SWIFT DASHES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 137, 12 June 1941, Page 5

SWIFT DASHES

i ANTI-TANK REGIMENT"! i i NEW ZEALANDERS' THRILLSJ A graphic story of adventures' with the New Zealand Anti-Tank' , Regiment in action is told by' Sergeant-Major Gordon Hamilton, • formerly of Hamilton, in a letter to! 1 his wife, Hobson Road, RemueraJ' The writer states in part:— ' "Another stage of our 'great ad- ! ; venture' is passed and once more li ! am in Egypt. A lot of my friends/ are not with me, and that makes mel very sad. We left Greece just- in! what we were standing in, and Ij; j think we were very lucky to get Jaway at all. Our embarkation point' was a small lonely beach. As usual,! the navy was magnificent, and did : everything methodically and quickly. ' "Our anti-tank regiment did good! work all along the line. I was very! [lucky in that I felt a scn.se of calm- ' [ness throughout the whole show and did not get the jumps. Our motor cycle orderly in headquarters was a great mate for me all the time. He.' is about the only chap I saw whoj seemed totally fearless and was fool-; I hardy in the risks he ran sometimes.; jHe and I kept the major cheered up when things looked pretty grim. The 1 major was grand. >, ! First Big Thrill "The first thrill I got was at a place called Ellisonna. I had ridden' the bike for about 40 miles to rendezvous with the major at .seven! o'clock in the evening about two' miles out of the town. Just as I got! through the town (which was in* ruins) about 30 dive bombers came down and dropped their load. Two: bombs landed behind me and then they started to machine-gun the road. I don't know what speed I !reached, but I had two miles of open! straight road and it seemed like 20 'miles. However, when I reached the 'ridge I was making for. the peopleup there said they h;iM ro\<.-r >ccn u 1 bike go £c fast. The Huns. u.-e an

explosive bullet that does a lot ofi af damage, and they were landing w behind me and along the edge of or the road—hence the great speed. W "From that day until we left m Greece 14 or 15 days later, the same v« ■sort of thing happened to me continuously. We were right in the front line of defence at both TherImopylae and Jerry never once pene-ct trated. He lost a tremendous num- th her of his men, but there were.in always others to fill the gaps. tu "There were a iot of Austrians in of :his army, and they seemed to be fa doped—chanting and frothing at the'bc mouth. These were shock troops' ar ;\vho would just get mown clown. lcl jOne could write for a long timeP l ■about our Greece campaign. It is aj er pity we could not have had air sup-1 ■ port and more ground forces and'oi stayed and fought him. We hadioi some pretty tight pinches under o' artillery fire." Ibi j Champagne in Deserted Cafe ' OI ! The writer tells how he (with his ai 'motor cycle) and his friend the'qi !motor cycle orderly made a compact.b; i to stick together. At Lamia they w .had to take an official message into ai jthe town while the battery out-'bi 'skirted it and continued on to Molos, w about 20 miles further on. "Lamia oi • had been heavily bombed." he tr [writes, "and there did not seem to ibe a living soul there. We delivered fi our message and then went into a rr big deserted cafe and sat down and b< drank a bottle of champagne. We d were past worrying about bombs, o The champagne bucked us up, how-o ,ever, and we got going once more." h :He describes in graphic detail fur-d ■ther stages of the terrific fighting: jb J "Our small party, the major, his' 11 driver, my friend the motor cycle [orderly and I got into a place underP some trees about 3 a.m. when we n shifted to Molos—''••" slit trencher ° .for ourselves before dawn and before S! jll o'clock were almost blown out of ll them by a heavy hail of shells which h Hasted for three or four hours. One n ■;of the trees was cut in half and we ,had shell holes within four or fiveU jyards of us. Bits of shell and shrap- a ■nel were whizzing round, and I got:T ■iquite a few pieces in mv own wee'a hole, but they were hitting the wall d ■of the trench and just falling on to i< ,me —red hot—but spent. c> i "We did not consider it possible b ' to get back from Molos. We were a • ajrain reduced to a small rearguard a , ■party on our own and timed ou:v«! withdrawal for >.\ p.ni. We wi-i-i- ; lhea\ily shuikd and buiubed a;ia

fternoon, and then he opened up nth several new batteries on to our nly exit, which was very narrow. V T e couldn't hold his tanks, etc., iuch longer and our chances were ery slim. Eyes on Fishing Boat "The major sent off quite a few haps early in the day, as he realised he position. He said he wouldn't nsult me by offering me the opporunity. The motor cycle orderly, f course, stayed too. We .ad our eye on a small fishing oat and decided to stick together nd make a break for it if we'were ut off. Just before nine o'clock our ■rayers were answered and the nemy stopped shelling the road. "The major and I went and pot ur guns through and then followed ■urselves and got through by 11 i'clock. It was a long two hours, iut Jerry didn't fire a single shell >n to the road. A Tommy heavy .rtillery battery fired over our heads ind kept him from progressing too luickly, and then we were relieved >y the good old divisional cavalry, vho ruined the roads, blew bridge , .* ind generally impeded progress >ehind us. The divisional cavalry vere absolutely marvellous through>ut, and did wonderful work against remendous odds. "We had to drive about 120 miles rom Molos on our last hop. The najor's driver and the maior were )oth exhausted, so I had the n:::ht lrive again. The motor cyeii nxlerly just couldn't keep his t yes >pen either. As my bike had 1" r n lit and smashed up" by a shell that lay, we decided to s<-ran tie nii <t like and the four of u- - travel m he major's truck. I had a pretty .vild drive. No her]: 4 ..-;—3o to '■'■'> :n:;< s ier hour in pitch darkm-> over ■oads that would make the hair Mnnd )n end in place-. Thoro w< > •_> smashed and wrecked vt-hidos over he side or run oIT the road in their lundreds. We pulled rp a: G.-iO next norning. "We made our way thr-jiirh \thens in daylight and procer-i.:-d another 2.j miles *o a hideout platf;. Fhen tliere was the u~uai sort:;:? w> ind gathe-rinc in of the flock. After ;lark I hart to po with a partv < :i "oot through woods and h:ok'-:i country and find \ route to the leach." We walked about 12 mi!<*s ind I stumbled into our ;.'-ea ajraia it nnr' o'--..-k in '"' '.. vuv - a: 1 ■ )p\v )i:i::! lirr.vn : -::.ti-v:'-.- ■'■ ''"