INTERNATIONAL FORCE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 267, 9 October 1940, Page 7

INTERNATIONAL FORCE.

READY FOR ITALIANS.

LONDON, Oct. 7. The Cairo correspondent of the Times says that international fighters from many parts of Europe are filtering down to the Near East, and the Australians and New Zealanders find themselves beside Czechs, Rumanians, Austrians, Finns and Poles. They have come to carry on their war against Hitler with cavalry, artillery, infantry, machine-gunners, and anti-aircraft gunners. Under a starlit sky some were found mustered at a spot where they will be close at band when Marshal Graziani really tries to advance into Egypt. Others are encamped across a thousand miles of desert, some under the palms, which are now heavilv laden with dates, some in coves by the sea, and some burrowed into ancient Roman baths and catacombs. The British advance troops are amused by the Italians’ new trick bombs resembling bully-beef tins, beercans, and thermos flasks. The bomb explodes when the cap is removed, (file troops have gathered several thousands of these, which have been exploded in a large dump. Another set of trophies is the Italian motor-cycles which led the advance to Sidi Barrani. British staff officers now bounce across the desert on them.