NEW ZEALANDERS’ PART

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 May 1943, Page 3

NEW ZEALANDERS’ PART

IN NORTH AFRICAN VICTORY. FEATURED IN EGYPTIAN PAPERS. (N.Z.E.F. Official News Service) CAIRO, May 20. The Anglo-Egyptian newspapers feature the part played by New Zealanders in the final battle of North Africa. They consider the chief crowning episodes of the smashing victory were the capture of General von Arnim and his staff by Indians of the New Zealand Corps under General Freyberg, and the defeat of the crack German 90th Division, the pride of the Afrika Korps, by the New Zealand Division. “It is specially fitting that the last fight in North Africa should have rung’ down the curtain on a three-year. struggle between the New Zealand i and the German 90th divisions, with the Kiwis taking their revenge for the; rough handling they received from Rommel’s crack troops at Sidi Rezegh,” is one comment. SOLDIER’S LOSS OF MEMORY. The photograph of a soldier suffering from complete loss of memory was published in the “N.Z.E.F. Times” on December 7, 1942. On the morning of publication two comrades identified the man as Sapper William Eric David Bell, of a field company. The picture was subsequently republished in New Zealand papers at the end of March, 1943. Many anxious inquiries were received at the New Zealand Headquarters in the Middle East. New Zealand people can rest assured that the soldier was identified beyond doubt. Bell is now back in New Zealand. Bell was wounded at the El Alamein break-through last October. He entered an Indian casualty clearing station and was then flown to base hospital suffering from loss of memory. The photograph showed him in bed in hospital, where he was cared for and recognised by many comrades. GALLANT BEACH RESCUE.

How two members of the Seventh Regiment, Lance-Sergeant R. Brown and Gunner S. Lowe, showed gallantry in saving the lives of two soldiers in difficulties in the surf is" described in a report placed on record by G.O.C. Many New Zealanders had gone to swim in Mediterranean waters in the Gulf of Hammamet during a short stay at Hergla, and Brown and Lowe saw two men in difficulties in heavy surf. Waiting only to take off their boots, they dashed into the water halfdressed and reached the most exhausted of the soldiers. Despite the strong undertow, they managed to struggle back to shore with one man. This enabled the remaining soldier, who had been in difficulty while supporting his exhausted mate, also to reach the beach.

“By this prompt and gallant act, Brown and Lowe were instrumental in saving two ' lives,” states the official record. A new publication has joined the Middle East list of Service newspapers. The latest addition to the war time Press is the “Air Force News.” Printed in Cairo and issued free to all Allied air personnel, the “Air Force News” is similar in size and layout to the “N.Z.E.F. Times.” and it devotes space to New Zealand items of interest to many New Zealand airmen serving in the Middle East.