SPOILS OF BATTLE

Franklin Times, Volume XXX, Issue 7, 20 January 1941, Page 3

SPOILS OF BATTLE

AFTER SIDI BARRANI SOME INTERESTING SHOTS BY NEW ZEALAND SAPPER E

Writing in an Italian Held post office, with an Italian fountain pen on Italian nolepaper, Sapper C. .1. Edwards ot the N.Z.E.F., in a letter gives some interesting “shots" of the battlefield after the first attack by the Army of the Nile on Sidi Barrani and Solium:— “The Italians live very differently from us and just seem to scratch a hit of a hole in the ground, put their ground sheet over it and crawl in. rhey do not live in nearly the comfort that we do. although from signs about it seems pretty evident that they were well supplied with food. 1 came across an Italian cookhouse in my rambling today. II was a hole about six yards square with a fireplace in one corner and on it was a huge pot filled with a stew of some sort, and there was also a pol containing dried peas all ready to cook. Apparently they were just taken by surprise and ■didn’t have time lo do anything but surrender

Wine and Cigarettes “.lust by the way, they also left lots of Chianti wine behind —I didn't care for it. it tastes just like very sour vinegar, and is terrifically potent, as many of our lads have found out (to their.sorrow the next day). . . . Every Italian soldier seemed lo have a very considerable supply of cigarettes, and as it was all just abandoned there are literally' millions of them around, just, for the taking. They are very mild and arc something like American cigarettes, although 1 can’t say 1 care for them very much “There are thousands of Italian rifles and millions of rounds of ammunition. One type of ride they use is a carbine which is only half the size and weight of our service rifle and gives a much inferior performance to ours. On this rifle the bayonet is attached and folds back against the barrel, while the bayonet itself is a three-cornered affair, as I say. much Inferior to our equipment. . . . Gold Braid —Dress Swords

“And the thing which struck me forcibly was the fact that their equipment is by no means uniform. Whereas everyone in '-he British Army has exactly the same stuff, the Italian Army has many varying types of the same article. The Libyans appeared to be fairly poorly clothed, but this is not the case with the Italians. In the case of their N.0.0.'s and particularly the officers, their uniforms are magnificent. The material is excellent and they appear lo be tailor-made. They are absolutely covered with go’d braid and they certainly make a great show. Making a great show seems to be about all they are capable ot, because it has been proved both in Greece and in_ the Western Desert that, they are pretty poor scrappers. I have seen magnificent dress swords taken from their dugouts—heaven knows what their owners intended lo Bo with them in the Desert. Italian Hospital Taken

“After two days in tlie battlefields I am now in a position to tell you more in detail. The lirst fdaee 1 visited was an Italian hospital and only the word magnificent will describe it. The tents are the most wonderful I ha\e ever seen. . . . The sheets and blankets had just been thrown aside as though the patients had vacated them and beat a hasty retreat as the British forces approached the hospital. In one tent we found their mess utensils all filled with they were just in the process of eating when the fatal blow tell upon them. Their operating theatre was intact and was full of valuable equipment, including a very elaborate set of acetylene lighting. Fortunately an me equipment fell into the hands ol the Medical dorps and no doubt they will make good use of it ... • Enemy’s Food Excellent

