SURPRISE ATTACK

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24141, 6 December 1941, Page 13

SURPRISE ATTACK

* * ' ~ - . reversal of roles ______ ENEMY AMONG WOUNDED • * SHOCK rOR HEADQUARTERS (Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.P.) NEARBIR EL HAMID. Nov. 28 Fierce fighting continued all round headquarters to-day, and over near gidi Rezegh one New Zealand infantry "brigade fought a terrific battle to hold up a grim German onslaught. Fortunes ■ fluctuated fast, but it seemed that Ave }tad won another round. " Then when dusk was falling fast and ! we' grouped around our trucks, finishing off a "bully" and biscuit evening jneal, to our amazement machine-gun fire rattled on ,us from a near by escarpment. It was puzzling, because "itcame from the direction of our dressing station, and from a near by compound where AVte held hundreds of German aiid Italian prisoners. More bursts of machine-gun bullets. _ We were being,attacked by a German raiding purtv. which had sneaked up in the gathering gloom. Defensive positions wore taken by quickly-organised headquarters platoons. We had been surrounded by intensive fighting from (j aW n until dusk, and just Jhen we thought there was to be a lull in this crazy patchwork of desert warfare the surprise attack began. Aided "by the gathering darkness, our defenders drove the enemy off the commanding ground. It was an anxious time- for just over the escarpment where the enemy was attacking was our dressing station and mobile surgical unit overcrowded with our wounded. We dare not use artillery, but wo cl-sared a machine-gun nest with antitank guns. When the German attack was it was discovered that our dressing station was in the hands of the German prisoners. There was nothing we could do. We could not go into attack because we would have been shooting into o'ur own wounded. Orders came to move, and before midnight we were again driving across the desert toward Tobruk. We travelled about four miles through part of one of our infantrv brigades and then stopped for the night. In the distance another tank Rattle raged near Sidi Rezegh.

... RELENTLESS FIGHTING

TWO MOST STRENUOUS DAYS (Official "War Correspondent, N.Z.E.P.) 1 . • NEAR SIDI REZEGH, Nov. 30 The first fight yesterday brought the realisation that we were in a tough spot. We discovered that we were surrounded by the enemy on all sides. The New Zealanders fought with courage and determination born of the confidence which has existed in the New Zealand Division since this fantastic battle began. It*was a day of hell and fury. Other days have produced fierce, relentless fighting by both sides, but it is doubtful if any has been as bitter and as hectic as this. Headquarters found itself in the incongruous position of being tbe front •> line of one of our infantry brigades. That can easily happen in this jigsaw puzzle of desert warfare. All day long the battle Toward mid-afternoon the "shelling abated. It had been tough going, but the enemy had been driven off, at least from around divisional headquarters. v Our infantry brigades fought on. Away on the southern skyline we could see a "big convoy. It gave us an uneasy feeling for it was dusk abd we could not determine whether it was friend or foe. One of the divisional cavalry's little reconnaissance tanks went out to investigate. It wirelessed bark its report. Next minute oar artillery opened up. This was Mussolini's lauded Ariete Division. They did not stop long once the shells started to land among them. Away across the desert into the night raced the convoy. Divisional headquarters had a quiet aight When dawn came this morning another i puzzle presented itself. Back on the same skyline was another gpe&t convoy Was this the Ariete Division bayck again, or Was it a German column which nad slipped up in the night? Soon one of our reconnaissance tanks wirelessed that the convoy was enemy. Batteries of the New Zealand Artillery opened fire, but within a minute great broadsides of German artillery and mortar fire crashed around us. It was a prelude to another day of intensive enemy shelling.