NEW ZEALANDERS IN NIGHT ADVANCE

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 250, 21 July 1942, Page 5

NEW ZEALANDERS IN NIGHT ADVANCE

Desert Ridge Battle

SOME OF WELLINGTON INFANTRY CAUGHT

(Official Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.)

CAIRO, July 19.

Since the New Zealanders’ brilliant six-niile night advance through the very heart of the Axis defences in the central sector of the El Alamein front and. the hectic day of action which followed, they have not been engaged in serious fighting. After one of their formations commanded by their new All Black brigadier had been overrun by enemy tanks last Wednesday night, they have not been attacked nor have they been asked to attack. They had been forced to withdraw a short distance by the weight of the German armour, but they have now reoccupied those positions which they temporarily lost. All the positions which the New Zealanders first captured in the storming of Ruweisat Ridge are still held by therm, they are now completely reorganized, well dug in and ready for anything, either attack or defence. They are eager to strike again. _ ' It can now be revealed that a large body of Wellington infantrymen of the second contingent were surrounded by tanks and captured during the night advance on Ruweisat Ridge.