CHANGE FROM DESERT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 April 1943, Page 2

CHANGE FROM DESERT

NEW ZEALAND DIVISION EQUIPMENT AMONG OLIVE GROVES. THE DRIVE INTO TUNISIA. (Official War Correspjondent, N.Z.E.F.) NORTH OF SFAX, April 11. Following upon another long inland move, during which they covered over 120 miles in the broken uplands of the Tunisian plain, our forces which passed through the Gabes gap, crossed two inland railways and by-passed Sfax, are now ready for yet another move to sweep up and envelop Rommel’s forces to the north. After days in desert and semi-desert they are now encamped among miles of great cultivated' olive groves near Sfax. The Luftwaffe is still hitting back, and last night as we settled in a storm of anti-aircraft fire rose from among the trees to turn away the nuisance raiders. It was a far cry from the other days when our troops sheltered in the olive groves of Greece and Crete and the Luftwaffe pursued them relentlessly; now it is the Luftwaffe itself which is pursued, while all along the route alert gunners have taken toll of the hit-and-run bombers. The forces under Lieutenant-General Freyberg, with the exception of some New Zealand artillery, had a nonoperational role during the successful action in the Tebaga gap they moved on and rested in rolling country between Gabes and El Hamma. As soon as it was known that other Eighth Army forces had struk the enemy’s line at the Wadi el Akaria successfully on the night of April 6 and the following day, forcing a passage between the wadi and the neighbouring hills, our columns were moving again with the task of pursuing and rolling up the retreating enemy as he fell back across the open country beyond the gap to the north-west. As we passed through the Akarit positions from which British and Indian forces had driven the enemy 24 hours earlier, we saw a litter -of abandoned enemy equipment on every hand — guns, lorries and limbers, with a steady trickle of prisoners moving back along the route. Before dark on April 7 our advanced forces had fanned out well into the northern plain toward Sebkret el Noual, the large salt lake flanked by ragged hills lying athwart the route toward the Gafsa-Mahares railway. ITALIAN GENERAL TAKEN. The advance continued the next day, and prisoners continued to be rounded up. In the afternoon enemy tanks appeared ahead of our forces and were engaged. They continued in evidence the next day, but after our artillery knocked out five the remainder withdrew. During this stage of the advance an infantry battalion captured a number of German prisoners. It was while this section of the advance was proceeding that patrols from a famous British cavalry regiment made the Eighth Army’s first contacts with the American forces advancing from Gafsa. On the same day a patrol of the divisional cavalry captured General Manerini, commanding the Saharan Corps of the Italian Army, together with 20 of his staff and a number of his bodyguard. On April 9 a force swept forward with armour well in advance across the Gafsa-Mahares railway and continued across broken semi-desert country toward the railway running between Sbeitla and Sfax. Though harassing action by the enemy was maintained and occasional tip-and-run raids were made by enemy bombers, the advance was not seriously impeded and on the afternoon of the fourth day after we had moved off from Akarit our forces were astride the Sfax-Sbeitla railway. They did not pause there but plunged into the vast olive groves which radiate in all directions round Sfax and continued in the general direction of El Jem and the railway linking Sfax and Sousse. A wide, cultivated area between the great lines of olives made excellent travelling, and by nightfall on the 10th our forces had passed Sfax by many miles and were within striking distance of La Hencha, a few miles south of El Jem, which is about halfway bettveen Sousse and Sfax. DAYS OF STRENUOUS TRAVEL. In these four days of strenuous travelling they covered well over 100 miles of desert formation, clearing the inland area for the advance of the other Eighth Army forces along the coast. They are now in country more pleasant than the semi-desert, and are resting in miles of cultivated orchards broken with a blaze of poppies, daisies and all manner of wild flowers, which mark the coming of spring. But the rest is only momentary, for the pursuit by the Eighth Army as it presses the retreating enemy toward Tunis continues with only the respite necessary to bring up supplies, men and vehicles. General Manerini has the reputation of being the most hated commander in the Italian army. In Tripoli he was well known, particularly during the time when the Italian army was fighting in the desert, as “a general who arrested soldiers for having their collars unbuttoned.” Many Italians are jubilant over his capture. It is said that he continually told the Italian soldiers to “fight to the last icund me, and die rather than give yourselves up.” Before the Eighth Army’s attack on the Mareth Line began he was reputed to have told his troops that he would rather be cut into a 'thousand pieces than surrender to the hated British. Neither he nor his staff and bodyguard offered the slightest resistance to our patrol. Manerini, is a personal friend of Mussolini. When the Duce arrived at the Castcl Benito airport in June last year, he passed the army commanders to shake hands with Manerini, and Italians say that the general then began to make himself “the little Duce of Tripoli.” ■