RESTED & REFITTED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 November 1943, Page 4

RESTED & REFITTED

VETERAN NEW ZEALAND DIVISION AGAIN WITH MONTGOMERY. NEW EQUIPMENT INCLUDES HEAVY TANKS. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.15 a.m.) RUGBY, November 29. Veterans of five campaigns, the New Zealanders are again in the Eighth Arrpy's battle line, this time as one of the strongest and bestequipped Allied fighting forces yet landed in Europe, writes a correspondent in the Middle East. Rested and refitted after twelve months of continuous fighting during the Battle of Egypt, and then in the advance from Alamein into Tunis, they crossed the Mediterranean, for the first time since they landed in Greece two and a half years ago, secretly. In the Middle East they prepared for long forced marches and close country fighting. Added to the force of infantry which fought for 2,000 miles across North Africa is now armoured strength. For the first time the New Zealanders 1 are in action in Italy as crews of heavy American tanks. . They are probably the first battle-experienced infantry in the British Army to fight in tanks. Profiting by the experience of other Desert divisions which fought with the Eighth Army through the Sicilian campaign, the New Zealanders have concentrated their training on moving along distances without transport, as they had been accustomed to doing during two years of desert war. Some weeks ago they marched from Cairo to the Western Desert, 150 miles, in a few days. ' / Still commanded by the battle-scar-ed General Freyberg, V.C., the New Zealanders are now reputed to be the most fast-moving and hard-hitting forces in the Allied ranks. General Montgomery used them once again as a major part of his shock troops with which he hoped to make a break- ’ through in his new offensive.

GOOD PROGRESS FIERCE FIGHTING ON EDGE OF MAIN DEFENCE LINE. THREAT TO ENEMY LATERAL COMMUNICATIONS. (Received This Day, 1.30 p.m.) LONDON, November 29. A correspondent writes that as he watched from an artillery observation post, the whole German ridge danced madly in non-stop eruption. As the sun set/ the Germans had given up more, vital ground. The German positions were veiled in smoke, which showed up against the glistening Apennines snow. The latest reports say. the Eighth Army is now fighting fiercely within the outer edge of the main German defence line. The Eighth Army move in establishing a second bridgehead at Archi resulted in violent counter-at tacks, but the Eighth Army drove them off and then reattacked, re-establishing and enlarging its original gains. Othel- messages, from Algiers, state that the Eighth Army advanced on a five-mile front. It is pointed out that the capture of a bridgehead in the Archi area threatens the lateral highway behind the German front. The Algiers radio states that the Fifth Army advanced over a mile beyond Mount Aquila, in the upper Volturno Valley.

Another report says the Eighth Army is up against strong defences in its attacks between its bridgeheads, which are nine miles apart, but has made good progress.