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The officer commanding 8 Field Company describes marking lanes through minefields during the final attack in the Battle of El Alamein in November 1942:
On reaching the start line� the leading section commenced work, heading towards the fork in the lanes�. "The section had made good progress. I could see them advancing towards me in the gloom, when suddenly there was the whistle of a shell. It exploded among the sappers on foot, and five men were down�. We shifted the dead and wounded clear of the track, as the tanks and armour were travelling close in our rear. One wounded corporal was placed across the bonnet of the armoured car, and we took him back to a rendezvous I had arranged with my second-in-command, where he was shifted to a jeep and taken back to the Advanced Dressing Station. The lad was terribly cut up at being wounded, and was full of apologies at 'letting me down.' The wound was not worrying him at all, although one foot was nearly off. All he could think of was that someone else would now have to do his work.
Lt-Col H.M. Reid, in The Turning Point, With the New Zealand Engineers at El Alamein (1944). 204
The first train draws into El Alamein railway station after the October offensive. The train was driven by New Zealand railway sappers. The heavy concrete armour on the engine is protection against bomb splinters and cannon gun attacks from the air
Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand
Reference: War History Collection DA-09762; F
Further information and copies of this image may be obtained from the Library through its 'Timeframes' website, http://timeframes.natlib.govt.nz
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.