MULES & DONKEYS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 May 1943, Page 3

MULES & DONKEYS

USED BY NEW ZEALANDERS IN TUNISIAN TRANSPORT SERVICE. SOME DANGERS FROM VICIOUS HEELS. (Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) NORTH OF SOUSSE, April 24. Just a few miles behind the Eighth Army’s front line, on the side of the track, is a grey rocking-horse with a painted saddle of ornate design. Transport drivers slow down to read the sign which surmounts this wooden horse—“ First New Zealand Mule Pack Company.” Tethered nearby between tall castus hedges among the olive trees is a motley collection of mules and donkeys, which only a week or two ago were owned by the local natives. Now they are ready for transport of ammunition and stores to the troops fightinjg their way through the mountainous country toward Tunis. The New Zealand Mule Pack Company is operated mostly by men of the Army Service Corps and others from i infantry battalions, many of them with pre-war training in the Mounted Rifles. All have had experience with horses, but few with mules or donkeys. The first casualty was an officer who was assisting the loading of a mule into a truck when a vicious pair of heels sent him to hospital. He was not seriously hurt. The mules carry about 2001 b. in addition to a 501 b. packsaddle, and the donkeys about half that weight. The 34 mules and 32 donkeys which constitute a platoon are capable of carrying 70,000 rounds of rifle ammunition and nearly 300 gallons of water. In addition to the water, they could carry nearly 2500 grenades or 700 mines.