Sergeant A. M. Read, MM; Frankton Junction; born Hamilton, 23 Jul 1916; bushman; wounded 10 Apr 1945. (Source: Cody, J.F. NZ Engineers, Middle East. p.689.)

'No. 1 Troop, 28 Assault Squadron (Captain Menzies), was given the job of putting down a crossing place for the armour. The sappers found the enemy side of the near stopbank cunningly littered with mines of all descriptions—Schu mines, S-mines, Teller mines, Topf mines, and most dangerous of all, R-mines. The combination of dust and battle smoke made visual searching hopeless and it was necessary to clear a lane to the site with mine probes. Captain Menzies led the lane-clearing by personally lifting, disarming or destroying in situ, thus encouraging the new sappers in their first joust with sudden death. An armoured dozer got off the track in the murk and went up on a mine. Captain Farnell, who was supervising his Squadron's first effort, called up an attached 27 Mechanical Equipment Company D6 and meanwhile cleared a track to recover the damaged Sherman dozer. The driver, Corporal Anderton, though suffering from blast and shock, was anxious to get working again and as soon as the replacement arrived he took over its operation.

When the site had been prepared the scissors bridge was let down on solid timber foundations and Menzies led his mine-prodding party to the far bank, where another lane was cleared for the D6 to work on the exit track.

The thin-skinned D6 operated by Corporal Read crossed the scissors and was followed by a Kangaroo. Three anti-personnel mines that had been missed exploded under the weight of the machine, but Read carried on until he detonated a deeply buried anti-tank mine. Almost simultaneously the Kangaroo found a mine that the dozer had missed. The dozer was not damaged but the Corporal was badly shaken and four sappers in the Kangaroo were wounded, the first casualties in 28 Assault Squadron. Despite his shaking up Read carried on grading a track over the stopbank. For this and later deeds of determination he was awarded an MM. Sergeant A. M. Read, MM; Frankton Junction; born Hamilton, 23 Jul 1916; bushman; wounded 10 Apr 1945.
' (Source: Cody, J.F. NZ Engineers, Middle East. p. 689.) AWMM