NEW ZEALAND PRISONERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 December 1943, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND PRISONERS

REJOISI THE DIVISION IN ITALY.. EL ALAMEIN TO THE SANGRO. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 10.25 a.m.) LONDON, November 30. Seven New Zealanders, who more than a year ago were captured when their brigade was overrun by German tanks at El Alamein, joined up with their countrymen fighting in Italy. These seven men came down from the mountains yesterday and cressed the Sangro River.

For more than a month they had been hiding in the hills, waiting for the British to reach the Sangro River. When they realised that the river had been crossed, they were unaware that their own people were just opposite them, and did not even know that New Zealand troops were in Italy. They left their hiding place in broad daylight, dressed as Italian peasants, and walked on until they met a medical orderly. He was a New Zealander, and the men asked for “cigaretti.” The orderly was about to order them away when they laughed and disclosed their identity. They said that they would have walked to the Allied lines sooner, but had no boots and so could not travel over rough country. When the Italian armistice was declared, on September 3, they and some other’ men, including fifty South Africans and three Australians, split into parties and took to the mountains. A note was delivered to their camp, allegedly signed by British officers, saying that they should proceed to a certain place, which was in British hands. They suspected it to be a. German trap and went in the opposite direction. From a mountain hide-out they saw Germans enter their camp.