DUNKIRK EPIC

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21214, 10 September 1940, Page 7

DUNKIRK EPIC

HEROIC BATTALION STAND AGAINST GREAT ODDS ENEMY’S PANIC RETREAT The part played at Dunkirk by men of a British regiment to which the Hauraki Regiment is affiliated, the Oxford and Buckingham Light Infantry, is described in advice received through the office of the High Commissioner for Great Britain in New Zealand. Sir Harry Batterbee. On the morning of May 27 a battalion of the regiment was called to face an onslaught on the town ot Hazebrouck by powerful enemy armoured forces. Finally, withdrawal was ordered. The men of the battalion were tired, and a running fight down the streets and from house to house had broken up platoons so thoroughly that it seemed confusion must result. Coolly, the battalion quartermaster won his way out of the town with about 40 men, who gathered to him from his own staff the transport section and those who had become detached from their companies. At the village of Lamotte, three miles south-west, they found two battalions of the West Kents in position along the line of the canal, and filled the gap between them. Throughout the day the enemy hurled attack after attack at the line of the West Kents, patched as it was by the little contingent from the 0.8.L.1. Force Surrounded Finally, in the afternoon, the Germans succeeded in forcing crossings of the canal on either side of the position occupied by the 0.8.L.1. The line was broken, the small 0.8.L.1. force was surrounded, and the retreat of others was again threatened. The 0.8.L.1. party counter-attacked after first finding a way of escaping through the ring of foes. Then, although it was open for them to continue their retreat and leave other and fresher troops to take up the task of delaying the enemy’s advance, they fixed bayonets and charged. The Germans outnumbered them three to one, but they decided the cold water of the canal was better than the cold steel of the bayonet. As one man, they fled. Some scrambled across the bridge, others flung themselves into the canal in a panic retreat. The 0.8.L.1. took over the village and held it until nightfall, when they safely withdrew, after relief by other troops, and went on to Dunkirk.