NIGHT ATTACK

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 304, 24 December 1941, Page 5

NIGHT ATTACK

DESERT DRAMA N.Z.E.F. IN ACTION (Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) CAIRO, Dec. 22. Five hundred men are lying out in the desert across twice 500 yards of reddish earth and stunted wiry scrub. Their talk is subdued, but now and again you might hear a laugh almost break free and a question called into the darkness. Their world is black and cold. It is-a night for battle, and that, indeed, is what these men are ready to make of it, for the action planned is part of the scheme for the relief ? f Tobruk—history now, but undying history made by New Zealanders in the lonely Libyan plains. „Th e . objective to-night is Bel Hamed, nothing but a wrinkle on the brim of the escarpment. Silence f*/ 1 , blackness form the only barrage c ? ver « four intervening miles, for this is a straightout job J*?, the infantry—stealth, surprise and the Germans' dislike of night operations are on our side. Reminiscent of Crete Q To some of the old hands left' j oldest Auckland and oouth Island battalions which have been chosen for the task this I rJ ei V" * s r fminiscent of occasions in Crete and the old familiar tension of zero hour comes back. Newcomers to the battalions feel it as it grips them almost for the first time. at T Qqn is 1 n its feet moving at 9.30. It pushes westwards like a broom across a strip of flooring. Men are niacK snapes walking with the steady, unhurried gait they learned in months of training. Their boots swish over wizened bushes -> crus *? the white shells of desert snails. A mile is covered like this in silence without incident. Then the forward sections find i? eiI L S j e P? leading downward into the bed of wadi that runs directly across the front. Suddenly there is a shattering, rattling noise. Streaks of" red chase one another low across the ground, criss-crossing into a crazy, whistling, buzzing web of fire. Machine-gun nests are thick along the next crest, and it is their tracers tp a .t sweep hotly into the gully. Bullets hum by thick and close. You " r °P hke a stone and make yourself flat, but not for long. This is the moment when the tension breaks. If ever you felt hesitant you lose that feeling now. Bayonet Charge Begins The line is getting quickly to its feet to the cool command: "All right, lads, let's go." Like a grass fire fanned by the wind, the roar of the advancing line surges and swells, warm and stimulating to those who make it, chill and nerve-shattering to those who listen. Rifles are clenched, with dull bayonets forward, and feet are quickening to run. Simultaneously all along the line the bayonet charge has begun. The enejny fire rises and falls, mortar bombs crash and flares grope frantically into the sky. Now bedlam reigns as German posts are located and stormed. It seems the wildest confusion, but posts are silenced, their crews killed, wounded or put to flight. There is a lull while companies are sorted out and reformed with surprising speed. Steadily the line moves forward again to the next wadi. Another hot*.

bed of German automatic weapons and mortar nests is cleaned out with another terrifying, irresistible bayonet charges. The final attack is on me Knoll of Belhamed itself, secured three hours after the advance began. .Casualties have been extraordinarily light, and now the troops dig in, ready for whatever the morning may bring. Conference with Enemy The first it brings is a diversion. Two Germans bearing a white flag come into our lines on a mission nobody can understand. They are accompanied by wounded. They are put in a Bren carrier, which, with New Zealand officers on board, clanks out within 500 yards of the enemy lines. One German is sent to bring an officer, who comes out unarmed half-way to the New Zealanders. He salutes, and cigarettes are exchanged. Through a German-speaking member, our party asks whether the two men have come on'a peace mission— do the Germans wish to surrender? The Nazi officer laughs. No, no. I They only want to take in their I wounded. It is the New Zealanders who had better surrender. .. Our delegation laughs back—it is better that the Germans give up or they will be blasted from the face of the earth. The international peace conference ends in good-natured stalemate and breaks up with more salutes and clicking or Heels. The New Zealanders and Germans go back to their lines. Five minutes later tne "battle is resumed as the New Zealanders try to make the gap more secure. But the Germans are entrenched on three sides and have Belhamed perfectly taped. For two days they plaster the rise with machine-gun and mortar fire, pinning our troops to the ground but failing to budge them. For two days the New Zealanders lie there and take it. By the morning of the second day our advance has gone still further and contact has been made with the Tobruk garrison. Wellington Troops Push Wellington troops have done this in the second amazing night push past the Aucklanders and South islanders and on to El Duda, another f<pur miles westwards. They marched right through the German positions, and, with extremely little hindrance, reached the objective with the loss of only one man. The third day the New Zealanders and Tobruk troops, with tank and Bren gtln carrier support, mop up the last of the nearby pockets of resistance. Eighteen hundred prisoners trudge wearily away. The first motor convoy out of Tobruk in eight months rumbles through the night. The gap is open.