"GERRY," THE DOLL

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 57, 9 March 1942, Page 6

"GERRY," THE DOLL

TROOPS ENTERTAINED

N.Z.E.F. VENTRILOQUIST

(N.Z.E.F. Official News Service) CAIRO, March 8. A dispatch from El Adem, dated March 3, says that across the world and through the desert campaign have gone a New Zealand ventriloquist and his doll "Gerry," entertaining our troops in training camps, on troopships, in desert dug-outs, and finally on the battlefield.

Packed in a suitable platoon commander's truck, "Gerry" bounced his way through shells, shots and dust in the Libyan actions from Capuzzo to the battle of Gazala, the most western point reached by New Zealand fighting battalions.

Two days after the ba,ttle, while their platoon was awaiting return to Egypt, "Gerry." with his master — a Westport machine-gunner well known during the last 10 years as an entertainer on the West Coast and South Canterbury—told a most amused audience of Allied troops his campaign experiences.

Of his namesake's mortars, "Gerry" took a "poor view." but thought the Italian gunners "could not hit a cow with a spade." Although the platoon is again in the Libyan desert, the "fighting doll" is not with it. The climate and hard rations, they explain, do not suit "Gerry's" complexion.