Vivid Tales of War in Egypt

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 5, 7 January 1941, Page 8

Vivid Tales of War in Egypt

FIGHTING AMONG ITALIAN OFFICERS The most colourful human interest stories from any battlefront of the war arc pouring into London from British correspondents in Egypt. They read like vivid chapters of fascinating novels about stirring desert battles. They combine fast movement and convincing dialogue with emotion and first-class description. Most of the correspondents reveal the Italians as somewhat ready to surrender, but occasionally some Italians showed themselves wonderful fighters. A British major told a special correspondent of the London Daily Telegrapn that in the battle for Sidi Barrani, Blackshirts stuck to their guns surprisingly well in a hellish sandstorm, li was extremely hard to see them in their trenches among the sand dunes, and there were plenty of them. “Sidi Barrini is still where it was when I last visited it 14 weeks ago. but only just,” says the Daily Telegraph correspondent. “Periodical shelling by the Navy has left its handful of houses shapeless heaps of rubble, in which no one lives. “All Italian defences were facing tl (. ■wrong way. Our tanks were streaming through the camp, pumping out torrents of bullets before any counter-action was organised. British troops told me that General Maletti, commander of the Italian Armoured Column, died gallantly while desperately straining to rally his men for a counter-attack. “Vanguard detachments of the Imeprial Army of the Nile are living a hard life, fighting amid chocking duststoxms by day and sleeping on earth as hard as a brick during the freezing nights. But everyone I met has been kept going tirelessly by the thrill of scoring success after success, and the pleasure of recapturing familiar places. “They found Marshal Graziani's Army finely equipped. Its only trouble was that it could not fight.”

•’Valley of Tears.’* A Daily Express correspondent says that in the strongly-barricaded camp at Nibeiwa, which was first to fall to the British in their rush from Mersa Matruh, he found letters which told of the fears and squabbles among the Italian officers. One letter spoke of “this valley of tears.” ! In a lieutnenant-colonel's diary was i found a piece of doggerel, running:— ' Long live the Duce and King. The British will pay for eveything. On land, sea, and in the air, , They’ll compensate us everywhere. • Criss-crossing Nibeiwa are halffinished trenches. All is utter desolation. Here and there dead men lie., some tumbled against guns, some twisted at the entrances of dug-outs, some just sprawled on the desert. The correspondent adds: “I went Into score* Of dug-outs. Everything was almost as it was on the terrible morning when the British struck like a tornado. Breakfast things stood on every dugout table—things which made the Tommies’ eyes boggle—silver pepper and salt stands, china breakfast services, and little nickel coffee percolators. Sheets were on the officers’ beds, ana such gadgets as bedside lights, boot racks, folding camp desks, water coolers, and liquer glasses were supplied in thousands. “The tents were new, with mica windows, and emblazoned with flags. Decorations were embroidered on the officers’ cloaks. Even their ceremonial shoulder-straps and belts were encrusted with gold lace and decked out with silver chains. Here at the front the Italians lived on a scale of luxury eclipsing anything seen in the desert before, even in peace-time. “A British major told me, ‘You can take my word for it, the Italians fought bravely. Our tanks were under heavy and continuous fire from guns, and some of them got a knocking about. Our worst losses were among the Scottish n.c.o.’s’ “The Scots charged from a ridge they had gained earlier in the day on to the Italian lines. Here and there little groups of Italians were waiving handkerchiefs and shirts and shouting, ‘We surrender.’ Everywhere in the reddish sunset light men were running, shouting, firing, or diving for shelter.”