SURPRISE VISIT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 April 1943, Page 3

SURPRISE VISIT

GENERAL MONTGOMERY IN CAIRO TROOPS ADDRESSED AT GARDEN PARTY. AND AFTER EASTER SERVICE IN CATHEDRAL. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 9.40 a.m.) RUGBY, April 26. General Montgomery sprang a surprise in Cairo today, by appearing at the early morning service in. All Saints Cathedral, according to an agency message. Later in the afternoon General Montgomery attended an Easter garden party given in the grounds of the British Embassy by Sir Miles and Lady Lampson for 260 repatriated officers and men, who recently arrived at Cairo. The highlight of the garden party was Generay Montgomeiys address to the troops present. He said they might ask what he was doing in Cairo in the midst of the Tunisian battle and explained that he had made up his mind to spend Easter in Cairo and nothing the Germans could do could upset his plans. Before departing, he saipl, he had made all his dispositions and he had learned that morning that the Eighth Army had, on the previous night, attacked and taken all its objectives. There were, he said, no finer fighting forces than those of the British Empire. The Eighth Army had had good times and bad. It now was having a good time, but the foundations of its successes were based on the previous work of the men and their devotion to duty. General Montgomery later moved among the men, chatting and autographing paybooks. He again attended the Cathedral for the evening service and read the lessons subsequently addressingjhe troops present in the cathedral hall.

THOUSANDS OF VEHICLES NEW ZEALAND DIVISION “A WHOPPER WHEN SHE ROLLS” (Official War Correspondent N.ZIE.F.) TUNISIA, April 20.

“She’s a whopper when she rolls,” said a dusty New Zealand driver as he sat during a boil-up and stirred the sand in his desert stove with his bayonet. “She” was the New Zealand Division. When she rolls she is undoubtedly a whopper. It is interesting to know just how many wheels roll when the division rolls, but as the information would prove useful to the enemy it is safer to assert that the New Zealand Division as it rolls with the Eighth Army is one of the most mobile sections of that now world-famous force. In motion it consists of thousands of vehicles, from medium and light tanks to jeeps, while today I sighted, tailing along, captured three-wheeler motor-cycles reminiscent of the suburban bread delivery. When the vehicles move in widelyspaced parallel lines the division still stretches from horizon to horizon, yet every unit and, indeed, every vehicle, has its appointed place among the greatmoving procession. Heading the various sections go heavy armoured command vehicles or lighter pick-ups and convoy leaders flying the appropriate flags. When the convoy halts for the night vehicles move out to the flanks to obtain the widest dispersal. On the outer flanks move anti-tanks and aircraft guns, a defence screen ready for action at a moment’s notice. The crews are always alert, watching the route of the advance and the sky for trouble.

MALTA’S RECORD

NEARLY 1,000 ENEMY PLANES. SHOT DOWN BY AIRCRAFT BASED ON ISLAND. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 9.40 a.m.) RUGBY, April 26. A Malta message says aircraft from the island shot down their 997th enemy plane, yesterday, when Spitfires destroyed a CR3I3 off Sicily. Later, fighter-bombers got direct hits on a Marshmemi factory, power house buildings and railway sidings. Intruders attacked enemy aircraft landing on an aerodrome in Sicily. NAPLES BOMBED AGAIN LONG-RANGE FIGHTERS OVER lONIAN SEA. ENEMY STEAMER SET ON FIRE. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, April 26. A communique from the Middle East headquarters of the Royal Air Force says that the Italian port of Naples was attacked by heavy bombers on Saturday night. The railway station and shipyards were among the targets. Long-range fighters were over the lonian Sea, between Italy and Greece, and set an enemy steamer on fire. All the aircraft returned.

RAID ON HAIFA ITALIANS TALKING ABOUT AIR OFFENSIVE. LONDON, April 25. Cairo reports that R.A.F. fighters last night shot down one Axis plane and seriously damaged another when an attempt was made to raid Haifa, the port of Palestine. According to the Rome radio, Italian bombers last night blew up oil tanks at Haifa. The radio said that this raid and also two previous raids against Tripoli, represented the beginning of a powerful Italian air offensive against the Allied oil centres in the Middle East.