HAZARDOUS WORK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 January 1943, Page 3

HAZARDOUS WORK

DONE BV NEW ZEALAND SAPPERS

CLEARING ENEMY MINES & TRAPS.

ON ROUTE OF DESERT ADVANCE.

(Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) NOFILI A, January I.

At a cost almost every day of a few casualties, New Zealand sappers have had the unenviable task during the past few weeks of helping to make safe for troops, transports and planes areas left heavily mined by the retreating enemy. So effectively had the enemy done his work that it was not safe to touch anything when our troops reached the roadway again after their second desert sweep which brought them to Nofilia. Empty petrol drums watercans, any wire, broken-down vehicles —all were a source of danger to the unwary. For that matter ,they were dangerous, too, for the wary, but to clear these traps was one of the engineers’ first jobs, and they went about it with their usual thoroughness. Many are the contrivances by which the enemy had hoped to cause losses among the advancing troops, apart from the steps taken to delay them. One of the most common is the “S” mine which, after bieng. trodden on, shoots four feet into the air and then bursts and scatters shot a distance of 80 yards. Even flower-beds in a vacated fort had been planted with socalled booby traps. Using magnetic detectors, our sappers have made many areas safe for occupation by troops and have cleared heavily-mined landing grounds. It is the enemy’s practice on destroying bridges and culverts to mine the probable route of detours. Every inch is covered by the sappers’ detectors to ensure safe passage of transport. Many miles of road edges must be dealt with similarly before the highways can be used to full capacity. Provision of adequate water supplies is one of the first essentials, and no time is lost in restoring wells. Eight were blown up by the enemy or polluted with oil. There is little that is spectacular about the engineers work, but they have the satisfaction of knowing that it is vital to the advance of the troops. _____