MR JONES.WATCHES BARRAGE

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23943, 10 May 1943, Page 3

MR JONES.WATCHES BARRAGE

TANK INSPECTION NEAR TAKROUNA

(Official War Correspondent N.Z.E.F.) NEAR ENFIDAVILLE, May 5.

During his visit to the New Zealanders,. on the. Bth Army front this week, the Minister of Defence (the Hon. F. Jones) with his secretary (Mr P.- M. Sherwood) who have now arrived in Cairo, had an experience of war which falls to the lot of few civilians, even Ministers of Defence and their secretaries.

They had a grandstand view of an enemy barrage from the top, of a tank and from a sector of the line which, only a few days previously, had been the scene of some of the bitterest fighting in North Africa. It was at his own request that the Minister visited this sector of the front before he returned to talk to the men who had fought over it and had been responsible for forcing the enemy from it. Immediately in the foreground rose the Takrouna crag, the scene, only 10 days ago, of one of the most daring exploits in New Zealand military history. On its right was the lower sawtoothed crest of Jebel Bir and behind it, running to the horizon north, east, and west, were rising lines of rugged ridges in which the enemy was fighting so desperately with his back to the sea and Tunis.

The Minister’s party had just arrived at their vantage point not far south of Takrouna and were listening to an explanation of the recent operations by the brigadier commanding the brigade which captured the feature when, to add point to the story, enemy artillery commenced to shell our lines to the north-east beyond Enfidaville. Simultaneously, long-range enemy guns landed shells in the valley between Takrouna and Jebel Bir and on the access ridge to Takrouna itself.

To add further to the realism, the drone of aircraft sounded overhead as some of our fighters flew towards the hills.

The Minister was given a demonstration no amount of explanation could have equalled.

The Minister was in the Middle East only a month ago, when he visited New Zealand troops in Egypt, Palestine, and Syria. Since then he has flown to Britain and returned. When he arrived at a Tunisian aerodrome on April 27, he was met by Lieutenant-General Sir Bernard Freyberg and immediately proceeded to divisional headquarters Next morning he embarked on a thorough tour of every unit of the division, and for the succeeding three days was continually on the move addressing personnel, inspecting the organisation of the division, and conferring with General Freyberg and his officers