"EASY MEAT"

Auckland Star, 12 May 1941, Page 3

"EASY MEAT"

SUICIDAL TACTICS HEAVY TOLL TAKEN OF NAZIS (.From the Official War Correspondent with the N.Z.E.F.) CAIRO, May 9. A brave little force of mechanised cavalry, anti-tank and field gunners and engineers may justly claim a large share of the credit for the success of the British withdrawal from Greece as far as the New Zealand troops are concerned. Isolated from the main force and constantly on the move, it struck elusively at Germans in mountain passes and open ground, delaying the enemy advance probably a week in all and inflicting some 400 casualties.

Spreading along the Aliakmon bank, the force shot up Germans as they massed on the other side and attempted to push out pontoon bridges. Here the New Zealanders first witnessed the suicidal tactics of the German infantry. "They walked over crests and open ground carelessly as if going to a football match," said one trooper. "They cared nothing for fieldcraft or concealment, and we shot them down like rats, but they still kept coming as though driven from behind. German soldiers are such easy meat that I do not wonder they put faith in tanks and aeroplanes."

Two New Zealand armoured car crews recaptured the spirit of the old horse cavalry in a glorious charge on a large body of German troops at a roadside halt. They sped unharmed into a rain of fire and out again, leaving several enemy, casualties.

Will o' the wisp tactics were so successful that the Germans probably believed the force would bo a whole division, and poured shells into vacant positions. Light armoured vehicles shot up troop carriers and even engaged tanks from the sides. Anti-tank guns accounted for four tanks, while an armoured car crew brought a divebomber crashing to earth.

Supporting British forces in a delaying action down from the Yugoslav border. New Zealand machinegunners engaged the enemy during a week of rain and snow, when scores of "young giants" fell before the New Zealand gun posts. These proved to be members of the famous hand-picked Adolf Hitler Regiment, whose ranks must have been considerabJy thinned, as our gunners caught them alighting from buses and uncovered.