HAND-TO-HAND FIGHTING

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24445, 20 December 1944, Page 3

HAND-TO-HAND FIGHTING

BAYONET CHARGE BY MAORIS (Official War Correspondent 2nd N.ZJ3.P.) ADVANCED HEADQUARTERS. Dec. 17. There was fierce hand-to-hand fighting when the New. Zealanders delivered the blow which caused the Germans to retire from Faenza, and one company of the Maori Battalion rescued captured comrades at the point of the bayohet. A Maori platoon had taken a house, and the Germans counter-attacked with infantry, supported by tanks. The tanks blew the house down and one moved in close to help the infantry capture the emerging Maoris. A Maori company nearby had run out of ammunition, but immediately attacked with the bayonet, driving off the infantry. Sergeant R. Hoani, M.M,. of Whakatane, climbed on a nearby tank and dropped a grenade down the turret. Second-Lieutenant A. Huata climbed on to assist him, but the machine-guns of other tanks drove them off before they could wreck it, and the Germans recovered the tanks. An amazing exploit was that of Sergeant C. Batchelor, of Waimate, who, having taken command of his platoon when the officer was wounded, was moving with four men to a commanders’ .conference. They went to the wrong house. Entering the house, they found about 30 Germans there, and opened fire on them. Sergeant Batchelor and one German shot it out, man to man. the German falling. The others surrendered. Five New Zealanders marched 19 prisoners out, leaving five dead. Typical of the confused nature of the fighting was the experience of Corporal M. Kerr, of Dunedin, who was about to enter a house supposed to have been abandoned, when two Germans in a. nearby slit-trench challenged and fired. He ran into the house, and the Germans fired through the windows. They departed, and three New Zealanders entered the house with a prisoner. The party was leaving when a tank drove them back. The tank commander fired two shells into the house and moved on. The party lay low until voices outside assured them that the sector was in New Zealand hands.