NO EASY JOB

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 March 1943, Page 2

NO EASY JOB

RACING AFTER NEW ZEALAND DIVISION. PROBLEMS FOR CORRESPONDENT. (Official Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) TRIPOLI, March 16. It is no easy job to catch up with the mobile New Zealanders once they have a few days’ start. They can move with such secrecy and rapidly that initiative, •is sometimes taxed to the fullest to locate them, and experience has shown that when there is a move imminent it is best to be on the spot. Individual travel by truck or car till more forward areas are reached is comparatively simple, but once these areas are passed you are left to your own devices. One usually starts by setting out to find a New Zealand “axis” track, and when this is located the chase begins. The corps has told you the New Zealanders’ position of the previous day, but you knoww they have probably moved during the night. You race across the dusty tracks, gloomily surveying a great vacant expanse. The New Zealanders are in the back of beyond, and there is no marked track till you strike the divisional axis. There has been a lot of traffic along here, but you know they have probably it should lead somewhere. A truck with a New Zealander at the wheel lumbers by in a cloud of dust before you have time to stop it and question the driver, and then come more New Zealand supply trucks, so all’s well. Eventually you come on a cluster of trucks on the track-side, and ask how far to the division. “Don’t know,” is the reply. “They left here last night.” It’s almost dark and there is no moon, so you decide to bed down for the night. The division will probably move again tonight, but you think you can catch them tomorrow by travelling fast. You are up and away soon after breakfast, and in a few more hours you are on them —the tail end, anyway.