“ROADS TO ROME”

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24903, 17 June 1946, Page 6

“ROADS TO ROME”

STORY OF N.Z.E.F. IN ITALY “Roads to Rome,” the ninth in the series of official surveys of the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force, has been produced by the Archives Section, Army Headquarters. It deals with the New Zealanders’ part in the Italian campaigns from their landing in Italy until the Germans had been forced back to the “Gothic” line. The story of the Italian fighting will be completed shortly by the publication of “One More River. Like its predecessors, “Roads to Rome” serves a useful purpose by giving a simple, connected, and readable account of a period of difficult fighting. The most significant chapters are those dealing with the grim battles for Cassino. The booklet is illustrated by a large number of excellent photographs, including a doublfe-spread of Cassino, showing the town before and after the fighting and battle scenes, and by reproductions of paintings and sketches. Inside the front cover is a reproduction of Major Peter Mclntyre’s portrait of Lieutenant-General Sir Bernard Freyberg, and one of the drawings is by Mr J. Figgins, Christchurch. Inside the back cover is a reproduction of a German propaganda leaflet,, dealing with the costly failures of the first attempts to take Cassino, which mentioned that the New Zealand Division “call themselves the best division in the Empire” and that the paratroops “who had driven them from Crete proved themselves ‘fops’ again.” However, “Roads to Rome” shows that the last word was not with the paratroops.