HALFAYA PASS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 November 1942, Page 3

HALFAYA PASS

TAKEN BY THIRTY NEW ZEALANDERS SIX HUNDRED ITALIANS ' SURRENDER. WELL ARMED BUT ABANDONED BY GERMANS. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.30 p.m.) LONDON, November 13. A British United Press correspondent with the Eighth Army says thirty New Zealanders, armed with rifles and tommy-guns, took Halfaya Pass, which was defended by 600 Italians, with field guns, anti-tank guns and grenades, with a complicated system of defences which determined troops could have held for a considerable time. The New Zealanders lost only one man killed and two wounded. _ . , „ “I talked with five New Zealandeis who were guarding several hundred Italian prisoners,” writes the correspondent- “They said: ‘Thirty of us scaled the Halfaya Pass and went over the top yelling. There was a brief .exchange of shots and then the Italians began waving handkerchiefs. It looked as if they had a supply of handkerchiefs ready. Somebody must have noticed how few of us there were, because there were some more shots, out we soon ended that with a few bursts from Tommy-guns. The Italians said their German commanders had got away on the previous day in staff cars and the Italians decided to surrender as soon as possible because they had few rations and practically no water.

IMPORTANT FACTOR

IN BATTLE OF EGYPT BRITISH MINE-DETECTOR. MEANS OF SAVING MANY • LIVES. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day. 11.50 a.m.) RUGBY, November 13. Of. all factors in the Battle of Egypt perhaps least has been heard of is the British mine detector. Yet without it the a dva " c ® could have been achieved only at the cost of tremendous casualties. Anti-tank and anti-personnel mines had been sown extensively and a way had to be cleared befoie the armies could advance. The job fell to sappers and to discover these mines in shifting sand and rough country in the short time demanded was possible only with, the aid of a mine detector.. Little can be said of this remarkable device except that the sappers carefully sweep above the ground with it and certain sounds come through earphones when a mine is present. The mine is then unearthed and rendered harmless. ABOUT 2,000 AUSTRALIAN CASUALTIES IN EGYPT. GREAT MAJORITY WOUNDED. (Received This Day, 12.30 p.m.) MELBOURNE, This Day. The casualties of the Ninth Division of the A.I.F. in the Battle of Egypt were about 2,000, of whom a very majority were wounded, it has been officially announced here.