SHARE IN THE CHASE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 17, 21 January 1943, Page 5

SHARE IN THE CHASE

NEW ZEALAND SWEEP INLAND

(Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) TRIPOLITANIA, January 15. Three weeks after their dash had cut off the German forces retreating along the Gulf of Sirte, our fighting columns were ready again for another of their now famous inland sweeps, which have taken them over 1000 miles through western Egypt and Libya since the El Alamein line broke in early November. In those three weeks huge supplies of food, fuel, and ammunition were carried forward. Some of our infantry battalions constructed an R.A.F. landing ground, and the route was carefully prepared through some of the most difficult country we have yet encountered. One reconnaissance party found wadis so steep and rugged that in only a few places in 40 miles could even a jeep cross them. But three days ago every detail of the route, including lights to show the track for night marches, was complete, and, again with tanks, our columns rolled out towards the west. Anti-aircraft guns watched overhead along the edges of Wadi Chebir—a former German defence line and the first deep depression our columns had to cross. Three-ton trucks, guns, and limbers lumbered down into the sheersided wadi, crossed its wide patches of soft sand, and climbed out of it again on to more miles of rock and sand. . In daylight we moved in long, wide formations, and at dusk our trucks edged into close formation and went on through still, moonlight nights. A few hours of rest, and jeep horns and the banging of petrol tins woke us again before dawn. As yesterday's trek ended and we settled down for the night, there was an occasional roar of gunfire ahead. AN ALL-DAY ACTION. ... In the first light this morning a battle between the New Zealand fighting columns and the Germans in the southernmost defences of Tripolitania began. New Zealand armoured cavalry with 25-pounders, advancing ahead of our main columns'of guns and mobile infantry, swept out across sandy ridges to attack German forces occupying high ground about 17 miles east of the main Axis defences along the Wadi Zamzam. Before 8 o'clock the high ground was ours, and our tanks were probing forward in a bitterly cold wind towards positions which the Germans defended with lines of anti-tank guns, heavy artillery, and scattered mines. While sweep* after sweep of Royal Air Force fighters watched overhead, a battle between our tanks and guns and the German armoured forces "and artillery raged through most of the day across country as arid and rugged as* any in North Africa. *' Though they were using heavy guns, the Germans seemed unwilling to fight any decisive action, preferring to delay our advance with vigorous rearguard battles. Italian and a few German tanks moved in groups of about 20 ahead of us. More New Zealand guns raced forward to support our armoured attacks, and by dusk the greater part of the German forces were withdrawing to the west, leaving heavy guns to battle against our batteries. The closing stages of the battle were watched by hundreds of our troops, who, found themselves with a grandstand view when their transport halted on high ground overlooking a wide basin from where our gun*, were firing. ! Till dusk, when thick clouds of dust and smoke obscured almost everything, our guns fired salvo after salvo into the retreating enemy, and the German batteries answered their fire with rounds that fell mainly well clear of our gun lines.

On the day's action the New Zealand guns, our tanks, and the heavy armour of the supporting unit are credited with knocking of* five German Mark 3 and 4 tanksT^"* troop carrier, and an anti-tank gun.. ,