N.Z. Troops Clash With Afrika Korps Units

Manawatu Times, Volume 69, Issue 44, 24 February 1944, Page 5

N.Z. Troops Clash With Afrika Korps Units

(Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) ITALY, Feb. 8. (delayed). Grenades bursting across brittle, frozen earth and bursts of machine-gun fire splattered about the walls of an old farmhouse began the first episode of the . close fighting the New Zealanders had J on the Fifth Army front in Central 4 Italy. ( It happened in bitterly cold darkness ( only a few hours after the New Zealanders occupied the trenches of their 4 sector off this front, among the jumble ‘ of peaks and hills between the Apen- ! nines and the sea. Anxious to know what changes had been made on this important sector of ‘ the front and what new forces had join- ' ed the line, the Germans sent out to- ’ ward our lines a strong fighting patrol 1 with orders to take at least two prison- ‘ ers. They were heavily armed and had ! sappers to clear tracks through the 1 minefields. The Germans came on a farmhouse * which was the forward headquarters 1 post of some Auckland infantry. Over- ' powering the sentry, the Germans sur- 1 rounded the little stone house and 1 Bhouted to the occupants, “Come out or ! be killed. ’ ’ The reply was a shower of bullets from the windows and doors. For a few furious minutes this small I piece of front became violently alive. The New Zealanders kept up machine- 1 gun fire and hurled grenades into the 1 1 darkness till, realising that they were 1 not making headway, the German patrol 1 began to withdraw. The Aucklanders ‘ went after them. « As one New Zealand sergeant rushed I out of the doorway a German hand 1 grenade landed at his feet. All he could do was to kick it aside, but his . action was enough to save his own life < and of those of the others behind him. A second or two later the grenade exploded, wounding the sergeant slightly. Another New Zealander shot a 1 tommy-gun from the hands of a Ger- ; man a few feet from him. Leaving two prisoners, one of them severely wounded, the German patrol made off. One of the prisoners was an Austrian who had served for 22 months ■ on the Russian front. He was a sapper from a unit of a famous German divi- ; sion destoyed at Stalingrad. All the rest of the patrol were infantry of the , 15th Panzer Grenadier Division. As well as being their first infantry , action with the Fifth Army, this little , battle was the first time the New Zea- ! landers had met the Germans in this | re-organised unit of their old enemy . the Afrika Korps.