“TWO GRAND SHOWS”

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 25 October 1941, Page 2

“TWO GRAND SHOWS”

WHAT SOLDIERS SAW IN TIIE DESERT (Official War Correspondent N.Z.E.F. )| Western Desert, Sept., 29. We saw two grand shows here yes- j jterday. In nature they were poles i j apart—one intensely real, the spectacle of more British planes than we had ! j ever seen in the desert before massing j I for a daylight attack; the other purely! , fictitious, a Hollywood film programme j m surroundings that could not have ! been stranger. , We counted a great number of air -1 craft in the sky at noon. The lighters l appeared first, three great droves of. them, manoeuvring in a wide circle to take battle formation above, behind, and around the fast American-built 1 bombers which came droning out of the east in perfect threes. The whole huge sky force circled for height and 1 then Hew westwards and out of our ; sight. The noise in the sky was tlie deep-j throated roar and rumble that is the! ;sound of weight of numbers—the sound! which in our most hard-pressed days) we thought must be the prerogative of I the Germans. Long before this is printed a communique will most likely j have told of bombs dropped on ships. I dumps and stores at Bhengaz.i or! Tripoli and of troops and transport j columns machine-gunned on the roads, j It will not matter if the communique' is short and laconic, for that will mean j i that these mass raids are no mere i ; novelty. Heartening signs like this—more! troops, more guns, more planes—are 1 all around us. As dusk fell yesterday and we gathered under the sky for a i padre’s evening service, heavy bombers : lifted off the desert one by one and) Hew past us, perhaps to clinch by | moonlight the operations begun a few I hours earlier by the daylight raiders, j And by the time the enemy had i I started his lame attempt at reprisals i | that night—dull, spasmodic rumbles and flashes far in the west told us i about it—we were absorbed in our l second show. We sat on the cold sand and watched the most famous of Hollywood’s movie detective unravel a thrilling murder mystery on a screen slung on the side of jpi Army truck. Desert talkies are a new Y.M.C.A. service made possible by the contributions of the New Zealand people to patriotic funds. They have already I proved themselves a complete success. The equipment is so easily portable that the programmes can be brought j right to each unit’s door, i Provision of entertainments in the j field must be the most extraordinary of |th non-strategical changes we have i found on our return to the desert. The N.Z.E.F. is perhaps better off in this 'respect than any other formation.. for | apart from the Y.M.C.A. cinema unit I there is another which is run by the padres, and in addition there is the force’s own “Kiwi Concert Party” ; which intends to make regular visits, j Football is in the air again, too, in ; the Western Desert. Grounds are the big difficulty, but it will be overcome I just as it was last year. when most ' games were played more for their fun and exercise than as seriously competitive events. It should not be thought, however, j i that the accent is being placed on en- [ tertainment and recreation at this stage !of the career of the N.Z.E.F. These are j days of serious training under the 'conditions peculiar to the Western Desert. There are battle exercises and ; motorised treks almost every day.