AFRICAN CAMPAIGN

Evening Star, Issue 23651, 10 August 1940, Page 12

AFRICAN CAMPAIGN

NEW ZEALANDER IN THE DESERT BARREN LANDS AND INDIFFERENT WATER Major D. D. M'Carthy, attached to the Second Field Ambulance Division of his regiment, now on active service in Africa, gives brief impressions of conditions in that country in letters written to his parents, Musselburgh Rise. The fighting divisions of his regiment were actively engaged at the struggle at Moyale, but no information has been received by Major M'Carthy’s parents concerning the battle. He describes the country in which he is operating as very dry and sandy, with desert stretching for hundreds of miles. Water holes are few and far between. A snapshot taken of the countryside reveals nothing more than utterly desolate land, with not so much as a blade of grass in the vast expanse of emptiness. At one place where they were the water in the water hole had the consistency of pea soup. It had been trampled by hundreds of wild animals and by members of nomadic tribes. Major M'Carthy, with the aid of chemicals, succeeded in drawing off 500 gallons of pure water a day, a feat which greatly impressed his native men. When the ambulance division first went into the desert the men were not provided with arms, and on one occasion three lions, suddenly emerging from the jungle at the edge of the desert, struck terror into the hearts of the natives, who clambered on top of the motor vehicles, leaving Major M'Carthy and two other officers to face the animals. The situation was an extremely hazardous one, but surprisingly, the lions, after surveying the division, turned and went back into the jungle. Major M'Carthy says he can laugh now, but it was no* laughing matter at the time. _ Apparently as a result guns were provided. for in another letter he writes of shooting dudes, not dissimilar to mallard, at water holes. These he describes as good eating after a long existence on rationed bully beef and other tinned meats. One thing sweetened the monotony considerably, the restoration of the weekly ration of 50 cigarettes. In this country vegetables were, of course, unobtainable, and were looked upon as a treat when supplies came to hand. On one such occasion 300 men in the company sat down each to enjoy the luxury of a raw carrot. Major M'Carthy is also censor to his division, and he had to brush up his Arabic considerably, as most of “ my lads use nothing else.” Of Italy’s participation in the war he says: “We feel confident we can give the Italians all they want and very much more.”