FIRST CASUALTIES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20826, 3 July 1942, Page 2

FIRST CASUALTIES

SURPRISE NAZI RAID R.A.F. HAMMERS ENEMY N.Z.E.F. MOVES GUARDED (N.Z.E.F. Official War Correspondent.) (10 a.m.) WESTERN DESERT, July 2. New Zealand’s Infantry formations suffered their first battle casualties in this desert 'campaign on Friday when, ,at dusk, 26 German bombers and fighters swept over our lines. The raid came unexpectedly while the troops were digging in in new positions. Instinctively, we dived for the all too inadequate cover of half-dug slit trenr ches. Many were caught above the ground for a few furious minutes of smoke and shrapnel, but the casualties were light. A hail of machine-gun and anti-aircraft artillery fire shot up from all directions as the raiders -disappeared into the west. The attack was a small fraction of what we knew the enemy had been getting all day. Squadron after Squadron of Royal Air Force bombers with their fighters weaving amongst them, roared overhead towards the enemy positions. Several times every hour since the first light on Friday they have been above us. Their results have been obvious. Opr hundreds of trucks, guns and tanks moved unhampered to battle positions. NO preparation for battle could have been made more smoothly than ouf movements. But for the planes overhead and squadrons of tanks rumpling past us, it would have been like so many other days we had spent exercising in this escarpment. It had been likO a well-rehearsed play. Every man knew his part and went about it easily. There was no feverish activity or confusion.

Within a few minutes after thfe move was ordered in the afternoon, the brigade was in its desert formation, following the navigators out to new positions. In spite of their 1000mile journey from Syria and many nights of broken sleep, our troops were fit and as cheerful as ever. Brown and hard after three months’ digging in the mountains, they are keen for action. As the great red sup goes over behind the columns of dust and smoke on the horizon, they were digging in for the night. The guns were mounted and there was the familiar sound of -picks and shovels cutting trenches in rock and sand.