FRONT-LINE RUGBY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20635, 10 December 1941, Page 6

FRONT-LINE RUGBY

PLAY UNDER SHELLFIRE N.Z. TROOPS INDIFFERENT HEADQUARTERS' ESCAPE (From the Official War Correspondent with the N.Z.E.F.) (Reed. Dec. 10, 10.30 a.m.) CAIRO, Dec. 9. A despatch from Tobruk dated December 3, states that when Hun tanks drove a wedge through the New Zealand fighting forces around the Sidi-Rezegh-Bel Hamed sector on December 1 there was some doubt whether the G.0.C., Major-General B. C. Freyberg, and his personal staff had withdrawn in time. It was also feared that the brigadiers and the headquarters of two infantry brigades, one commanded by Brigadier Barrowclough and the other by Brigadier Inglis, may have been captured or, worse still, wiped out in the vicious German tank attack, but it was eventually established that all were safe. All three—the general and his staff and both brigade headquarters— withdrew in different directions towards the east. Yesterday the three formations gathered together somewhere in Libya. It gave me a feeling of relief when I saw on the intelligence officer’s map the names of these formations written in red pencil on the culluloid covering of the map case. Although the two New Zealand brigades were split by massed enemy forces —the Germans threw all their available strength into this desperate attack — the New Zealanders fight on.

These New Zealanders of ours are amazing. When we were being spasmodically shelled the other day. I watched two teams playing a scratch game of football—Rugby in the front line. These players, the personnel of divisional headquarters, showed complete indifference to the shells. It amounted almost to scorn—until mortars and shells started to come thick and fast. Then the ball was left where it had been kicked and not a player could be seen above ground.