"BEST DIVISION"

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 40, 19 January 1943, Page 4

"BEST DIVISION"

TOUGH N.Z. SOLDIERS ROMMEL'S HIGH ESTIMATE "The toughest and best lighting division in the whole of the Middle East,'* was the way Marshall Rommel described the New Zealand Division in an appreciation of. the lighting qualities of the Eighth Army, issued to the German troops. This information is given by a New Zealand officer serving in the Middle East in a letter to his family in Canterbury. "'People, used, to tell me that the New Zealand Division Avas the best in France in the last war —and I used to shrug my shoulders and think it was just ballyhoo, and that they could not have, compared with units like the Guards and the regular regiments of the British Army," says the officer. "I now know, however, that it must have been true. "A most interesting document was captured here during the lighting. It is the custom on both sides to issue information about the opposing troops. We receive pamphlets dealing with the strength and fighting qualities of all the enemy divisions, and they do the same about us. This document had been issued to the German troops before this campaign opened and was signed by Rommel himself. It gave a "list of the troops they might be expected to meet, and the lighting qualities of. each. "The great Marshall Rommel himself placed the New Zealanders easily first, and said they were the toughest and best lighting division in ; the whole of the Middle East. After them he placed the Guards Brigade, and then the lighting French. "A further proof, if any were needed, has been provided by German prisoners who. have been captured. Two airmen from the Luftwaffe the other day told some intelligence officers from Kiglitli Army Headquarters that it, was generally reckoned that the New Zealanders were better fighters than the Germans themselves. This of •course, we know, but to hear it from the etaemy himself, well, it certainly clinches the. story