INTO TRIPOLI

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 78, 9 February 1943, Page 3

INTO TRIPOLI

THE BRITISH ENTRY TOWN HANDED OVER GRAPHIC PEN PICTURE In a dispatch to the “Sydney Morning Herald” from Tripoli dated 23rd January William Munday describes the entry of the Eighth Army into the town. His story is given below. British troops entered Tripoli from the north before dawn to-day, and linked in the Piazzo Italia, in the centre of the city, with armoured cars of a Hussars unit belonging to the other column of the Eighth Army which had been moving in from the south. Tripoli bore few traces of the war. A few buildings near the waterfront had been toppled by British and American bombs, and a few more had been dynamited by the tail-enders of the routed Axis army. Italian civilians crowded to watch the procession of tanks and battlestained'Highlanders move through the streets. Italian police, in musical comedy uniforms were still on duty. THOUSANDS OF JEWS FREED Thousands of Jews in concentration camps near Tripoli were freed by the Eighth Army. Two thousand five hundred of them had been brought there for forced labour just before the British reached Benghazi. Gordon Highlanders, riding on Valentine tanks, were the first into Tripoli. They entered the suburbs in darkness at 6 a.m. As the red sun rose, Piper Peter Clark, of Banffshire, strutted in the' Piazza Italia piping “Cock o’ the North,” the Gordons’ regimental air. The first tank into Tripoli was driven by Trooper Peter Dignum, of Liverpool. His tank had come all the way from El Alamein.

Seven Scotsmen and one Englishman rode on the tank after having fought a series of minor skirmishes with the tiny enemy rearguard the previous night. Even into the streets of Tripoli itself a few German and Italian soldiers sniped at them before fleeing. A CHEERFUL BRIGADIER At dawn, Italian civilians —there are 46,000 of them and 65,000 natives — who had remained in their houses behind locked and barred doors during the darkness and the sounds of street fighting, began to peep out, and then to crowd into the roads. Many of them waved cheerfully to the passing Highlanders, but some, particularly those under the eye of their own police were morose and silent.

Shops were closed, but the owners stood in front of them, ready to do business as soon as the senior officer of the occupying force gave the word. Bank officials sought and got permission to have British guards placed outside their doors. Soon even private motor cars and horse-drawn gharries were running to and fro in the streets. The Scots were particularly pleased to have reached Tripoli after the allnight journey. “Now we can celebrate Burns Night properly,” a cheerful brigadier told me. And his men strolled in the streets in the sun, like countrymen on their first visit to London. STATUE OF MUSSOLINI There was much in this ancient city tcP interest them. Jews, descendants of those who fled to here from persecutions centuries ago, came like people coming for the first time again into the light from the ghetto of the old

part of the town where the Fascists had confined them. They vtere eager to act as guides. For amusement there was a grandiose equestrian statue of Mussolini in one of the main squares, holding aloft the sword of Islam.

The leader of the New Zealanders General Freyberg, riding in a light American tank, led the New Zealanders for five days and nights across the desert in the race to be first into Tripoli. A battle they fought less than 12 miles from Tripoli on the night of 23rd January against the last of the Germans in Libya was all that deprived them of the honour of being first in the race against columns headed by British and Highland units. Shortly before noon General Montgomery accepted the surrender of Tripoli at Porto Benito, where the road forks into the town and on to Tunisia.

The Lieutenant-Governor of Libya, Commandatore San Marco, the Lord Mayor, and the Prefect of Tripoli, each resplendent in gold-barided dove-grey uniforms and peaked caps, paced solemnly abreast down the middle of the road to where General Montgomery, in battle dress and tank trooper’s beret, was waiting for them. A few paces from him they halted abruptly and shot up their arms in the Fascist salute. Then, standing stiffly to attention, they listened to the Army commander’s instructions, given point by point through a British officer who interpreted. THE GENERAL’S ADDRESS “Who’s the head man?” General Montgomery asked. When the interpreter indicated the he spoke directly at him: “I wish that the ordinary civil life of this place should go on as before, and that you will work with us to ensure that it does.

“There is a very big population here,” he added, “but we have nothing against them. My war is with the German and Italian armies. Provided you maintain authority and there is no treachery against my men, I will do everything in my power to ensure that the life of the community continues.”

To this the Lieutenant-Governor replied: “I beg to assure you, sir, that we will do our utmost to co-operate with you.”

Then, with another automaton Fascist salute, the three men stepped back and went away with a brigadier who has been appointed as British representative in the administration of the city. A few battle-stained British soldiers and a couple of Arabs sitting on donkeys were the only audience in what was probably the most matter-of-fact and unostentatious surrender of a city in history. RESIDENTS FORGET FEAR In the city itself, the population, now swarming and unafraid, applauded every tank or Army vehicle that passed. The German and Italian troops had gone the night before, and now, as far as the British were concerned, it was business as usual. The inhabitants, however, seemed determined to make it into a public holiday, and continued to hang from windows and other vantage points or stroll excitedly up and down the streets. At corners and in the squares, where the crowds were thickest, British soldiers directed the traffic. The whole city seemed to breathe relief that its critical hours had passed so smoothly.

Meanwhile, still on the outskirts of the city, was General Montgomery. He chatted with war correspondents. He was very pleased, and said so. “The achievements of the men of the Eighth Army speak for them,” he said.

When I asked him if it had been part of his plan to take Tripoli exactly three months after the El Alamein offensive began, he said: “No, but a few days ago I thought it would be

very nice if we could do it on the anniversary.” THE GENERAL’S CIGARETTES Four British soldiers who had been prisoners of war in Tripoli ran excitedly from their hospital beds, where they were recovering from minor wounds, when the Eighth Army began to drive into the city. They stopped the first car they saw, cheered, and asked for English cigarettes. The occupant of the car was General Montgomery. “I don’t smoke myself,” he told them, “but I’ll see that you get some.” He walked back to another car, got several packets, and brought them to the men waiting in the middle of the road in bare feet and blue pyjamas.