BACK FROM TUNISIA

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 78, 30 June 1943, Page 2

BACK FROM TUNISIA

N.Z. DIVISION IN EGYPT LONG LAND JOURNEY (2nd N.Z.E.F. Official News Service) Cairo, June 26. The story of the New Zealand Division’s return from Tunisia is now released. The journey back to Egypt began on 15th May, a few days after the enemy s surrender, and comparatively few New Zealanders were able to visit. Tunis. More than 3000 vehicles were divided into five groups starting on 15th May and the others on 16th May. In the early stages of their journey, the men had a last look at the countryside over which they had fought their penultimate battles. The battlegrounds were already resuming their freshness under the hot sun, though much of which had been green during the advance was turning brown. A day was spent at Suani on the maintenance of vehicles, and patriotic parcels and cigarettes were distributed, also one bottle of beer to every man. Mobile canteen units travelled with the column and a Kiwi concert party provided entertainment in the evenings. Some of the journey from Tripoli was new to the New Zealanders, as they had not been on the coast road before, their advance being made in wide desert sweeps. Benghazi was reached on 23rd May, and there another day was spent in maintenance. The cultivated lands and neat white colonial houses proved a welcome change from the desert. After winding their way up a steep escarpment, the long columns reached the pleasant Barce -Plain, the scene of much Italian industry, but now farmed by natives who were seen operating tractors, ploughs and harrows. BOMBASTIC SLOGANS The houses still carried a neatlywritten “Duce” on every wall, also “Duce Vincemo” (the Duce will win), and in German “Wir Kommen Wieder” (We come again), and other boasts. The heavily-laden trucks dropped down to the pleasant town of Derna and then laboured back to the escarpment, passing at the top a bomb-scarred aerodrome, its edges still littered with derelict enemy planes. Tobruck was reached on 26th May and the New Zealanders passed close by the harbour, which was dotted with sunken shipping, but the town at a distance looked more or less intact. Seen closely it was nothing more than a shell. At Bardia, there were men who looked again at the place where they had been prisoners. On 28th May, Mersa Matruh was reached and later weatherworn dugouts and trenches once occupied by these men were seen reduced to unsightly heaps of burst sandbags and caved-in roofs.

El Alamein, a place of bitter memories, they found to be nothing much more than minefields and a cemetery. On the last day of May, the first troops reached the base camp, 17 days after leaving Enfidaville. Their entry was unspectacular. A band played near the camp entrance and shouts of “See you later” were exchanged with soldiers on the roadside.