MAORIS IN ACTION

Evening Star, Issue 25114, 2 March 1944, Page 4

MAORIS IN ACTION

ASSAULT ON GASSING FRONT OBJECTIVE GAINED AND HELD FOR SOME DAYS (N.Z.E.F. Official War Correspondent.) N.Z. Divisional H.Q., Italy, (Received 11.50 a.m.) February 20. New Zoalanders staged their first direct assault against the Germans on the Fifth Army front ' when, on the night of February 17, Maori infantrymen crossed the Rapido ißiver and fought their way up the railway to Cassino station., which is several hundred yards from the town itself, but connected to it 'by a good road. They took the station 'buildings and hung on to them until late yesterday afternoon, when they were forced to retire back across the Rapido in face of a strong enemy counterattack. The Maoris had a hard task, which they accomplished at some cost. They preceded sappers who had the all important job of making a greatly demolished railway fit for the passage of supporting arms and armour. Soon after the Maoris started their attack the enemy rained down heavy fire from local houses, and from the slopes behind Cassino, and from the west. Antipersonnel mines were an ever-present danger along the line of attack. The Rapido had been dredged to a considerable depth to drain the flat country between the railway and the hills; however, at the time' the Maoris crossed it in darkness it was little more than a foot deep, although it was running swiftly. Then the Maoris had to mala' their way through soggy ground on the left side. There was no moon in the early stages of the attack, which began at 9.30. The advance was not a long one—about 1,000 yards—but the fighting was hard all the way. The attack was preceded by a great artillery barrage from many more guns than the New Zealanders had seen concentrated on one place for some time. At the same time the Indians were attacking on a hill near Cassino and west of it on the heights above the road to Rome. Fullyalive to the threat to the highway which was his main escape route from the Cassino area, the enemy made every attempt to hold his positions. As the Maoris advanced up the railway fighting came to closer quarters, and nearer the station the water was deep enough to conceal all evidence of mines and wire with which the enemv had surrounded the position he held to the left of the station. The Germans were still installed there when the Maoris captured it. FIGHT FOR A HOUSE.

The Maoris actually gained a. hous« at. the entrance to a road leading from the station to Cassino, the Germans making a hurried escape in a truck which they had standing by with the engine running. Meanwhile engineers wasted no time in bridging and filling in enemy demolitions. The Rapido was bridged with a structure previously put together at a place further back, and dragged forward into position by a tractor. Nearer the station the sappers found themselves under machine-gun fire from the positions held by the Germans to the left of the railway embankment, »aud mortar and machine-gun fire from the direction of Cassino. The fire was so severe that the sappers were unaible to complete their work on the last two demolitions before daylight. .■ Early in the afternoon enemy infantry infiltrated to ground obscured from the Maoris' view, about 200yds away, and soon afterwards tanks appeared from the direction of Cassino. They opened at 50yds range, and with ma-chine-gun fire from infantry forced the Maoris to withdraw shortly after 4 o'clock.