PEN PICTURES OF THE WAR.

Digger (Invercargill RSA), Issue 38, 3 December 1920, Page 10

PEN PICTURES OF THE WAR.

(By Captain Williams, R.N.).

PW30NERS OF THE EED DESEHT.

Tbe N.Z. Rifle Brigade, on Xmas Day, 1915, participated iii Ihe victory over the Senoussi at Mesra Matruh. At this time the captain and crevv cf the H.M.STara were held captive by the Senoussi &t Bir Hakkim, some miles away. Nearly two months before the Tara had been torpedoed off the Africa-n coast, and her compliraent of 70 men were handed over by the submarine commander to the Turlcs and .Senou- for internment. For the full detaJ oir sufferings, their march into the heart of the desert, their treatment at the .hands of the natives, the valiant attempt of their captain to escape and bring help, and their final rescue by ihe Duke of Westminister's armoursd cars. the reader is referred to "Prisoners of the Red Desert," which is obtainable from tha local library. After Mesra' Matruh the Senoussi retired westvvards into the desert, The subsequent battles of Haiazin, Agadir and Sollum saw them driven further west, but stili a formidable fighting force, awaiting a favourable opportunity for further mischief. Immediately after occupation of Sollum. the Duke of Westminster's armoured cars. which had hitherto been of invaluable assistance to the infantry. were able to perform a brilliant exploit resulting in the utter rout and destruction of the Senoussi at Azais, as is descrihed in the following extract : — On this morning of ' 14th March, the Duke of Westminister's light armoured cars, arrived at dawn at the head of Halfaia Pass, aptly terined "Hell-Fire" Pass by our -men, had surprised two Senoussi who had not yet made good their escape. From these two prisoners the Duke had learned news of importance as to the enemy's rnovements. With his unfailing faculty for quickly grasping the essentials of a military situation, thought and action usually came simultarieously. Without waiting for orders, or even for permission from his superior oiScer, like Hotspnr of old. he dashed off with his cars in sharp pursuit of the retreating enemy, contenting himself with leaving behind one car to tielio to General Peyton, the British Com-mander-in-Chief, news of what he was doing and to bring on his reply. The reply came long after the armoured cars had disappeared over the horizon, and it was in effeet to tell the Duke to do what he was already doing, viz., "to pursue the enemy with vigour." This pursuing force consisted in all of one Ford car with maehine-gun, nine armoured cars, and one light touring car, a 1914 Rolls-Royce, which the Duke always used and drove himself — a truly remarkable machine, which after many months of warfare is slill as efficient as ever, and is now in daily nse in London. Each car mounted a machine-gun, and the total complemenfc of the ten vehicles consisted of thirty-two ofFicers and men all told. With this force, unbacked by any other, they commenced the pursuit of the unbroken Turco-Senoussi army of severai thousands, equipped as it was with artillery aud machine-guns. After eovering two or three miles mark. ed by innumerable intersecting tracks, which made very bad going, tlrey picked up the road running westward from the old fort of Sollum, and overtook many lugitives, who fired at them as they passed. Following this road they were able to go at a speed of nearly twenty miles an hour, and after about an hour's run at this pace, shortly before mid-day they sighted the enemy's camp. Immediately, enemy shells fired at them showed them its exact position, one which he had hurriedly taken up. It was on flat ground on the open plain, but between them and it stretched a belt of hummocks having been formed by sand gathered round the roots of the tough and heather. like desert shrubs. This surface was about as bad as it Could be for break-ing the springs of cars ; but tlxe drivers who had now attained to an extraordinary degree of efficiency in such work safely negotiated it. Once through, the cars formed in line abreast, and charged gtraight home at the enemy. Never was a surprise attack more effective; the enemy were caught just as they were about to march. x neir camels were already loaded, some of the infantry were even then on the move, and many of the Jjns had just been limbered up. But the remainder at once opened fire a very hot fire on the advancing cars from every.thing available, machine-guns, mountainguns, and rifles. As the cars dashed forward the shells whizzed just over the top of them, to burst harmlessly in the open desert a mile or two behind ; but by a miracle not a single car was directly hii*

