NEW ZEALANDER’S LONG TREK

Southland Times, Issue 24420, 28 April 1941, Page 6

NEW ZEALANDER’S LONG TREK

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, April 26. Writing from Cairo on March 31 the official war correspondent with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in the Middle East adds further details to the story of Trooper Moore’s long trek through the desert. Trooper Moore’s companions were Guardsman Easton, who had a bullet wound in the throat, Private Tighe and Guardsman Winchester. Trooper Moore, himself wounded, led the party on foot over 290 miles. Tighe failed on the fifth day and was picked up by a French patrol. Easton was found on the twelfth day but died later, and Winchester was found semi-delirious, but Moore reached the base.

The official correspondent goes on: J “At Sarra, an ambulance base, ex- | hausted and footsore, the men stayed a I week. Their feet took some time to heal. Easton was given a military funeral by the French and Tighe, the | first man to give in, was found suffer- I ing from internal injuries which would ; have prevented his making the trip. “Continuing south, the survivors were taken to Onianga, where they rested for five days, followed by two days at Faya. Then they had an eightday journey to Fort Lamy, which is 12 degrees north of the equator. This Free French post is deep in the jungle of equatorial Africa and is situated where > two rivers meet. From Fort Lamy they I flew to Khartoum, whence they return- i ed to Cairo by Nile boat and train. j “Today, two months affer the terrific i test of his powers of endurance, Moore ' is fit and well and prepared once again ■ to drive an army truck across unbroken . expanses of desert, tall sand dunes and I miles of baffling sand in the process of | chasing the last of the Italians out of : Mussolini’s much-vaunted empire in north-east Africa.”