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A New Zealand officer talks about the Māori Battalion's attack on and capture of Fort Sollum that morning.
This was the Māori's first battle in Libya and they took Sollum that had been in German hands since it was taken in April 1941 while the New Zealanders were in Greece. The speaker describes the desert that reminds him, that morning, of the road between Bluff and Invercargill.
As the convoy drove over it, Fort Capuzzo appeared on the horizon. The fort had been shattered in three great battles and was at that stage full of New Zealanders, though the enemy was still at Halfaya Pass. He looked at the German prisoners' faces that carried a brutalised expression. These were a special unit of German men who had volunteered for service in Africa.
The Māori at this stage were holding the barracks in the face of the enemy after attacking at dawn with fixed bayonets.