Adequate Air Support for N.Z.E.F.

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 266, 8 November 1941, Page 6

Adequate Air Support for N.Z.E.F.

CLOSE INFANTRY CO-OPERATION WITH TANKS

(Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) WESTERN DESERT, Nov. 6.

Adequate air support and ground equipment were the words the Prime Minister (Rt. Hon. P. Fraser) used on our return from Crete to describe the auxiliaries our troops ought to have in the next campaign. If Libya is its scene I feel confident that we shall have both. None of us expects to see the Crete picture completely reversed. To all intent* and purposes only one air force operated there. It had no opposition beyond that which the troops could give from the ground. Over Libya there will be two air forces and unless one can knock the other out right at the start it will be impossible for either to give its army such super-close support as the Luftwaffe gave the Germans in Crete.

If the E.A.F. is allowed primarily to fight its own battle in its own way and continues to bomb enemy air bases, 1 think it will be well on the way to giving us adequate support. The greater its success the greater its chance of affording us uninterruptedly immediate local support in the way of augmenting artillery barrages before the attacks and helping to smash enemy tank and troop movements as such occo sions arise. Through the recent cooperative exercises we understand its needs and difficulties better than ever before.

We have also learned a great deal about the vital factor in “adequate ground equipment,” namely tanks, with which the New Zealanders must expect to work closely when action comes. British tank oflicers were attached to our formations for several weeks lecturing and participating in the manoeuvres while we sent infantry, artillery and other officers to the tank units in the line to watch, listen and learn.