GALE & SNOW

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 January 1944, Page 5

GALE & SNOW

IN ITALIAN BATTLE AREA ELEAK TIME FOR NEW ZEALAND TROOPS. BIVOUACS & TRUCKS BURIED. IN DRIFTS. (Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) DIVISIONAL HEADQUARTERS, January 3. Snow has added its quota to the new experiences which the festive season has brought the New Zealand Division. Shortly after dark last night the wind increased to a gale, which blew up from the north-west from the mountains, screaming down through the passes and over the ridges where the infantry is still dug-in in its hard-won positions. The gale strengthened till at midnight it was difficult to stand upright in exposed places. Fences and haystack-covers began to tear loose, and the night was filled with noises over the howling of the wind as tarpaulins, fuel-vans, and other movable obpects were carried away. Then came the snow. Driven by the gale the flakes came in with stinging force, and soon great drifts were banked up against every solid object. The temperature kept falling as the night advanced, bringing real blizzard conditions. It was a night of extreme hardship and suffering for those of our troops who had nothing but bivouacs and bed-rolls for protection. Throughout the division tents and bivouacs collapsed under the weight of snow and the force of the blast. Those who could took shelter in barns and outhouses or huddled in vehicles during the remaining hours of darkness, but there was little escape from the gale, which drove snow, sleet and rain through every crack and nail-hole. NO TIME TO ADMIRE VIEW. This morning brought to many members of the division their first sight of snow —a glistening, powdery-white garment which clothed every house, tree and vehicle and gave the net-cover-ed guns, tanks and ammunition dumps eerie camouflage. But there is little time or inclination to admire the view, the beauty of which soon palls when one realises that trucks are hopelessly stalled, lines are down and broken, and the white expanse hides the ruins of the messtent. Many trucks were com-' pletely buried and others had the engines and cabs packed with driven snow. To make matters worse, a keen wind still blows today and brings with it heavy, continuous rain and a grey sky. I drove by jeep this morning toward the forward areas over grounds which are nothing but deep water-courses covered with sludge and piled high with drifts. At times what is normally an excellent second-class road deteriorates to two tracks wandering across an undefined expanse. The first thing I noticed was the activity of signal linesmen, who have been at it since the blizzard started and will be on the job till the last signal line is in again. They have to contend with a state of affairs in which poles and trees have collapsed under the burden and laden wires hang drunkenly over roads in which every inch of the ground-laid lines is under at least a foot and often 10 feet of snow, except when passing vehicles have cut and carried off the broken ends of cable. The linesmen move on foot along the roads and across country, stoically performing their task in spite of having long since been soakd to the skin. I stood by one as he reported a line through. The fir'd message wa: “Complete lack of enemy activity.” Apparently they having their troubles, too.

HIVES OF ACTIVITY. The scenes in the fields along the roadside are bleak enough, with bogged and snow-piled trucks. Further forward I passed lonely and disconsolate figures digging in drifts; they were lookng for personal gear, and even lost bivouacs and blankets. Here and there the black muzzle of a field-gun protruded from a waste of white to mark the location of a regiment. Hives of activity centred about weird structures of tree-trunks and canvas or about gun-posts which were rapidly being cleared for action. During the night tragedy had been avoided narrowly in a number of cases. One artilleryman, who is apparently a heavy sleeper, awoke with a feeling of suffocation to find himself buried inside his bivouac beneath many feet of snow, and in spite of his calls for help he was not rescued till after he had been missed at breakfast. I was present when an Italian refugee regained consciousness under the care of New Zealand troops after having collapsed and lain senseless all night in the snow by the roadside. Though it was near midday the visibility was closing in again and I could not make out the outlines of the ridges. I found another New Zealander diligently plunging a spade into a slope by the roadside. “Have you lost your bivvy, too?” I I asked. “No,” said ho, “But I left the truck here last night.” The truck was there all right, in a 12ft. drift in the lee of the hill. Further up the road itself was blocked by a monster snowdrift over 15ft. deep; it was cleared as .1 left, and the traffic moved again. For the forward troops, howver, mules are the only solution. As I returned to headquarters the rain was still falling and the sky threatened more snow. The only brightspot was the presence of myriads of robin redbreasts. They had come with the snow, and they were the only ones who were enjoying it.