"We came across several Italian food dumps, and. of course, we had to have a good dekko at these. One in particular was quite interesting and contained a terrific amount of stuff all of which can he used in the British Army. There was lime juice, mineral water (excellent stuff, too), salmon, bully beef, chests of Sea. cases of ground coffee, tomato paste, macaroni, etc. Their salmon is a kind of Tunny in olive oil and is very nice indeed. Their bully beef is a kind of steak and is quite pleasing to the palate, while the tomato paste makes spaghetti very easy to eat. There’s not ine slightest doubt that his food was very, very ■rood, although we did not find any fresh meat and vegetables, lm! there were stacks of oranges and lemons. There were big dumps of cereals, 100. and it would appear that he goes m for that type of food in a big way. . . . “On a hillside commanding a good deal of the surrounding countryside the Italians had endeavoured to make a stand. There were, between 39 and to field guns and literally hundreds oi machine-guns, and as there were 5.500 prisoners taken from this place and all had thrown their rifles away, you can 'imagine just how man' rifles there were around. Apparently every Italian soldier carried several hand grenades, and there were thousands and thousands just lying around —they make an awful row but so very little damage as far as we could see. . . . “In the flood we had some time ago, I lost, among other things, my pyjamas, and " this proved to be my chance to replace them. Tust to make sure, I got hold of three pairs so they should see me through for a while. One pair is just magnificent, c and they ,_\vill sure rock the hoys. They are pale cream with a blue edging, and on the two pockets is a dragon (very flash) worked in bum. Incidentally they are silk, so now I consider myself to he one of the best dressed men in the Western Desert. “You will know from the papers that from Sidi Barrani to Solium the Italians had constructed a metal road with plenty of width and beautifully D curved and banked as it sweeps across the sandy wastes. Apparently they were short of road bitumen, as none of it is sealed. The Italian, you

A Road Misnamed know, is given to making flowery speeches, and gets all worked up over nothing, and to please his pride he called the road ‘Doha Vittoria’ which means ‘The Road to Victory. l.nforlunately for him it turned out to lie the Road of Retreat, and he has left millions of pounds worth of material lying about the place. . . . "You will probably have read about a number of our tanks catching a whole Italian Division of I -1,000 men oi. the march. From my own observation the column of marching men covered about 5-7 miles o 1 road and were caught like rats in a trap when our tanks swept over the hill dominating the road, and the Italians did the only thing possible and surrendered promptly.' A division. of course, covers every branch of the Army, and liu* scene on that road is indescribable. There arc lorries (large and small), molor cycles, field guns (in iii os!. cases with Ihe breech covers still on them). anli-tank guns, machine-guns. A.A. guns, rifles, hand serenades by I lit 1 thousands, and many technical Iraclors containing marvellous engineering equipment. In addilion to all this. I lie equipment (personal. I mean) is littered all round the road, and believe me. 17.00 men can make a very large mess! . . . "To sum up. my impression is very difficult —suffice if to say llmt we covered. 80 miles each way and during the whole of Unit lime 1 don’t think at any period we were out of sight ot abandoned Italian material. That, I know, sounds ridiculous, but it is .just the plain and utter truth ■•The Italians in every place we went had ripped down the English and Arabic signs and replaced them with Italian ones, and from places he had built, and from stores and dumps that he had created, it is perfectly obvious even to a layman Rite myself, that be was in Egypt to slay: and just, as obviously it never entered hi 1 - bead tliat he would ever be pushed out. Buildings everywhere were just plastered with signs, and a frequent one was •Viva il Duee’ —they were ceitainly well versed in the Fascist ideas, but either their hearts we'-e not in Ihe war or they have not got the guts to tight A Second-Hand Shop

"We even eat our meals (a good deal of which is Italian) on plates which Musso’s boys very thoughtfully left behind, while I have a first-class acetylene lamp which is now doing excellent service. Three hundred yards from here are two Q.M. stores containing enough stationery to keep Ihe G.P.O. in Wellington going for many months. . . All the lads are very busy writing at the moment, and all are smoking Italian cigars which are very nice. Of course, everyone is armed to the teeth with Italian revolvers and automatics, and today we had a spot of revolver practice. Another of the lads is busy trying (unsuccessfully from his language) to sharpen a cut-throat razor he picked up. As a matter of fact, the whole place is like a second-hand shop. . . . “Bad luck I haven’t got a girl friend in Italy to write to, as I’ve got a lot of Italian stamps. They look nice and interesting, but they’re just like Musso’s Army—very pretty and not much use.”