SHABBY TREATMENT BY ITALIANS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 85, Issue 301, 22 December 1941, Page 5

SHABBY TREATMENT BY ITALIANS

N.Z. AMBULANCE STATION

ißecd. 5.5 p.m.) Cairo. Dec. 18 Shabby treatment at the hands oi Italian troops was reported by a New Zealand dressing station near Sidi Rezegh and some South Africans who had been first captured on November 23, then res. tied three days later by British tanks attached to the New I Zealand forces, an admitted to our ambulance station. Within a week 1 the station fell into enemy hands, but I was allowed to carry on normally until Italians were given charge. They | show ed a marked lack of considera- | tion (or British patients. The water supply fell very low and the Italians were persuaded only with difficulty to replenish it. Almost immediately ,t dwindled away again when a party of Italian walking wounded filled every conceivable container before being I evacuated. I Italian troops occupying nearby ' positions seemed to he given a fre* I run of the ambulance camp and jn- [ dis. riniinate looting was rife. A 1 padre had to resort to burying a stock I of gift cigarettes so that he could dis- ! tribute them more or less secretly at ■ night. . Another despicable feature ot Italian conduct was that they sited Held guns in the dressing station area and moved them close in when British guns replied too warmly. it was tol l also thjt when the R.A.F. blitzed their positions, scores of Italian soldiers came running in to I huddle around the Red Cross markings I for safety. I iN.Z.EF. Official News Service) Cairo. Dec. 19. , A detachment of the New Zealand Forces, forming a fighting fore" with I the Poles, advanced towards Derna. taking an important part in the thrust against the Axis column re- | treating west war!.

' British and naval air forces have I made this fairly short Mediterranean voyar, highly danu' ious to Axis ehipIpinc. During the attack, carried out in the face of intense anti-aircraft .lire from the secorting warships, tor-pcdo-s were fired at two Stkifl and two 2000-ton ships The pilots report that one of the larger vessels and one of the smaller ones were hit, both stopping immediately.