INTO BATTLE AGAIN

New Zealand Herald, Volume 82, Issue 25177, 14 April 1945, Page 10

INTO BATTLE AGAIN

SPIRIT OF THE INFANTRY ■\ OPTIMISM IN THE RANKS (N.Z.E.F. Official War Correspondent) DIVISIONAL HQRS., April JO After nearly four months' stagnation of patrols, picquets and artillery duels along the line of the Senio River, it is an exhilarating experience today to see the New Zealand Division on the move again after' last night's assault and crossing of the river by infantry. In bright morning sunshine, and notwithstanding clouds of fine, choking dust which billowed along the roads, Kiwis riding on all manner of vehicles gmiled, joked and waved cheery greetings as they roiled toward and over what for so long had been enemy territory. A spirit of optimism and advance was in the air and groups of German prisoners, ' plodding in the opposite direction toward captivity, increased that feeling. Enemy's Hurried Exit It was easy to see how hurriedly the enemy had abandoned their forward positions when yesterday's terrific air and artillery bombardment started. Rifles, mprtars, ammunition, clothes and equipment of all kinds lay scattered about positions from which the enemy had dominated the river. All around was evidence of the intensity arid accuracy of the bombing and shelling which preceded the advance. Every few yards along the roadside and in neighbouring fields were shell holes'or bomb craters. Houses lay in ruins, and the delicate, blossomladenbranches of fruit trees raised torn and jagged stumps in the air where vicious splinters from exploding shellhad cut through them. Dazea Civilians Shortly, down the road came two New Zealand privates with eight submissive representatives of the "master race," who had chosen to hide when their company withdrew during the night and give themselves up, rather ' than face another such ordeal as they ( went through yesterday. In the village n .°k one house was undamaged. Within half an hour of the arrival ! of the first New Zealand troops, a few civilians, dazed and semi-hysterical ' many of them, were emerging from • cellars and dugouts, where they had 1 ! spent most of the past four or five v ■ months, culminating in the terrors of yesterday's bombardment. ' The troops had already moved on in pursuit of the retreating enemy. The ± village had ceased to have military im- i portance. and was henceforward a problem for the Italians themselves and the 1 Allied Military Government. THEFT OF ACCORDION ' Charged with the theft of a piano \ accordion, valued at £oo, Robert William Harris, labourer, aged 24. 'appeared before Mr J. H. Luxford, S.M., ,] yesterday He had previously pleaded f guilty and was remanded for a psy- t chiatrist's-report. A sentence of two a years' reformative detention was im. t posed. t