DANGEROUS WORK

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 83, 8 April 1944, Page 6

DANGEROUS WORK

TAKING UP SUPPLIES

(Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) NEAR CASSINO, April 5. Now that any movement or noise, even the starting of a tank engine, brings down terrible concentrations of German shells and mortars, one of the most hazardous jobs for our troops is getting food and ammunition to the New Zealanders at Cassino. Every night groups of our infantrymen, clearly visible in the moonlight, walk out across the river flat to take stores into Cassino and bring back wounded from the front dugouts. Often the casualties they carry back, include some of The men who began the nights work walking alongside them. _ Usually, now that the front is quieter, the job of these ration parties is more dangerous than that of men actually holding the front. When they take up their night positions ready to meet German patrols, most of .the New Zealanders in the front line have the shelter of deep, well-covered dugouts. The men who take up stores are exposed for several hours every night to all kinds of fire. "Once you get up to the front, the hardest part is to get out of the trench and come back again," one of these men said today. "You feel that the Huns up on the hills can see every step you take." As soon as it is dark, three-ton trucks carrying stores set out for the front. They can go as far as the Rapido River, which runs across the valley several hundreds yards on our side of Cassino. From there, everything that goes forward has to be carried on men's backs. Usually the men who go on spend at least two tiresome and dangerous hours trudging across the river flat. All this time German snipers and gun observation, posts across the slopes behind the town are watching for them. Weeks of fighting have given the' Germans time to range their guns and mortars accurately on almost every hard track our men must follow. When patrols go out from the front trenches to replenish their water supply from the nearby river, they have to be well armed. Often there are short clashes when they meet German patrols, either in search of water themselves or out to prevent the New. Zealanders from getting it. A PATROL ACTION. A typical patrol action occurred yesterday, in which the Maoris particularly distinguished themselves. It was a fine but misty morning when one of our look-outs observed movement in no' man's land ahead of a New Zealand outpost. Warning was quietly given and no shot was fired. Soon the watchsrs saw a German patrol of 10 men slowly crawling forward endeavouring to. make use of every scrap of cover. The Maoris still held their fire. As the patrol came in it was covered by rifles and light machine-guns from vantage points offered by window openings and stonework. Then at last when the Germans were crossing a low stone wall a hail of bullets swept them. There was no reply, except from the main enemy positions. The patrol suddenly seemed -to dissolve away. Silence fell, and all again was as before —except that all that afternoon a pair of German boots stuck out from behind that wall. Last night, in clear moonlight, the Maoris completed their count by a daring reconnaissance. They found the bodies of eight of the patrol slain by the first bursts of fire. The men were parachutists. The Cassino fronts are quiet indeed, but no one mistakes that quiet for the quiet of peace.