ARWED CARS' DESERT DASH.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 14287, 2 May 1917, Page 8

ARWED CARS' DESERT DASH.

TWENTY-TWO; MEN BEAT 800

SENUSSI TRIBESMEN

20 HOURS' FIGHT.

(By W. T. Massey.) General Headquarters, Egypt, February 19. ; So far as we know, no motor-car column has, done, anything oifsb large a scale as the swift descent ' on the Siwa oasis, a fortnight ago, when,' apart from the splendid 'feftt of conquering tremendous natural .obstacles, and of re victualling and munitioning a force which had' left their base 200 miles behind them only 'three <iay s before, the car crews fought a stubborn and well-hid-den enemy ior twenty- hours, and during the night t\venty-'two men remained within 500 yards of a foe 'outnumbering them by fully 25 to 1. For sheer': daring the feat is. worthy of its place m the war's records. Tlie Grand Sheik . of the Senussi, Sayed Ahmed,., was .known ,tt> be m the Siwa oasis, with "-"his Commander-in-Chief,, Mohammed Saleh, and the remnants of his army, 800 rifles strong. Durpig tho year we have. driven Sayed Ahmed frohi the coast - down' to the Dakhla', oasis,. 400 .miles south, back again to tho Baharia, and thence to Siwa across a desert ?is. inhospitable as tlie Sahara. It was decided, to oust him from Siwa, a curious, native ,tp\yn hitherto seen by not* more than half a dozen white men, ajid we have, again forced him. to, "become :)s>.. wanderer m the sandy wastes '^aid iii isolated places where watf r: is. s.cavoe and food desperately difficult to find. The problem of supply made it 'imperative that the journey of nearly 400 miles out and home should be performed m a week. To employ infantry or camelry was absolutely out of the question. It wa? exclusively a motor column, and only, the fighting, medical, and supply services were tarried. START AT DAWN. Soon after dawn on February ; ,1 the' column started from the , buse, . . ,(J)ut of .the western exit from the entrenplied area 146 motors of. ;Various classes churned up . the . road, Itolls-Iloyce armored oars, Talbot waggons, Fortf light patrol and supply cars, Pi Daimler lorry carrying an -old Krupp . gun made m 1871 and captured from the enemy, last year, and ovev ,a, score .o^ motor lorries,-' sent up a cloud of dust which made travelling^, extremely j- uncomfortable. To the surprise of everybody -but their rid-i ers, two motor-cycles >. ' managed to plough their way through from end to-. -end. -„ „, ..,,,/.; .;, • .;„ _ . . ... .The- force bivouacked . at ninety miles from the coast, and went on next ,day to near the -top of. the. sharp escarpment some fifteen miles from Siwa. A .reconnaissance: was necessary, not only to locate Girba, a series of 10,w,' rough hills where the .eneniy were hiding, but to discover, a place down which the cars could enter .the 'depression', .oyr information tdUng..ijs .'that, the. Seqqa, ,Pass, which , had always bebii, considered by Eedouins &<£ tlie only, po&slble road from .Siwa to , the countj-y beyond the escarp-i ment, .yvas' mined. ' : ,. An officer returned with ' the news •that he had Pound a- possible track for. tho cars. . Like all other car iiicn ?1/ he was a cheerful optiiViist.. An oVdinaiy motorist' 1 would .have turned, giddy at the thought of driving over the place. The officer had , selected a spot where th'o escarpment,- instead of having a sheer cliff' face, 7 bulged slightly outwards towards the, flat," "and a'knowing his drivers' willingness to take any risks, he was confident they would get to tho bottom. . ■ ' • .* Leaving, one car iv the centre to engage the enehiy, the remainder -. movedto the right -and left to* enfilade the position;- and for half an hour this one car received- tlie ''heavy' fire from' two 10-pounder • mountain guns, two machine guns, end 800 rifles. The crew fought most- gallantly,. and gave infinitely more]' than they received, 1 .-,.■'.. .■ • Further- in -the reaiV.the patrols m unarmoured Ford cars, with macliine.gun&, came ;anto, action, : : arid so sprinkled tha ihill wiitli bullets that tlie enemy daredt not show ..a /head. <At nooiva Sehussn •bugler sounded, -the "Charge," , and' many of tho «nemy; rose ,as,if. to: metkei an! 'advance, . but*, our niachine-gunneirs did such" execution:; that -;they - ■ quicklydropped back into cover.

PLUNGING EIRE. In the, meantime the armored cars retared ito 1000 yards to, get j out of -the 5 plunging five, but' in the aft^rnpqn they advanced to . w,ithin v , 500 ,' yards, . and whenever a target presented itself an. enemryj fell. So matters remained till the r. sun wenifc down. .All-, through the. night the armored cars were stationary,; being continuously sniped, and -occasionally - gi,ving ( ,a 'burst from their gunsj on spots, the boa-rings .of which had" been taken before darkness intei'vpned. Such a wholesonwp.dvead have,. tlio Senussi of. the arnjprcd,, cars that 800 of them, made, '.no attempt to rush . the little band of twenty -two. . )