BARDIA ACTION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23878, 31 January 1941, Page 8

BARDIA ACTION

! NEW ZEALANDERS PRESENT I AUCKLANDER'S experience ! A vivid description of the taking of : Bardia is contained in a letter from | one of the few New Zealanders who ! were present at the action, Sapper /Jack Wright, of Auckland. Sapper 1 Wright explained that it was only be- | cause his colonel's usual driver was ill j that he had the good fortune to bo I there, and that he was one of the first i New Zealanders to enter Bardia. They I entered the town in a borrowed truck J as their car had broken down, and were ! just behind the Australian tanks which took possession. "Just after we left Solium," He wrote, "the Italians were dropping shells over at regular intervals on and off the road, and it started to get warm right away. It was the first time we had been under actual shcsliu'c—quite an interesting experience. We eventually got right up to the Aussies' first-line troops." Not long after this, the letter continued. a formation of 14 Italian bombers flew almost directly overhead, and about a mile away they dropped "everything they had." All they moved, however, was a large number of tons j of perfectly good desert, j After being sniped at by the enemy, ! the New Zealanders waited impatiently ! for the final move into the town. When I the Australians received the order to I move. Sapper Wright expected a j "great-grandfather of a scrap," but, i he says, he was disappointed, tor except | for a few sporadic outbursts of fire | the whole town was theirs. | "Then T saw what we had heard j about at Sidi Barrani," the letter conj eluded. "The Italians started to coma j out of their dug-outs, not in ones and ; twos, but in dozens, scores, and in | hundreds. I could hardly believe my • eyes. The dirty beggars just quit when j it came to the tough stuff. In half an | hour they were coming out in all direc- | tions. The Australian infantry began j to round them tip like cattle' after a. I while and they made no resistance. The | Aussies were great. It was the end of j a wonderful day for them and thev were shouting and yelling to each other j with glee like a lot of kids."