New Zealanders In Italy With Canadians

Northern Advocate, 18 January 1944, Page 6

New Zealanders In Italy With Canadians

(Official N.Z.E.F. War Corresnondent DIVISIONAL HEADQUARTERS, Jan. 14. With the Canadians who arc pounding stolidly towards Pescare, on the right flank of the Eighth Army, there are several New Zealanders. I met one of them, Sergeant L. B. Poppell, in a bullet-scarred street at Ortona as he was returning from duties connected with a platoon cf Canadian Highlanders of which he is sergeant. Though he speaks with an accent which New Zealanders have come to recognise as Canadian, he was keen for news of his native land and the division and quick to note my New Zealand flashes. He was born in Ponsonby, and educated in New eZaland which he left in 1931. He first went overseas with the Canadian forces in 1939 and was on service in the British Isles until the attack on Sicily. Since then he has seen action throughout the Sicilian campaign, also fighting which has enhanced the reputation of the Canadians and so far has culminated in the capture of Grtona. In his experience, the task which faced Canadians in taking the fortress town of Ortona was by far their most difficult yet. Cold To Heat The Sicialn campaign provided bitter mountain lighting in conditions very strange and tryng to troops who came straight from Scotland to the heat of the Mediterranean summer and who found themselves for the first time embroiled in a war of peaks and ridges. The men became acclimatised and battle wary as they forced the Germans northwards, acquiring the active service technique of improvisation very rapidly. It was an experienced formation which took over the coastal position once the Eighth Army crossed the Sangro and the Canadians soon showed their mettle again in the speed of their advance over hilly country to San Vito arid San Leonardo. Then came the battle for Ortona. It was not just another town. It was a fortress, within which were countless other fortresses, each self-contained and each hotly disputed. Once they won their way up the exposed hillside in face of the heaviest tire, infantry found the task only just beginning. The battle raged from street to street and house to house in narrow lanes. Tanks, detracked in cobble-stoned byways, were targets for streams of spandau fire which richotted in all directions, From Room To Room “I never knew that bullets could turn so many corners.” said Sergeant Poppell. Added to cross-fire from houses, was the constant presence of vehicle and antipersonnel mines, 88 and 75 millimetre guns mounted in buildings and at keypoints, and determined defence by mortar crews. “When Canadian correspondents said fighting was from room to room, it literally true,” said Sgt. Poppell. “At times we were penned in a room with a jerry seperated from us by 6 in. of wall. Shells would crash through one wall and out the other. It was not pleasant waiting to see whether the shell was armour-pierc • Jng of high-explosive. He often followed one with the other.” A cry among the infantry was “look out for the house with the green shutters.” There were hunderds of them and every one seemed to be inhabited by Germans. Another device adopted by the enemy was to mine buildings in which were their own troops. Exploded By Remote Control When after fierce fighting the Germans were driven out, an observation post would report occupation by Canadians. Then the building would be blown up by remote control. Not even churches were immune from this type of warfare. Sergeant Poppell attended the most remarkable Christmas dinner of the war. It was laid out in a church building in a manner worthy of a Lord Mayor’s banquet with the best linen, cutlery and glassware. Food and drink were in nbaundance and an organ played througout, but it could not drown the noise of machinegun fire and bursting mortar-bombs falling around. From fighting a mere 400 yards away, often weary men covered with the dust and grime of fighting a couple of blocks away, came in and ate their fill. Then they went out again to carry on the battle, some of them to die with their meal undigested. It was the strangest and bitterest irony of modern war—incredible but undeniably true. Incredible Adventures Ortona was not, taken till the afternoon of the 27 th. Many were the adventures of members of a single small formation. Two men found thmsclves seperated from the others and sought informatiorj from a priest as to whether it was sale. Following his advice one of the men opened the door and was killed by a burst of sub-machine-gun fire. As the Germans entered the other took shelter behind a crowd of civilians. They denied the presence of the Canadian who afterwards walked out into Ihc street dressed in a woman’s clothes and carrying an abandoned baby. So garbed, he appeared befoi-e the commander of another company, left the baby and rejoined his own company. This is another example of incredile stories, evidence of which is irrefutable and which came to be regarded as commonplace in those desperate days. Sgt. Poppell looks forward to the day when Canadians and New Zealanders will have an opportunity to become better acquainted. He is sure they will find they have a similar outlook and philosphy.