VALIANT STAND

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 December 1942, Page 3

VALIANT STAND

MADE BY BRITISH BATTALION AGAINST POWERFUL ATTACKS IN TUNISIA. NUMBER OF ENEMY TANKS KNOCKED OUT. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, December 13. The advance of British forward troops to within 15 miles of Tunis and their subsequent retreat before superior German forces have now been described by a correspondent with the troops in eastern Tunisia. A battalion of a famous British Regiment relieved other units at the front on November 29, a week after it had landed at Algiers. Its positions were astride the road from Tebourba to Djedida, but the Germans held high ground on either flank. In the next four days the battalion, though greatly outnumbered, held up a series of tank and infantry attacks, making [many bayonet charges through tne advancing enemy tanks, and routing the infantry behind the tanks. The colonel commanding led many of the Charges, and other officers showed great bravery in leading handfuls of men in bayonet and grenade attacks on strongpoints. On November 30 the Germans from the high ground continually plastered a wood in which the British positions were, and then attacked with 12 tanks, followed bv tiiree companies of infantry. The tanks overran the British trenches, but a young major led a platoon out of the trenches with fixed bayonets to counter-attack through the tanks, and the German infantry broke and turned back. Another young commander, firing a Bren gun from the hip, led five men—all that were left of his section —in a charge through the tanks before being run down by a tank and killed. Another officer, finding the crew of a 25pounder gun killed, took charge of the gun with three men, though none had ever fired a gun before, and with their first shell they knocked out a tank. On December 1 German tanks and infantry again attacked the wood. Our guns knocked out six of the tanks, and the infantry following were again routed by bayonet charges. Another German attack on December 2 was preceded by heavy mortar fire. The British again charged, and this, time chased the enemy into Djedida itself. In the early hours of December 3 they were ordered to withdraw to an olive grove a mile in the rear. The Germans were on a hill 300 yards north, and during the day the only I two British mortars which were left firZ 268 bombs, inflicting very heavy casualties on the enemy, who were receiving reinforcements and were ma-chine-gunning the grove. An officer and six men who volunteered to attack the machine-gun posts succeeded in burning out three.

Then „thc Germans’ flanking movement surrounded the British troops, and the colonel organised cooks, pioneers, clerks, and transport to fight a way out. The colonel, with a revolver, and the adjutant, with a Bren gun at the hip. led the bayonet charges. The Germans broke, and the British marched back, into Tebourba. They were ordered to withdraw farther west, but thev discovered that German tanks, artillery and infantry had cut them off. The colonel said that they would either have to surrender or, take their chance by breaking up into small groups to make their way through the German lines in the hills. All decided