DEADLY LOATHING

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 284, 1 December 1941, Page 7

DEADLY LOATHING

South Africans Amazed At German Brutalities BRIGADE NOW REFORMED Rec. 2.30 p.m. LONDON, Nov. 30. The Daily Telegraph's Cyrenaica correspondent says the South African Brigade has been reformed and refitted after its stand at Sidi Rezegh. These South Africans now know the Germans, and hate them with a deadly loathing. German brutalities amazed them. Some saw a German tank deliberately crash through and set on fire an ambulance tent. Such things arc beyond the South Africans' imagination. But now they will never forget.

"The Libyan offensive was a complete success from the beginning and apparently surprised the enemy," said General Smuts in a broadcast from Capetown. "The South Africans' stand at Sidi Rezegh was comparable to the South Africans' immortal two days' stand against the Germans at Delville Wood in 191 S.

"They continued to hold out against panzer, air and infantry attacks by superior numbers until their ammunition was exhausted.

"DO not let us count our losses," said General Smuts. "Our losses, generation after generation, have won for us this fair land and the heroic tradition which forms the immortal soul of our people."

General Smuts added that he had received a message from General Sir Claude Auchinleck expressing deep regret that the South African troops should have suffered so heavily in their first major engagement. General Auchinleck had said he could not express sufficiently his admiration and pride in the South Africans' tenacious gallantry.