FRIENDS AND RIVALS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 37, 12 August 1942, Page 4

FRIENDS AND RIVALS

ALL BLACKS' ADVENTURES

(Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) " CAIRO, August 9. Two well-known Auckland. /'All Blacks, H. F. McLean and.R. G. Bush, inseparable friends' before«th c war and since they arrived in the Middle East, were associated in a spectacular incident in the recent-New Zealand attack on Ruweisat Ridge. Bush has since

been posted missing, believed prisoner of war. Both were members of the same Auckland infantry battalion, Bush as platoon commander and McLean in charge of Bren carriers. When Bush's men were being heavily fired on by mortars, he decided to swarm the enemy f post with his platoon. Witty- a rifle he- led the charge, and captured, four trucks and sixteen prisoners. Further back with the Bren carriers, McLean could see this incident through his binoculars. He watched the amazing charge, without bayonets, led by his pal Bush. He decided to

go forward to give a hand,: but by the time he got there: Bush and his platoon had the -trucks and prisoners. All was well for Bush, and for 'McLean, who stayed behind, and. searched the captured trucks, to find excellent German tinned food, which kept himself and his platoon living on double rations for days. It had been a good little coup; but later in the day misfortune overtook Bush. He was captured, but escaped. He took a wrong turning, and was captured again. "Now he's in the bag," laughs .McLean. Bush and McLean were like that—they : always laughed \over each' other's misfortunes. They were club opponents '< for years, when Bush\played-for University and McLean- - for-Gj^ftonj