WINNER OF D.C.M.

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23998, 13 July 1943, Page 4

WINNER OF D.C.M.

f f 1 A. l TAKROUNA VILLAGE ACTION “JOB HAD TO BE DONE” (P.A.) WELLINGTON, July 12. “The job had to be done,” was all Sergeant H. Manahi, of the Maori Battalion, who won the D.C.M. in the famous assault on Takrouna village, in Tunisia, had to say about his part in the action. “Nine of us from B Company carried out the first assault, and one was wounded during the half-hour climb of the cliff, at the top of which the village stood,” said Sergeant Manahi. “It was a very hot scrap at the top, the Eyeties fighting violently. It was men of the Folgore Division who were trying to hold the village. After a time cur ammunition ran out, and we had to use captured Italian and German rifles, machine-guns, and ammunition. “We managed to hold on for the best part of a day, and then we were joined by men from C Company. Only three of us were left, Private H. Grant, who was recommended for the Military Medal, and Lance-Corporal H. Ruha. Six were killed in the fighting at the village,” the sergeant said. Lieutenant A. Mcßae, who found himself commanding B Company in the Takrouna village engagement when the company commander and the platoon commanders had been wiped out, had more to say about the feat. “Takrouna was the hottest scrap the Maori Battalion had in the whole fighting, from Greece onwards. El Alamein was a picnic compared to it.” he declared. “The Italians fought really hard. The Folgore Division was a crack parachute division. Te climb up the cliff face, which was almost perpendicular would take about half an hour in normal conditions, so you can judge what it was like under fire. When the action ended, there were scores of enemy lying in a ring round the spot the boys had been holding, and 395 prisoners were taken. That illustrates what the assault party had been up against.” A list of the names of the Canterbury, North Otago, and West Coast soldiers who have returned to New Zealand on extended furlough, will be found on page 8. i