MOVE BY NIGHT

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVI, Issue 22992, 8 September 1944, Page 4

MOVE BY NIGHT

New Zealand Division In Italy Secret Dash To Gothic Line From the Official War Correspondent with : the N.Z.E.F. ADRIATIC COAST, September 5. Most of us had a fair idea of what was going to happen when. 10 days ago, we started to leave our areas south of Florence and set off across country, heading east. Not many New Zealanders had seen the city, except from a distance. We knew where we were going, but it was very necessary that the enemy and any of his agents behind our lines should be kept in ignorance of the move which was to take the great bulk of the Eighth Army to the Adriatic coast. A daub of oil and a sprinkling of dust hid the Divisional signs on the vehicles and we took down our badges and shoulder titles. We are used to that now. Once again to the outside world the New Zealand Division was to be off the map. A very young moon and parking lights were all we had to pick up the route on the two night moves that took us to oux- first destination, a few miles inland from Ancona, but the provosts had signposted the way with their usual thoroughness. About 225 miles were covered, some of the journey being on secondary’ roads which turned to dust many inches deep. Finer than that of the desert, it swirled high in the air, where it hung ready to be sucked in through any opening in the passing vehicles. Treacherous Roads At the few halts allowed us we emerged like ghostly figures in the darkness. The moon did not last long and the road, treacherously nax-row in places, was hard to follow. It was mostly a case of trusting to the vehicle in front—when you could see it—but there were many stretches of wide bitumen roadway over which we passed at a merx-y pace. We headed first for Lake Trasimeno. skirted its northern shores and passed through Perugia Foligno and Macerata to reach the ancient but uninteresting town of Jesi. Our artillery left us early. All the guns available were needed to crack the formidable Gothic Line, and those of the New Zealanders played theix- part in the breakthrough. Fox- most of the New Zealanders this was the first time there had been an opportunity for swimming in the sea since they arrived in Italy, and the beaches, though some distance away, are good and the weather w-arm. At this time of the year Italy seems to be a land of plenty. Grapes can be had for the picking and we had much other fruit. E'>--s we can obtain for about 9d each. When we move again, we will be heading north.