Late News NEW ZEALANDERS AT CASSINO

Southland Times, Issue 25328, 1 April 1944, Page 5

Late News NEW ZEALANDERS AT CASSINO

Tribute Paid By U.S. War Secretary (Special Correspondent, N.Z.P.A.) (Rec. 12.45 a.m.) LONDON, March 31. The United States Secretary for War, Mr H. L. Stimson, at a Press conference in Washington paid a tribute to the New Zealanders at Cassino. “The New Zealanders and the Indian troops in the' hills above Cassino fought bravely and vigorously but the Germans again showed they are obstinate and effective soldiers who do not quit when ordered to'hold key posts at all costs,” he said.

The Daily Herald’s Cassino correspondent reports several stories of New Zealanders. He tells how a private lying in the dust and darkness had no idea that six tbugh nanzer grenadiers were waiting in a ruined building to ambush an Allied patrol, but one German sneezed. The New Zealander immediately lobbed two grenades through the gaping roof. A New Zealand sergeant thrusting his head cautiously through a gap in the wall of the building at dawn found himself staring straight down the barrel of a German tank-gun. A tank crew sighted him when he was preparing to evacuate. They started to run towards the tank. If they reached it a New Zealand patrol would have been wiped out but the sergeant yelled to his men to throw grenades, which kept the Germans at bay until a Sherman tank arrived. Then to the New Zealanders’further astonishment, 40 German paratroopers marched stiffly from the house next door with hands held high in surrender. Another story is of a German paratrooper who was raising himself cautiously to peep through a window frame and found himself staring straight into the eyes of a Maori corporal. For one split second neither man moved. Then as the paratrooper opened his mouth to call for help the Maori’s hands closed like a vice round his throat.

The correspondent adds that many of the German defenders of Cassino speak perfect English, -without trace of accent. They confuse our troops by shouting greetings and orders in the darkness.