DARING ESCAPE FROM ENEMY HANDS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 85, Issue 292, 11 December 1941, Page 5

DARING ESCAPE FROM ENEMY HANDS

USE MADE OF N.Z. TRUCK DOCTORS W HO WORKED ON IN THE BATTLE (N.Z.E.F. Official News Servic%) Cairo, Dec. 9. Two Australian officers tell a remarkable story of the adventures of a New Zealand field ambulance when surrounded by Axis gun positions. The story relates how the two officers and the commanding officer of the Maori Battalion and other New Zealand officers and men made good their escape* from the field ambulance amidst the fierce battle which raged round Sidi Rezegh on Sunday and Monday, November 2.3 and 24. The battle fluctuated and hopes rose and fell. One wounded officer said: "From time to time machine-gun fire got louder and we would reckon our attack was succeeding. Then it would die away and our hopes would fall. The New Zealand gunners were magnificent. They were so accurate you would think they were using 25pounders and snipers’ rifles. They knocked out a number of enemy guns, but only two or three strays touched the hospital. "As the hattie raged we New Zealanders and South Africans cheered the New Zealand gunners on. “In the meantime, throughout the battle, New Zealand doctors in the hospital continued to attend the wounded. At one stage a German officer camp up and said the Germans had lost the battle, as Bel Hamid had been taken. But next there was an ominous silence. Italians, who had been frightened and excited the day before, started looting t'he hospital. They took about 600 wounded and prisoners off in trucks, but we managed to avoid being evacuated that day.”

'l'he officers then made preparations to escape. They took key parts out of a three-ton New Zealand truck and burie.i them so it could not be moved. Then they found a German map and surreptitiously made a tracing of it. Gradually during the day they collected the escape party of .36 and gathered tins of petrol, water and a little food. After dark, while some created confusion round the tents, others quickly pul the food, petrol and water nn I fie truck. One by one they skipped on board the truck till it had a six-ton load with eight Dominion officers and 30 other ranks. They waited till some nearby Italian trucks started up and they started up and drove off in the wake of the Italian column and soon managed to lose it. At dawn they were across the Egyptian border and safe aealn.