although the gunners stuck to their guns until the cars were right among them. The British, maxims, for their part, uiu deadiy work at close quarters ; the enemy artiliery-inen "and ofSceie were shot down or captured almost to a man. In a very short time the enemy were in a state of panic and rout, and, casting away their arms, they fled helter-skeker in eyery direction, in a vain enort- t-o tmd some avenue of escape from the death spitting monsters who pursued them so relentlessly. The cars continued their work of round. ing up the demoralised bands of the enemy until late in the afternoon, shoodng down the loaded camels, and scaltering his force s to the four winds, uriti 1 from physical exliaustion and repulsion to more killing, thej* could do no more.. As night feil, they returned to the place wh,ere they had first surprised the enemy, Bir Azais, or Bir Aziza, as it is scmetimes called Another strange incident of the Battle of Azais was an extraordmary phenomenon displayed by some enemy camels. A trairi of twenty of these animals was already loaded up and moving off when the cars first came on the scene ; to prevent their escape machine-guns fire was opened on thern, with the surprising result that the poor animals at once burst into fiames and then blew to pieces! An investigation disclosed the fact that the unfortunate beasts had been loaded with bombs and petrol, The final result of this dashing action by the armoured cars was that on the British side one officer was slightly wound. ed. Against this, on the other side of the scale, was the Turco-Senoussi army entirely smashed up and dispersed with very heavy losses, which included one German and ten Turkish officers killed or wound cd, eighty prisoners and the capture by the British of two mountain-guns, nine machine-guns, and a very large quantity of ammunition, food, and stores of all kinds. This by the unaided efforts of a British force of thirty-two ; thus were tha "Petrol Hussars" justifiedl THE RESCUE OF THE TARA MEN. By an odd card of fortune a letter written by Captain Williams from Bir Hakkim feil iato the hands of the British. By a second card of fortune a captured Senoussi had been, in his youth, at this unknown spot in the desert 125 miles away, and thought he could find the way there. The third eard in the hands of Fate was that the daring Duke of Westminster was at hand with his cays and volunlcered to. rescue the prisoners. The concluding stages of the trip are described : — But still there were no signs that they were nearing their destination. The gqides were arguing vigorously with each other and appeared more uncertain than ever as to their whereabouts. At mile eighty. two they took the cars off the road and headed across the open desert, at ixrst south-west, and then south south-west and then south. Looking round at mile eightyseven they saw that they had passed round the western edge of the low hiils which had been to thd southward of them since mile fifty. The desert surface here was very stony, but fortunately ori fhe whole it was hard going. Ninety miles went by, a hundred miles passed, and still there was no sign. There was a particularly bsW mirage that day, and from time to time they woula observe what appeared to be villages, horsemen, herds of cattle. But of these the guides took no notice — and, as they grazed, these phantoms vanished into thin air. All this time they had been' looking for a long fig-tree which the guide had told them about ; this fig-tree was the land mark by which he would know his position, and it was close to their destination. But neither of this tree, nor pf any other fixed mark, could they see any trace, nothing but- tha deceptive oft-changing shimmer of the mirage. A hundred and ten miles passed. No one any longer spoke, they were nearly halfway through their petrol, and they had the return joumey to make. r^ryone now believed that to go further was useloss, everyone except one man. The Duke of Westminister that day was in a mood which is designated in the vulgar seaman's vocabulary as "bloody-minded," that is to say, obstinate, determined, brooking no opposition to his will, impati. ent of futile argument against his set pur. pose. To the arguments of the fainthearted as to the danger of running out of petrol, he only replied that in that case they could stop where they wero and send back some of the cars for more. So long as the guides held out the least hope of baing able to find the way, so long as they did not acknowledge themselveg utterly lost, he refused even to consider the possibility of failure. They went on. A hundred and fifteen miles went by, and anxious looks were cast in the Duke's direction. To go

further seemed madness ! Achmed +.he guide had been paering intently into the brown sea of desert on the left. Suddenly. he shouted excitedly and threw himself off the automobile. which had been moving at twenty miles an hour. He had sighted the fig-tree and rirovidence's fourth card was on the tabie! With his one eye Achmed had been the first to note what all those' other eyes could not see : but now they all saw it clearly, standing aJone anu soiitary, blasted and gnar'led bv a hundred years of drouaht and desert wmrts. Achmed went ud to trie tree. feil on his knees. and having given tnanxs to Allah, the giver of all good things, he scraping away the sand with his hands, exposing as he did so the copmg ot an ancient well. It was. he explained, the "well of sweet waters." a well at which he had often watered his father's flocks iii his boyhood days, but now it was choked with sand and useless. Only the ancient fig-tree remained to show where the well had been. The way to Bir Hakkim was now clear and open ; they were no longer lost. But what could they hope, to find when they got there ? The chances were still ten to one that the prisoners would have been. moved eisewhere long before now. Or sven at that moment, when the cars appeared, the guards might set on them and kill them, if they were still there. They knew not what forces they might have opposed to them. and Bir Hakkim was, for aT. they ioiew, a strongly-defended place. Were they, at long last, to imd that this hare-brained quixotic venture against the unanown, after giving some promise of success was doomed to disappointment? It seemed more than probable. With pent-up emotion, their cars raced forward once more. Ten or .twelve miles further on they sighted a huge mound, and just to the right cf it a small heap of stones on a low ridge; the guide informed them that it was their destination. A few seconds more and what looked in the mirage like a large encampment wAn white-clad figures, came into- view : it was the 5 tents of the prisoners at Bir Hakkim. But to those in the cars, owing to mirage, it looked like a good sized village, where considerable resistance might be expected. Jhe Duke sent forward a car to reconnoitre, anotner following. A faint British cheer came to his ears. Providence had played her Last card. She had gone nap and won! At that eheer the whole convoy rushed forward. The.sight of them was the spectacle that greeted my unbelieving eyes at Bir Hakkim at 3 p.m. in the afternoon of St. Patrick's day, 1916.