CONSTANT GRIP WITH ENEMY

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 59, 3 December 1941, Page 7

CONSTANT GRIP WITH ENEMY

Dominion Troops’ Part N.Z.E.F. Official News Service. CAIRO, December 1. Because of the type of fighting which is engaged in by the New Zealand troops, the communications through the constantly moving areas of battle are difficult and uncertain. Graphic descriptions of the New Zealanders constant grips with the enemy, however, are furnished by dispatches from G. W. Harriott, Australian war correspondent, which were received today. Describing the linking up of the New Zealand forces and the forces from Tobruk, Mr. Harriott says, “As I write an Australian battalion which formed part of the Tobruk garrison is launching an attack in support of the,New Zealanders, with a heavy artillery duel going on. I am typing this dispatch in a circular basin of the desert which is literally ringed with enemy shell bursts, giving something- of the effect of ‘being inside a charmed circle.’ At times the circumference of this narrow circle is completely shrouded with spouting fountains of dust and black smoke as the German gunners try to locate our battery positions. Our 2opounders are replying with spirit. In the lulls of gunfire a vicious rattle of machineguns tells of heavy infantry fighting under way.” Hand-to-Hand Fighting. <

Mr. Harriott says he was first correspondent to contact the advanced New Zealand forces at the junction with Tobruk, and he learned the story of what was probably the bloodiest bayonet fighting in this war, as the New Zealanders thrust their way through. . . “In order to conserve ammunition, the New Zealanders fought their way across 70 miles of arid desert at the bayonet point, storming position after position in grim hand-to-han'd fighting, capturing a large number of prisoners —all Germans —and hacking their way through the cream of Rommel’s infantry to join hands with the Tobruk garrison.” A further chapter tells how part ot the New Zealand forces, marching through the night, came on a big Italian encampment. The Italians were all in bed, and their sentries were lax. The New Zealanders surrounded them, and at a signal rushed the encampment.

There was terrible confusion. The Italians ran screaming in front of the New Zealanders’ bayonets, and they suffered heavy losses. The survivors fled headlong into the desert. The New Zealanders pursued them for a while, and then abandoned the shattered remnant to its fate. Capture of Sidi Kezegh.

Describing the capture of Sidi Rezegh, Mr. Harriott says: “After meeting with opposition ail the way westward in the advance to Tobruk, the New Zealanders swept to the possession of Sidi Rezegh with the bayonet at night without artillery preparation. The Germans met them stoutly, and here there was the bloodiest hand-to-hand fighting of the campaign. When a red dawn broke the New Zealanders were in possession of Sidi Rezegh.”

It was with the bayonet, too, that El Hamed was taken by the New Zealand forces. Mr. Harriott compares the pictures of the operations today with a distorted figure-of-eight of the Tobruk corridor with the Tobruk gar- ■ rison holding the top circle.' and the New Zealanders the lower. The New Zealanders, with the Australians, are trying to extend the corridor northward to the coast to pinch out the enemy pocket. The Germans are resisting every step and are counterattacking wherever possible. _ , Spirit is added to Mr. Harriotts dispatch by a description of the action where the Auzacs are endeavouring to dislodge the enemy from their position. After vividly telling of shells bursting, the boom of guns, the rattle of rifle and machinegun fire. and bombs bursting on this "real witches Sabbath,” Mr. Harriott says, "From one of our signal vans a few yards away a wireless is playing, ‘Wish Me Luck As You Wave Me Goodbye’—a choice which is causing a good deal of amusement. “Tough New eZalanders lounging on the ground are entirely unperturbed by the disagreeable fact that they stand a chance ox being blown up at any minute. They are hard, cool customers these New Zealanders—veterans of Greece and Crete with a I magnificent fighting record—and their confidence is a cheerful antidote to the I

incessant gunfire which hammers the eardrums.” This afternoon, the dispatch continues, there was a dramatic development in the bafle when the panzer division genera. l , Ravenstein, was taken prisoner. A tribute to the New Zealanders’ fighting qualities was paid today by military circles in Cairo. It was said that the New Zealanders were superlative troops and were fighting magnificently and “pqtting up a marvellous show.” Throughout the operations the New Zealand infantry lias shown superiority over the best the Axis has to offer.