now their regiment, the 382nd Infantry Regiment of the German Army, was digging in in one of the southern sectors of the El Alamein front. As they deepened the pits, they talked. Suddenly one shouted and they grabbed for their rifles, but a New Zealand patrol was among them, tommy guns and rifles firing and bayonets jabbing. It was soon over. Every one of the 25 New Zealanders attacked a German. Some were shot, most bayoneted. Five went as prisoners when the patrol retired and three of them who made a break for it were shot. The remaining two, a Saxon who fought the New Zealanders in Greece and a Sudeten lance-corporal, told their story this morning. The New Zealanders’ patrol, mostly Otago men led by a former Timaru civil servant, left the lines at midnight, with gym shoes on their feet and grenades in their pockets. Two thousand yards out, they crawled under the German wire and stepped carefully over the trip wire. Thirty yards off, they heard the Germans talking and digging. As they formed up to attack, one German gave a warning. It was the New Zealanders’ show, and though they have a few missing and two wounded, they killed many times that number. They were very pleased when I saw them this morning. It helped to make up tor the Stuka raid a few days before when some of their comrades were wounded. For nine hours yesterday two New Zealanders lay in a shell-hole 80 yards from enemy spandaus, with the desert sun glaring down. A' Gisborne medical student, a platoon commander who -won the M.C. at Sidi Rezegh, and a sergeant, saw a tank of a famous Scottish regiment co-operating with the New Zealanders knocked out 2000 yards in front. Yesterday morning they set out to see if any of the crew were alive. At noon, when they reached the tank, enemy spandaus fired on them. They dived into the shell-holes and lay there while the enemy fired occasional bursts all round. Three hours later a party of Germans came out and fired at the tank, passing within 25 yards of the New Zealanders. The sun set' at about 8.30, and the New Zealanders left at 9 p.m. and reached their lines safely.