HIGH PRAISE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25241, 2 June 1943, Page 2

HIGH PRAISE

NEW ZEALAND DIVISION THE AFRICAN CAMPAIGN COURAGE AND ENDURANCE (P.A.) WELLINGTON, June 1. “So ended tine battle*for North Africa, with a disaster for the enemy comparable to Stalingrad,” says Lieutenant-general Sir Bernard Freyberg, in a report submitted to the Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, on the final stages of the North African campaign. “ Tine Tunis bridgehead, which the Germans had boasted would be held, was in our hands and over 200,000 prisoners and great numbers of guns, tanks, and other weapons and equipment of all kinds were captured.

“The presence of ships of the Royal Navy actually in the Gulf of Tunis and the continuous sweeps of Allied bombers successfully discouraged any attempt at evacuation by the Italian Navy, which did not put to sea. The whole of the Axis force in Tunis will be reported in Germany and Italy as killed, wounded, or prisoners of war.” After reviewing the operations .in detail, General Freyberg pays a high tribute to the men who fought under him. “At the conclusion of this North African campaign,” he says, “ I want to place on record the deep admiration I feel for the magnificent qualities and great work done by all ranks under my command. We have been fighting continuously for almost a year, battle after battle, with little respite, on hard rations and short supplies of indifferent water. The endurance and courage of all ranks under conditions of great discomfort and peril have been beyond praise, and their resource, good humour, and wisdom have made them ideal material for 'a fast-moving, hardhitting force such as ours. The division has never faltered or failed in any of the difficult and hazardous missions it has been set, and no one realises as I do how much it has achieved. No commander has ever been better served.” General Freyberg stated that the short report he was presenting on the campaign was 'written in Tunis just five weeks after his report sent from Gabes describing the opening phases of the desert advance. A Night of Anxiety Describing the Battle of Takrouna, a rocky crag surmounted by a village, the despatch says that the fighting here was as hard as any experienced in the whole campaign. The most intense fire was met, and many officers became casualties. Every commanding officer in the Fifth Brigade was wounded. Communications broke down,' and it was impossible to get clear reports of the situation. “ It was a night of anxiety for everyone,” General Freyberg says. “Could the guns be left on the plain? Were the infantry-supporting weapons getting forward? A report came in that the infantry were advancing yard by yard, and eventually we learnt that a small party from the Maori Battalion had scaled the cliff and gained a foothold in Takrouna village. While the 21st and 23rd Battalions were holding firm on either side of the feature the 21st Battalion, on the left, had almost reached its objective, but were withdrawn before daylight because its position was untenable. “ With Takrouna untaken throughout the next day, despite heavy fire, the flanks held, while in the village house-to-house hand-to-hand fighting went on. Our foothold there vastly improved the artillery position by giving valuable observation over the enemy positions. and, despite heavy artillery fire which blasted the top of the rock, our observation post officers remained there all day to direct the fire of our guns. “ During the night of April 20 our line was consolidated, and the Sixth Brigade linked up with the sorelypressed Fifth Brigade. All night grim fighting went on in Takrouna, and next morning an enemy pocket was still holding out obstinately in the houses of the village. It was finally snined by a 25-pounder gun. Lower down on the west of the hill, Takrouna village remained firmly held. This position was battered by artillery throughout April 21, and towards evening parties from the 21st and 28th Maori Battalions stormed the village, taking prisoner the remnants of the garrison. Field guns, 72 machine guns, many light machine guns, and 732 prisoners were captured, a clear indication of the strength of the position. The capture of the Takrouna feature left us firmly established in a line which constituted an immediate threat to the rest of the enemy’s Enfidaville line.” Enemy Defence Crumbles General Freyberg describes the regrouping of the Allied forces at a critical stage for air all-out attack on the First Army’s front. “Under the weight of the combined blow of the infantry and armoured divisions of the First and Eighth Armies, supported by very powerful artillery and air’forces,” lie writes, “ the enemy defence crumbled, and from north to south the Allies advanced. The collapse was so sudden that the commanders suspected a trap, but it soon became clear that the enemy had become completely disorganised. Tunis and Bizerta wei*e occupied, and our armoured divisions swept across the base of Cape Bon before the enemy could regroup. “ The Allied success in the north had made the position of the large force of positional infantry on our front most precarious. On May 11 we sent a letter back with a German prisoner to General Graf von Sponeck, commander of the Ninetieth Light Division, pointing out that further resistance was useless. He refused to surrender unconditionally, but did so next day when his headquarters was attacked from the rear by a British armoured division. “ On May. 12 we picked up a wireless message to us from Marshal Messe. Emissaries from both the German and Italian commanders came in to our lines, and Marshal Messe, complete with staff, surrendered unconditionally to me on May 13. With him came General Liebenstein, commanding the German 164th Division. “ Resistance had now ceased,” Gene, ral Freyberg concludes,” and white flags appeared everywhere. Many of the prisoners from the enemy’s First Army were collected by British forces striking south from the Cape Bon Peninsula, but another 31,558 were taken on our front.”