HARD FIGHTING

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20628, 2 December 1941, Page 5

HARD FIGHTING

NEW ZEALAND TROOPS ELIMINATION OF ITALIANS f Elee. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.l (Reed. Dec. 2, 9 a.m.) CAIRO, Dee. 1. An Exchange Telegraph agency dispatch states that the Axis forces throughout the night continued the battle with infantry and tank patrols trying to break through the British net. Artillery roared throughout the night. The Axis guns continue to shell the New Zealanders’ positions. The corridor to Tobruk is now 10 miles wide, says the Cyrenaiea correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain British mobile units are raiding Axis communications at several points to the west of Tobruk. The New Zealand troops and thensupporting tanks have nad as hard fighting as any in the desert campaign, says an Australian war correspondent, Mr. John Hetherington, in a message to the Sydney Sun. The reason that little has been heard of them, he points out, is because nobody has been able to get through “They have been out on their own with pockets of enemy tanks, guns and troops separating them from other British and Empire forces,’’ proceeds the correspondent. “Their position for some days resembled a blockaded island. They have had to wholly rely on the stores which went to them. Surge For Mastery “Throughout Friday night 1 travelled with an armoured division from 35 miles south, convoying ammunition, food and water to them. Nobody knew within miles when Axis armoured colunms might loom up, but orders were that the convoy must get through, as it did.” Mr. Hetherington spent all Saturday with the New Zealand Division in the midst of one of the fiercest battles with tanks, infantry and guns. Both sides were hammering and surging for mastery. A divisional officer declared. “Its going to be a sticky day If we can hold them until nightfall we shall have them where we want them.” The New Zealanders, with the aid of tanks, did hold the enemy, but for a few hours it was “very sticky indeed.” Everybody at New Zealand headquarters breathed freely by nightfall. The official war correspondent with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force states it is revealed that the New Zealand forces played an important part ir. the elimination of the Bologna division of the Italian Army east of Tobruk.