INDIAN TROOPS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 103, 3 May 1941, Page 9

INDIAN TROOPS.

WORK OF SAPPERS. Achievements In Abyssinia Campaign. British Official Wireless. 1 Rec. 11 a.m. RUGBY. May 2. Dispatches, which have just been received from the Eritrean front, pay high tribute to the bravery of Indian troops in the capture of the fortress at Keren, a natural defensive position set among soaring hills. Along the road dominated from heights, up and over peaks themselves, the Indian troops fought their way to victory. For more than a month the battle swayed on the ridges, fierce counterattack ceaselessly following attack. The final attack was launched one night and pressed relentlessly all next day. cutting into the heart of the Italian position and leaving thousands of the enemy isolated on the heights on either flank. English Midland and Indian troops surged down from the captured fort of Dologorodoc to conquer the vital hills along the railway two miles from Keren. They smashed their way through a whole colonial brigade anil a regiment of Uarabinieri in their dash forward. Even as they consolidated their position Scottish troops were swarming up the 6000 ft mountain of Sanchil the most heavily defended Italian position, and enemy troops i were being routed out at the bayonet ' point. Soon they waved the white flag and surrendered. j In Keren (Jorge, where four miles , from the town the Italians blasted . 2000 yards out of the road to block the advance, our soldiers were fighting hand-to-hand with machine-gun crews. i Even while this fighting was going • !on Indian sappers were at work dynamiting a new way through. I while Bren gun carriers followed close behind. The enemy made a (last desperate charge but. shattered i Iby machine-gun and artillery fire. 1 . they halted for the final advance. ■ British and Indian infantry, shouting and cheering, swept forward. , They climbed up to the lop of the peaks and then down the other side | |to race into Keren. Meanwhile •sappers had cleared the blocked road and tanks and troops pa.-sed along it and into the town. I Mr. Churchill, in a message to the Viceroy of India a few days after Keren fell, said: "The whole Empire has been stirred by the achievements of the Indian forces in Eritrea."