KID GLOVE POLICY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 June 1941, Page 5

KID GLOVE POLICY

ABANDONED BY ALLIES DENTZ THROWING IN ALL RESERVES. AUSTRALIAN PATRIOTS NEARING BEIRUT. (Bv Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) ' LONDON, June 19. The Allies have recaptured Kuneitra, near the Palestine frontier. Operations to restore the position at Merj lyun, which had also been reoccupied by a Vichy force, are going on. Jerusalem reports that on the coast Australian patrols have now reached a village about 13 miles south of Beirut. It is commented in London that the Vichy forces’ increased resistance in Syria has resulted in an abandonment of the “kid glove” policy of the Allies in many areas. General Dentz has been throwing in all his reserves in an effort to stem the advance, and our corrective action is being most successful. It was also earlier reported that the Allies had attacked Mezze, three miles west of Damascus, and had reached the suburbs. Colonel Collet, the distinguished Frenchman who left General Dentz’s army shortly before the invasion. was reported to be closing in on the city with his Circassians, but the assault was delayed by heavy Vichy shelling of the road and also the necessity to clear up the Vichy mobile parties round the Allied lines of communication delayed the assault on the city. HEROIC STAND. , The British loss and recapture of Kuneitra, an earlier message states, provides a tale of heroism which ranks high for this or any other campaign. Three hundred to 400 infantrymen from a famous London regiment and' also a Free French force resisted attacks by the Vichy forces for 48 hours. The Vichy troops, with 15 tanks, six armoured cars, artillery, mortars and machine-guns, launched the closing attack at dawn, encircling the village with two battalions and the tanks. Their infantry attacked at 8 a.m., but were repulsed, and the tanks attacked at 10 a.m., but also failed to get through. The Allies maintained their fire and used hand grenades most effectively, inflicting terrible losses on the enemy. The Vichy forces then concentrated]y shelled the village. The Allies fought on till their last bullet had been fired and at 6.30 p.in. were forced to surrender.

The Vichy forces’ hold on Kuneitra, however, lasted for exactly two and a half hours, because Allied reinforcements of infantry and artillery rushed up at sunset and captured the town before dark.

AN AUSTRALIAN BLUFF. A lighter story is told of how an Australian sergeant-major, sergeant and corporal “captured” Sidon. These non-commissioned officers formed an army of occupation for four and a half hours before Sidon officially capitulated, accepting the town's surrender while a tank battle was raging to the south. When the first British armoured cars broke through and raced to the Vichy headquarters they found three grinning Australians there with the French staff under arrest and Vichy solcfW-rs and officials lined up to welcome them. The Sergeant-major said that he and his companions had been separated from the main body which was attacking from the east. When the noise of battle died down he thought the attackers from the south must be in the town, so he decided to go in and meet them. However, Lebanese told him that the town had not yet surrendered and that the battle had flared up.

“It was useless trying to get back,” the sergeant-major said. “We decided to bluff it out and we made the Lebanese take us to the headquarters. I strode up to Senegalese who were guarding the door and declared, ‘The city has surrendered. Give up your arms.’ The Senegalese meekly gave up their rifles and I left the corporal to guard them and strode in with the sergeant. “My revolver overawed the Vichy staff and they put up their hands. I left the sergeant over them and then went to the Town Hall and commanded the mayor to summon the council. He did, and I led them to the Vichy headquarters, where we lined them up with the members of the staff and simply waited for the arrival of our troops.”