IN WAKE OF WAR

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 24969, 11 August 1944, Page 7

IN WAKE OF WAR

DESOLATE SAN MICH ELE

YOUNG GERMAN'S FAILURE iN.Z.H.K. Official War Correspondent) Auk. 8

The ruins of what once was San .Miehele lie forlorn and desolate across the hillside. It'was never much of a town -something between a village and what the Russians would call-an inhabited locality. Dozens of substantial buildings straggle across a hill shoulder, forming at the northern end two sides of a square. Every building is pierced and shattered by shelllire, which has pitted the olive groves around anil stripped the branches from trees. There i.s nothing there of note, only a few peasants and a priest. The priest sits in a rickety chair before the door of his riven church. Jle is 71, and this has been his church for Hi years. Now, lor the first time iu all those years, the church door is closed. There is nothing inside any more —only the heaped rubble of the upper walls and floors piling above the debris of the altar. I'he tower still stands four-square, oddly intact, amid the ruins, with its bells and ropes. Auckland Company's Triumph

The morning sun strikes heat-waves from the metal of four blackened New Zealand anti-tank guns, still squatting in the positions troin which enemy tanks and guns ended their lives. A lew twisted wrecks ol portees peer from between the collapsed walls, their heavv metal pulverised into strange lacework patterns.

The man who called this "Little C'assino" was right. Vet this is the site ol victory, this is a name that will be temeinbered. The story ot heretic defence by an Auckland company, which ensured the abandonment ol the Paula line and the advance ol our lorces to the Arno. has been told.

What is not generally known i« 1 hat il provided yd another episode in I he military career ol .Major Meitzel. com mandei ol a hallalion ol Hessian Grenadiers. who until the morning ol July .'in was regarded as one of the coining young men of the Wehrinachl. .Meitzel was barely 18 when he joined the battalion as a cadet in 1938. He showed very early promise when, as a corporal section leader, he won the Iron Cross (second class) in the Polish campaign. Much-Decorated German France provided Meitzel with even greater opportunities as a platoon commander, for there he gained the Iron Cross (first class). The Russian campaign brought him much distinction and several wounds. Again he was lucky. Hv thin time he had reached the mature age which would have entitled him to vole had he been on our side, and was newly commissioned as a lien-

tenant in oommand of. a machine-gun company. • f At Stalingrad his luck hold.. He was wounded quite seriously mid had the extraordinary good fortune to be'flown out on June 15, 1943. His -company stayed, but the Nordic gods and'army brass hats were watching over young .\leitael. His wound healed well, and lie added the German Cross in .Gold to his collection. He led his company in the Sicilian campaign until, "in' August, lie took over a battalion ami received bis captaincy. Calabria gave way, to Salerno, and Salerno to C'assino. Mei tad's- reputation grew steadily. lie accumulated several more medals- for wounds and service, and achieved the high-honour of having 'his name specially mentioned in a Wehrniacht Communique. This was lor his conduct in action against the New Zealanders in their attack with their Allies up Cavendish road on to Alba net a, at, the rear ot the monastery.

(in July 28. when again opposite the New Zealanders near the I'esa River, .Meit/el received his seventh wound, following which lie was elevated by his divisional commander to the rank of major. That night he was given'a-job eminently suited to his talents. Ilis hard-hitting and extremely experienced motorised panzer grenadier battalion would oust the stubborn group of New Zealanders from an important position in San Michole. and so restore the threatened Paula line betore Florence. Meitzel was in lull charge ol the operation, for which he had sell-pro-pelled guns, 'liger tanks and a heavy concentration of artillery. No incentive has lacking, As the coming man laboured on his depositions for attack, a wireless message reached him stating that he had been awarded the Knight's (Jto'j-. ol the Iron Cross, but his exultation was premature. Although the attack was delivered wit It brilliance, well in accord with his reputation, 1 lie New Zealanders would not he moved. Mcitzd threw agaiu-sf them all he bad, but it was not enough, lie -'till lias this Knight's Cross, and doubtless is very proud of it. in his headquarters somewhere north ol the Arno. but his battalion now exists only on paper. In the last few davs New Zealand parties have buried '2OO dead Germans on the slopes around S.-«n Miehele. Ihe defending company lost four dead.

THEFT AND ASSAULT ( barges of stealing 12 bottles ol beer, and of assaulting the owner, Vigo Sorenseii. were preferred against a Maori. Abraham f'irihi, aged 22. before Mr I*. 11. hevien, K.M., yesterday. Accused admitted the theft, but denied the assault. After bearing evidence, the magistrate convicted accused on each count and sentenced him to two months' imprisonment.