BATTLE FURY

Evening Star, Issue 24082, 31 December 1941, Page 3

BATTLE FURY

GERMANS RESPECT AMBULANCE A SOLDIER'S LETTER “ At present I am in hospital not far from Cairo, and due to leave at any; time,” writes a soldier with the New; Zealand forces _in the Middle East, “ How I got mixed up with hospitals is' a matter of circumstance,” he con-* tinues. “We were well on the way toTobruk when I became ill, and was sent; to the attached unit of the New Zealand: Field Ambulance, i had only been.; there an hour when news came that Germans were on the way, and within half an hour everyone was evacuating.;’ There were too many patients, however, for the ambulance, and 150 of us haa to be left. No sooner had the crowd gone than German tanks appeared. It was near nightfall, and they went right past us, evidently not knowing we were there. All night tanks rumbled, and we were waiting for the moment when, we would be seen. Next morning at dawn there was a tank battle not far otf, and then the Hun cauie straight for us. He did not open fire, as (wo learned later) he had* seen the Red Cross dag. The tanks came right in, and German soldiers clinked out and poked revolvers at us while they had a look around. We were troubled at first, but were at ease later when we saw, that they did not intend to shoot us, but one could not feel comfortable looking at the business end of a ‘ tommy gun.’ They told us to consider ourselves prisoners of war, and then most, of them left to continue their raids. All day long convoys of vehicles and tanks passed by. -Where they all came from was a mystery.' The German soldiers left told us many tales as to how they had surrounded all the British forces, and that the war Was all bub over. The vast number of vehicle* about at the time added a semblance of truth to their story. Tliere must have been 40 heavy tanks and 50 light units, and about 1,000 light vehicles armed with machine guns about the place. Things did not look so good for' us, but British planes came over in the? morning and had a good look around. That - night they started to bomb the 1 surrounding German columns, and kept it up until the following day. The noise was terrific, and the R.A.F. must have given the Germans a terrible shaking, up. We wfire right in the centre of the whole thing, and experienced an. anxious time ; tank battles started,- and lead was flying thick and heavy. We had 100 badly wounded men with us and very little water. The one doctor who stayed operated all night and day. For three days the Huns came and went, sometimes stealing what they could. The fourth day saw quietness, until three armoured cars arrived; they, were British, and we gave a sigh of relief. Things were not so bad we were' told, the Germans had been pushed, away and we were to be removed. Relief came the next day. From then on we travelled four days by motor transport and 18 hours by train to reach, hospital here.” A news clipping enclosed with th® letter conveyed the interesting news that General Rommel, the supreme commander of the German and Italian, forces in North Africa, had himself called in at the New Zealand Field Ambulance in question. Referring to th® fact, Reuter’s war correspondent with., an armoured corps in Libya, said; “ General Rommel evidently accom--panied the two mobile columns which a week ago made a dash for the Egyptian, frontier and then headed back to Tobruk. On the way back, when passing near Gambut, he called in at a New; Zealand Field Ambulance Company, which the Germans respected when they captured the area in which it stands. He spent a few minutes talking to tho German wounded who are being cared for by the company, and then wentj away with the troops.”