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CAPTURED NEW ZEALANDERS
(N.Z.E.F. Official War Correspondent.) CAIRO, January 7. After thirty-seven days as prisoners in Bardia, nearly 700 New Zealanders returned to their base camp by train from the Western Desert railhead tonight. Although they had been on starvation rations throughout the whole period in the German compound at Bardia, they were in high spirits. Throughout the terrific naval, Army, and Air Force bombardment which was the prelude to the fall of Bardia, only one New Zealand prisoner was killed. He was away from the compound, gathering firewood, at the time. Most of the recaptured New Zealanders who arrived tonight belonged to the Fifth Brigade, commanded by Brigadier Hargest. They said the senior offi-. cers, including Brigadier Hargest, were taken from Bardia in the first few days. Before the main British onslaught on Bardia started, all the New Zealand officer prisoners had been evacuated from the town. Seventy-eight officers were said to have been taken from Bardia in three days. Three hundred New Zealand prisoners were marched to a German hospital ship one day, but the German skipper refused to take them from Bardia.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19420108.2.58
Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 6, 8 January 1942, Page 7
Word Count
188BACK FROM BARDIA Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 6, 8 January 1942, Page 7
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