NAZI TANK ATTACK

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 291, 9 December 1941, Page 5

NAZI TANK ATTACK

-| VIVID DESCRIPTION J j new ZEALAND SURVIVORS (Official War Correspondent, N-Z.E.F.) TOBRUK, December, 4. Seated by a desert fire inside the perimeter, I had a cup of tea this] morning with members of an Auckland platoon which escaped almost intact from the region of Sidi Rezegh when one New Zealand' infantry brigade was surrounded by tanks. Although these men had been through more than it was thought possible that human endurance could bear, they were still defiant, still confident They told me with pride that the New Zealand infantry, man for man, was a far superior fighter to the German. "We will take on and beat any infantry the Hun likes to stack up against us," a permanent staff sergeant told me, "but for God's sake don't ask us to fight tanks. You can't charge tanks with rifle and bayonet." There was no bitterness, no rancour in what the sergeant said. His pals told me what a great job of work he had done in getting the majority of his platoon out without a scratch when the attack was at its fiercest "Fifty Tanks Came Into Us M A vivid description of the tanir attack which split part of the New Zealand troops was given me by this sergeant He said: "Tanks started to move in and mass around the feature my battalion was holding about three o'clock on Sunday afternoon. We were between Bel-Hamed and Sidi Rezegh. The Hun started a three-point attack from the southwestfrpmthe north-west and from Rezegh side, east of our

At four in the afternoon he launched his attack with 50 tanks. They came up over the escarpment and into us. We were helpless against this swarm of tanh By 5.15 we could see that many of our chaps had been taken prisoner. Half an hour later troops got out of the tanks and formed a thin line from south-west to north-west They carefully combed the feature which we had held. They continued this mopping up, which they started from the; south-east "It was about 6 p.m. when the whole battalion was pulled out' Troop-carriers containing German lorry-borne infantry had arrived from the norm-west The whole show was over in two hours, and in that time Jerry had consolidated the position. We had two tanks, j which were used as decoys. There was no preliminary bombardment before the main German tank attack. There had been spasmodic mortar and artillery fire from the enemy all day, but no barrage was put down in front of the tanks, which Just came on relentlessly and opened up with their machine-guns and twopound shells. Artillery Cease Fire "At 5.15 our own artillery had to cease firing, because if they had continued they would have been lobbmg shells among our own chaps who had been taken prisoner. Our mortars fired a total of 116 rounds before they finished. Their target i^f»^ point German lorned to.V^ tr y were arriving. Our two an^" ta "k guns were quickly knocked out They only fired about a-dozen shells. Some of the other anti-tank i guns belonging to the New Zealanders kept firing until the end. I . OUT \ Prisoners being gathered in by the Germans. Thcv had no option but to surrender They could not drive off a tank attack with rifle and bayonet 'T*l e on l?; thing that saved us small wadi near by, along which we escaped. German tanir? came to the entrance of the wadL were uncertain what the wadi contained, and luckily for us they would not approach. We made' a dash across this wadi and we a Tommy convoy. They thought, we were Huns and would not stop, but we climbed pa swing lorries. Next morning we found" ourselves in the comparative safety of Tohruk.