FIRST DAY OF CAMPAIGN

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23494, 24 November 1941, Page 6

FIRST DAY OF CAMPAIGN

SAPPERS PAVE THE WAY NEW ZEALANDERS BREAK ITALIAN BARRIER (Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) CAIRO. November 20. New Zealand sappers gaily tore huge hunks out of Italy’s one-time eastern frontier wire to let our motor columns stream into Libya last night. As I wrote this on Wednesday we were still roaming unmolested across the broad shingle plains of former no-man’s land. With the kind of Fascist extravagance that runs to the erection of impressive monuments to doubtful glories, Italy long ago marked her border with Egypt not by an imaginary line, but by a thick and costly wall of tangled barbed wire. Like a super rabbit fence, it stretches sand-choked and rusty from Solium across the pletcaus, up hill and down dale, far into the south. In face of our historic trek, it was the most minor of inconveniences. Our engineers severed the tangled meshes in several places, dragged the wire away behind motor lorries and left a gap hundreds of yards wide, through which we rumbled in the dead of night. Aeroplanes Sent Squirming At last we were within earshot of the war. Big guns were thundering across the frontier last night, and on Wednesday we saw our first enemy aeroplanes—only a brace—which our anti-aircraft guns sent squirming between white shell-puffs in the blue sky, as they fled homewards across us. But we lost count of the British aeroplanes flying back and forth over us all day, after the numbers had reached at least 100. Wednesday was worth remembering. Here we were in Libya, starting our second foreign expedition and starting it on the right foot. Here, in black and white, was the first realisation of our most optimistic hopes for air and land support—aeroplanes in the sky, tanks on the ground. We were able to switch our eyes from a swarm of Hurricanes to five heavy tanks and we know where there are more—lots more. Already the air offensive we expected had opened, with thrilling figures for enemy aeroplanes destroyed in the air and on the ground. Second Day As we enter the second day in enemy territory, I cannot help emphasising again the unique nature of the circumstances and the outlook of the men around me. I have never before sensed such a confident, almost exuberant atmosphere. , These may be grim days immediately before us, but just now, as we enter the battleground and the enemy lines, we feel as the German soldiers must have felt on entering Greece. Even if this almost unreal sense of security were to end to-morrow, it has had a wonderful moral effect on the New Zealanders. Their trigger-fingers grow itchier every day. Early this morning before the cooks yelled "Come and get it,” the men played football. In battledress and greatcoats, they scrummaged, tackled, and kicked until the cold and stiffness left their limbs. But the noise was punctuated by the boom of field guns. Suddenly the footballs rolled to a standstill and the men became barrackers on the sidelines of a grimmer arena. A lone German aeroplane had come droning overhead. Then 20 British fighters appeared, flying westwards. Our hopes of seeing a combat were, so strong that they burst into words. The men pointed excitedly, yelling to the distant British aeroplanes, “Get that Jerry. He is just above you.” As if they really did hear, four fighters broke away and chased the retreating German into the distance. - PREPARING FOR THE CAMPAIGN SCOPE FOR LIBERAL DETAIL N.Z.E.F. HAS VITAL TRANSPORT TASK [Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.] CAIRO, November 20. Probably never before in this war have our general staffs been able to prepare in such liberal detail for a campaign as big as this promises to be. Almost every noteworthy activity I have seen or heard of in the last two or three months seems to fit into the day’s picture. The broader outlines were formed as troops, guns, tanks, and aeroplanes poured into the Western Desert in unprecedented numbers. The background was filled in by night air bombing, daylight sweeps from one end of Libya to the other and 'back along the vital enemy supply lines from Italy, and by our brilliant naval successes in the Mediterranean. And then its finer details were drawn by air reconnaissance and ground intelligence experts, by tacticians in the three services and oy wizards of the supply organisation. Miracle of Transport The New Zealanders have played a part in all these preliminary phases—to a limited extent by sea and air, but on as yet an unrealised' scale on land. Coupled with these achievements is the constantly recurring miracle of the transport and supply of food, petrol, and ammunition, in which our Army Service Corps units have earned a name to be remembered. Many weeks ago they took up their desert transport jobs where they had left off" before Greece, and truck mileages ran up into hundreds and thousands as they carted everything from fuel for British tanks to live sheep for the Indian cookhouses. A new and wonderful story emerged from among them when a brand new transport company was formed and operating within two weeks. Its maiden desert voyage was the delivery of the 2nd New Zealand General Hospital to a site near Mersa Matruh. There again was history in the making, for when I last saw it, tents were Being erected to accommodate the first New Zealand nurses to serve in the Western Desert. AXIS COMMENT ON BATTLE “ BRITISH SHOULD NOT REJOICE TOO SOON” (Received November 23, 8 p.m.) LONDON, November 22, The Berlin radio said a front of 94 miles had been established in North Africa. “The battle at Sidi Omar goes on,” the radio said, "but whatever the result, the British should not rejoice too soon. It took General von Rommel only 15 days to recapture a space at least 20 times bigger. “We repeat what the British Ministry of Information said last year, that the loss of a mile or so of desert matters little.” The Italian Stefani News Agency says the British have failed to achieve any outstanding results in Libya in spite of the use of the largest forces yet employed in North Africa. A German communique issued yesterday claimed that a German and Italian counter-attack in North Africa was progressing. German bombers routed concentrations of British; tanks and lorries. The Libyan-Egyptian frontier and military objectives near Mersa Matruh were also bombed. The Berlin correspondent"* of the British United Press states that a military spokesman said the British offensive in Libya constituted an extremely strong attack, which was not to be regarded as a propaganda affair. The Zurich radio announced that the Italian troops in Libya have been placed under the control of General Bastico Gambara. <