STEPPED ON MINE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 56, 7 March 1944, Page 4

STEPPED ON MINE

VISIT TO BATTLE AREA

(Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.)/ DIVISIONAL HEADQUARTERS, March 4. While visiting the forward area, Major-General Kippenberger was seriously wounded as the result of stepping on what is believed to have been an anti-personnel box mine. With his A.D.C., Second Lieutenant F. F. Massey, of Mangere (a grandson of the former New Zealand Prime Minister, William Ferguson Massey), General Kippenberger was descending a rocky slope after viewing the battl* area. He remarked to Lieutenant Massey that the place seemed a likely one for

mines, and they had proceeded only a few yards further when there was a violent explosion which threw General Kippenberger several yards and Lieutenant Massey some distance down the hillside. , „ . One of General Kippenberger s feet had been severed and the other was so shattered that later it had to be amputated. Lieutenant Massey, though he had been following only a yard or so behind General Kippenberger, escaped with superficial wounds. General Kippenberger suggested that he crawl down the rest of the slope, but Lieutenant Massey, upon seeing the seriousness of the wounds, hastily made for a nearby New Zealand unit. Stretcherbearers set out immediately, and within a very short time General Kippenberger was receiving medical attention. He was returned to the rear areas through the usual medical channels, and it is expected that within the next day or two he will be moved from the casualty clearing station to the New Zealand General Hospital on the Fifth Army front. He has already been visited by Lieutenant-General Freyberg. The news of General Kippenberger s wounds has stirred the feelings of every man in the division. He is admired by the troops for his leadership and for his unfailing interest in their wellbeing over a long period. Box mines are an ever-present menace on the front. They are .well concealed and are difficult to detect.