FURY OF N.Z. ATTACK

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 22, 23 December 1944, Page 5

FURY OF N.Z. ATTACK

STORY TOLD BY DEVASTATION (Official War Correspondent) ADVANCED H,P„ Dec. 18.

The battlefield south-west of Faenza over which the New Zealanders have outfought and smashed the crack German 90th Panzer Grenadier Division tells a graphic story of the fury of our attack. Fields and roads are pitted and torn with shellholes, trees are broken and splintered, and not a house in the area is undamaged, many being reduced to rubble. ]n many of the houses the Germans had torn holes in the ground floors and dug shelters beneath, stacking the earth inside the rooms for extra protection. Slit trenches round the houses emphasised the enemy's determination to hold the positions. It was only the speed and fury of our infantry attack following the terrific barrage which smashed the German resistance. Indicative of the fury of the attack %vas the effort of six Sin. mortars with one battalion which fired Ifoo bombs in 7.3 minutes.

It was a company of this battalion which was held up for several hours at A done Casa on the side of a steep slope. The place was finally taken when Sergt. L. Seaman, Raetihi, collected a few men, worked round to the back of Casa , and rushed it. Sergt. Seaman was wounded when a German called "Kamerad" and then fired from a doorway. The German bolted hut the New Zealanders pursued him

and shot him dead. The tiny village of Celle, a miniature Cassino with a church and a few buildings and earth all round it, is 'an indescribable confusion of wreckage Across the Senio River yesterday the Germans intermittently fired on the area while the Now Zealanders went methodically about the task of repairing the roads and consolidating their positions. When a Maori platoon approached the main' road the second day two Spandaus covering minelaying operations opened fire. The officer and n.c.o.'s were wounded, but a private took charge and made a model advance in extended formation covered by his own Bren guns, till close enough to rush the position and kill the gunners and minelayer. *