N.Z.E.F. ENGINEERS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 153, 30 June 1945, Page 6

N.Z.E.F. ENGINEERS

MAGNIFICENT WORK COMMANDER'S RECOGNITION N.Z.E.F. Official War Correspondent TRIESTE, June 26.

Feats of engineering unparalleled in any other campaign have been performed, stated Field-Marshal Alexander in an Order of the Day in which he congratulated all engineer troops in the Mediterranean theatre on their magnificent work. To the New Zealand Division on another occasion he said New Zealand engineers had set a standard of military engineering that would probably remain for all time. The reason for the New Zealanders' amazingly fast advance was the engineers' ability to keep armour and supplies rolling forward. The work of the New Zealand engineers has aroused the greatest interest in the British Army. Three officers have visited the Division since the fighting ended in order to investigate the methods and organisation, and it is likely much of the technique developed by the New Zealanders for this last campaign may be included in the British Army's schools of engineering. Our sappers have not been content to rest on their laurels and a most critical examination of their work has tome from themselves. Every aspect of the task has been examined dispassionately, with a result that lessons have been learned which can bring about improvements in the future. That is the reason why New Zealand engineers are among the best in the world. They have been learning, changing and improving for nearly six years. Ovor Hill Country and Desert

Greece gave the sappers a gruelling introduction to war. Their work there was mainly road construction and demolitions. On Crete they had to operate ships and barges and act as stevedores, and they also fought as infantry. They put in much hard work during the stay in Syria and did more in the Suez Canal area, where they built swinging bridges across the canal and installed water supply and sewerage. In the desert they built miles of water pipeline and pumping stations to service the desert Army as well as Clearing minefields and demolishing the enemy's defences. They also took part in the fighting of the desert campaign, and highlights of their work were the location and construction of routes across the Chrys drift for outflanking the enemy and the location of a route across Jehels outside Tripoli.

At Tripoli they were again hard at work reconstructing docks, and clearing the harbour of sunken ships and bridging work came into prominence in and out of the battle in Tunisia. Later, when they were given Bailey material to use, they made adaptations to special needs of the moment which would have surprised even H. C. Bailey himself. They came to Italy with all this knowledge and experience behind them, but this year in Lombardy they had to cross country split up by a maze of rivers and canals. There never was less likely country for a swift advance, but the New Zealand engineers studied, experimented and devised a new technique for river crossing, and then trained intensively for a month. The Division's plan .of attack was built around the ability of the sappers to keep the Division moving forward. It had the simplicity of brilliance—infantry established a bridgehead, the engineers rushed bridges across, and guns and armour moved up. Only the best of soldiers, trained in years of modern warfare, could have achieved the Division's last triumph, and this is particularly applicable to the engineers.