ACCURATE FIRE

Timaru Herald, Volume CL, Issue 22141, 9 December 1941, Page 4

ACCURATE FIRE

New Zealand Artillery CAIRO, December 7. The weather has improved and the New Zealand forces have taken the opportunity for reorganisation, with cleaning up operations, and mobile patrol activity is continuing. A tribute to the accuracy of the New Zealand Artillery is contained in a story of parties who escaped from the custody of the enemy at Sidi Rezegh. Two Australian officers who were captured by an enemy raiding column were taken to the New Zealand hospital at Sidi Rezegh. The enemy had left the hospital intact but ringed with guns, as they defended the position on the assumption that the New Zealanders would not fire near the hospital. The New Zealand Artillery found perfect range and made the position untenable by destroying the enemy batteries and the Germans withdrew, taking the hospital staff and patients as prisoners, together with a number of prisoners held at the hospital. At this stage a party took over a large vehicle and Australian officers, several South Africans and the majority of the New Zealanders escaped through the enemy lines. The Australian officers have the highest possible praise for the work of the New Zealand Artillery to whose marksmanship they owe the opportunity of escaping.