BATTLE STORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 March 1943, Page 4

BATTLE STORIES

OF AUSTRALIAN NINTH DIVISION AND OTHER ALLIED UNITS TOLD BY GENERAL MORSHEAD. TOBRUK AND EL ALAMEIN RECALLED. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) ' (Received This Day, 11.50 a.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. The Australian Ninth Division picked the “tender spot” in Rommel’s defences when it attacked the El Alamein line, General Morshead told a Press conference. General Morshead commanded the Ninth Division throughout its epic seven months' defence of Tobruk, and when it took part in the Eighth Army’s defeat of Rommel at El Alamein. He spoke with great pride of his division. Features which emerged from his talk were that the Germans attacking Tobruk had no knowledge of the former Italian defences of the town, that the Germans there had been deficient in infantry, involving a serious disadvantage in tank tactics, and that there was no co-ordination by the Italians between their tanks and infantry. General Morshead emphasised the courage and ability of the German airmen and soldiers, adding, however, that the German' defence tactics were not as efficient as the British. “He is a very brave 4 man, is the German airman,” declared General Morshead. “Although we were able to put up a heavy barrage over the port of Tobruk, the Boche would always come through. Nothing deterred him. The Italians emulated the Germans very well at first, but as time went on the Italians stayed higher and higher.” The break through at El Alamein, in which the New Zealand infantry, the Fifty-first Highland Division and a British armoured brigade were associated with the Australians, had not been made without heavy cost. General Morshead said. Minefields blocked the way for tanks, so that much of the work had to be done by infantry without tank support. “During the battle I went to see how one particular battalion was getting on under heavy enemy shelling. I asked a. private how many casualties they had had. He said: ‘Oh, it hasn't been too bad. A lot of chaps have been killed, but we must have fifty left. Anyway, I think we’ve got those Germans beaten.’ When you get men with a spirit like that they are not hard to lead,” concluded General Morshead.