Operations in Nigeria

Reported Henry B. Cole, TIME correspondent on the African Gold Coast:

In Nigeria, British West Africa, a village chief was recently giving shelter to two natives wanted on criminal charges. Around his village, the chief built a "Maginot Line" of thornbush to keep out the authorities who wished to arrest the wanted men. For the first time in the history of human conflict the mechanical bulldozer--a contraption which is used to level bumpy ground--was to go into battle with fighter cover.

The bulldozer was transported by lorry to a nearby point and then unloaded for battle under the command of a cockney driver. The task of this "land force" was to break down the thornbush.

At zero hour the bulldozer advanced on the village and from the western sky at the same moment there swept an air escort of a single R.A.F. twin-engined Beaufighter, thus ensuring that Tommy would have his air cover against any resist ance during operations. As the bulldozer advanced into "action," the fighter dived on the village, firing a succession of Very-light (flare) cartridges. Resistance collapsed. The "enemy" surrendered and the operations were concluded. . . .

The wanted men were taken into custody, and the machine of the law went into operation. Later in the day the appropriate communique was issued by the R.A.F. station commander to the effect that our mechanized forces withdrew after achieving their objective and "from these operations all our aircraft returned safely."

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