ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND

Timaru Herald, Volume CLIII, Issue 22542, 29 March 1943, Page 3

ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND

Major C. Skinner, M.C., M.P. 'Special to N.Z.P.A.) 'Rec. 8.55 p.m.) LONDON, Mar. 27. Men who are appointed to Cabinet rank receive notification in a number of ways, but probably few in a more unusual way than Major C. Skinner, M.C., M.P. for Motueka. On a clear sunny morning he was supervising the building of a road around a bridge which has been demolished on the Tarhuna-Castle Benito road near Tripoli when he received an order to report to Lieut.-General Sir Bernard Freyberg and that he was “to wear a tie.” Major Skinner—with tie—reported to Lieut.-General Freyberg and learned that he had replaced the Hon. F. Langstone in the Cabinet and was to proceed to England to give a series of speeches for the Ministry of Information on New Zealand’s war effort before returning to the Dominion.

Major Skinner flew to London in a Liberator bomber, the trip lasting nine days, although the actual flying time was only 21 hours as it became bogged and delayed on the take-off. He arrived fit and well, his bronzed face contrasting sharply with pallid Londoners. He is spending the first weekend with Mr and Mrs W. J. Jordan and expects to meet Mr Brendan Bracken on Tuesday. He will probably remain in Britain for several months.

Major Skinner has a distinguished war record. He joined up as a sapper in 1940 and was commissioned befoie leaving for Egypt. He was mentioned in dispatches in the first Libyan campaign and won the Military Cross at El Alamein. Major Skinner, who is 43, saw his first fighting at Bardia in January, 1941, and went on to Tobruk. He then took a course at the school of military engineering before going to Greece. There he took part in building ordnance dumps and protective works'around Athens before the Germans declared war on Greece. He then rejoined the Fifth Field Park Company and amongst other work did a number of reconnaissances for proposed roads in the Olympus range. He was in Larissa when the Germans carried out a heavy bombing. Finally lie left Greece in a kaique from Port Rafti and boarded a transport. During General Sir Claude Auchinleck’s campaign half his company was captured at Sidi Azis in November, 1941, after which Major Skinner commanded the company and reorganised it. When the New Zealanders were withdrawn from Gazala he was appointed adjutant divisional engineers, and went co Syria. In June, 1942, when the New Zealanders rushed from Baalbek to Mersa Matruh —covering 1000 miles in three days—he accompanied them. Major Skinner saw the famous battle at Minqar Qualm, where the N.Z.E.F. held up Rommel’s forces and then, after being surrounded, fought thenway out through a hell of Are. At El Alamein Major Skinner was with the Seventh Field Company in the assault against Matiere Ridge. With the Engineers he went up behind an intensive barrage lifting mines and clearing lanes to allow tanks and antitank units to go forward in support of the infantry. He carried out much reconnaissance work and destroyed many booby traps. Later, after the break through, the Seventh Company, supported by a British brigade, was again engaged clearing minefields.

Once Major Skinner was in an armoured car when a shell hit it and at the same time it struck a mine. He suffered concussion and all the members of the crew were wounded. He carried on throughout the advance and at the time he was instructed “to wear a tie” he was commanding a company supervising road maintenance between Castle Verde and Tripoli—where the Axis foroes demolished the road in IS places in 63 kilos—and between Tarhuna and Tripoli, a distance of 80 kilos.

Commenting on El Alamein, Major Skinner said: “It was probably one of the best organised actions in military history. Everyone was so well trained and knew their jobs so well that the action was almost like a routine exercise. Our boys did a grand job. I know that all my company deserved decorations.”