SAVED FROM SEA.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 48, 26 February 1941, Page 8

SAVED FROM SEA.

ITALIAN PRISONERS.

N.Z. TROOPS' FINE WORK.

Soaked to the skin by rollers surging repeatedly oxer thc.m, engineers of the New Zealand Army Troops' Company spent six arduous hours in pitch darknes» early this month when they assisted the rcscuc of ."»00 Italian prisoners of war, with their guard* and the crew, from a small ship grounded on a rocky stretch of the Mediterranean coast. The New Zcalamlers worked like Trojans to drag the sur\ivor« out of the ,-ea and hoist them up a pe-r|>endicular rock facc to safety. Member* of the company, which vii» ramped at the time 011 the shore, made out in the failing light of early evening tlie dim shape of .1 ship hc-ading towards land. Uncertain whether the xcsscl was friend or foe, the troops were called out armed, and hastened along the. coast. They found the ship stranded in a heavy swell 011 a ledge jutting out from the foot of a steep cliff.

Rescue plans wcrd shouted across the intervening surf, and a prisoner, wearing a lifebelt, brought a light line ashore, arriving in a state of collapse from which he failed to revive. A ship's ti reman who swam in with a second line was hauled up the cliff by the Xew Zealanders with a rope made from rifle slings fastened together. A sergeant used the same rope to descend and recover the body of the Italian, who died shortly after he had been pulled out of tho surf. Water Bitterly Cold. "We dragged hawsers ashore with the lines from the boat and anchored them to a heavy truck on top of the cliff," members of the company related. '"Then a party of us went down into the surf to grab the survivors as they hauled themselves in through the breakers." Walking out along the ledge, as far as thev could, the resellers were often engulfed by waves. An officer recalled how he saw one of his men keep disapi>earing except for his bald pate, only to hob up again as the swirl of surf receded. "We relieved them every two hours, for the sea was bitterly cold," he added. "Thcv did a wonderful job, bringing .">OO prisoners ashore in this way. Then we ferried the wounded and other survivors in on a raft which the vessel carried." Other members of the company ston«l at the top of the cliff and hoisted the rescued men to dry land. The difficulties of the whole operation were increased bv the necessity of using only carefully shielded lights, and the work was not completed until about one o'clock in the morning. The survivors were taken to the Xew Zealanders' camp to bo dried out, fed and put to bed.

It is believed that a few prisoners lost tlio.ir lives when they were swept from th" hawsers after leaving the ship. The. unrestrained joy shown by the survivors at having saved their lives was typified by one Italian, who planted an admiring kits on the faco of a New Zcalander.