"DESERT VICTORY."

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 56, 7 March 1944, Page 6

"DESERT VICTORY."

The din of battle that breaks loose in "Desert Victory," the motion picture that tells the complete story of Hommel's rout by Montgomery's Eighth Army, is one of the mightiest ear-shat-tering, eye-blinding sequences ever to be seen by film audiences. Heightening the effect of this dramatic sequence is the fact that the screen is in total darkness for the tense 40 seconds before zero hour and the command "Fire," only the narrator's voice outlining the preparations for the attack relieving the awesomeness of the situation. . Suddenly the blackness is split by the crash of the Eighth Army's open- \ ing barrage, thundering across the screen like the crack of doom. "Desert Victory," which opens in Wellington this week, is not an ordinary motion picture. It is a living record of the decisive 80-day, 1400-mile campaign across Egypt and into Tripoli that cracked Rommel and spelled doom for Mussolini's dream of . a second Roman Empire. Hailed as the greatest picture of modern warfare, "Desert Victory" was, filmed on North Africa's battlefield by, film units of the British Army and the R.A.F. The picture shows the terror, the might, and the glory of British offensive power. For ever it will live - • in the memory of all who see it, for its action speaks louder than words as the panorama of General Montgomery's men against the background of the / desert vastness flashes before your eyes. . . , For "ever the names of El Alamein, Tobruk, Benghazi, Takrouna will remain imperishable in the annals of the Second N.Z.E.F.,, who played their part with conspicuous gallantry to bring about the desert victory that •. proved the turning point in this war; —P.B.A. • " ..