THE TAKROUNA EXPLOIT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25276, 13 July 1943, Page 4

THE TAKROUNA EXPLOIT

MAORI SOLDIERS’ PART (P.A.) WELLINGTON, July 12. “ The job had to be done,” was about all Sergeant H. Manahi, of the Maori Battalion, who won the D.C.M. in the famous assault on Takrouna village, Tunisia, had to say about his part in the action. “Nine of us from B Company carried out the first assault, and one was wouhded during the half-hour climb of the cliff, at the top of which the village stood,” he said. “It was a very hot scrap at the top, the Italians fighting violently. It was men of the Folgore Division who were trying to hold the village. After a time our ammunition ran out, and we had to use captured Italian and German rifles, machine guns and ammunition. We managed to hold on for the best part of the day, and then we were joined by men from C Company. Only three of us were left —Private H. Grant, who was recommended for the Military Medal, and Lance-corporal H. Ruha. Six were killed in the fighting at the village.” Lieutenant A. Mcßae, who found himself commanding B Company in the Takrouna vtillage engagement when the company commander and platoon commanders had been wiped out. had more to say about the feat. “Takrouna was the hottest scrap the Maori Battalion had in the whole fighting from Greece onwards. El Alamein was a picnic compared with it,” he declared. “The Italians fought really hard. The Folgore Division was a crack parachute division. The climb up the cliff face, which was almost perpendicular, would take about half an hour in normal conditions, so you can judge what it was like under fire When the action ended there were scores of enemy lying in a ring round the spot our men had been holding, and 395 prisoners were taken. That illustrates what the assault party had been up against.”

TRANSPORT FOR NEXT-OF-KIN

For the benefit of next-of-kin residing in the suburbs, the City Transport Department is .arranging for special trams to leave the various termini for the Railway Station to-mor-row half-an-hour before the arrival of the troop train.