DESERT TANK BATTLE

Waikato Times, Volume 129, Issue 21599, 9 December 1941, Page 6

DESERT TANK BATTLE

NEW ZEALANDERS’ PART CHEERING IPCTURE GIVEN (Omctal War Correspondent. N.Z.E.F.) CAIRO, Dec. 8 A despatch dated outside Tobruk November 26 states: A ringside seat at the desert tank battle is the hardest thing to find in this campagin, but I have been lucky enough here on the Libyan escarpment to see most phases of the short, sharp engagement in which the enemy came off second best. It was like watching a naval action between the British and Italian fleets, for the enemy put up a running fight—running the other way.

Through field-glasses I saw a column of tanks, armoured cars and motorised infantry swarming along under the crest of a ridge two miles away, in an apparent attempt to outflank part of the New Zealand force. It cruised boldly past us, leaving a trail of dust, until our brigadier ordered the British tanks under his command to sally forth to investigate. The approach of our fleet of squat, heavy machines was enough to send the enemy column scuttling over the ridge, firing as it went. The British tanks opened fire and gave chase. They look like desert battleships at any time, but now, as they roared over the desert with their Suns flashing red, the similarity to naval formation was most striking. One shell caught an enemy armoured car squarely and it burst into flames as I watched. Dust and smoke soon obscured the scene, but I could still cec dull flashes and hear the sharp crack of the tank guns as the enemy column disappeared over the horizon.

The tanks stopped five armoured cars in all and shot up several lorries lull of troops.

Rescue of South Africans

Later, in a grand reconnaissance sweep, they came across 150 South African wounded lying in the desert under Italian guards. They had been there since a German infantry attack on the South African force. Our tanks brought back as many as *hey could and we sent ambulances out for the remainder today. The desert for miles around here has been a tank arena since the campaign began. We have seen three or lour battlefields littered with damaged, bumt-out machines, belonging to both sides. With the tide of battle sweeping past them the salvage of ,jnany has been possible. Tanks and planes have given us the assistance Which we once only dreamed of.

Only twice have I seen enemy aircraft in action and in neither case Were our front-line troops attacked. On the other hand, the sky yesterday was filled with British bombers and jfighters three times, plastering enemy just ahead of us.

Under the new system of close direct co-operation between ourselves and the air command the New Zealand force had asked for specific f«ir support and got it. There has ♦fceen an air force liaison officer, himself a New Zealander, at New Zeaj£«md Headquarters since the campaign

And for one last detail in the cheering, general picture. I need only * look 200 yards across the desert from there at a silent airfield thick with Well-grounded enemy planes—almost "Jfifty of them and all as dead as the Wrecked guns which failed to stop our armoured lightning columns frcm ■mashing this drome almost as soon as We crossed the frontier.