MAGNIFICENT WORK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 December 1940, Page 4

MAGNIFICENT WORK

NEW ZEALAND TRANSPORT DRIVERS PART IN BRITISH OFFENSIVE IN EGYPT. ENDURANCE AND COURAGE. (Received This Day, 9.15 a.m.) (From the Official War Correspondent with the N.Z.E.F. in the Middle East.) WESTERN DESERT, December 27. Tributes paid within and outside the N.Z.E.F. to the magnificent work of New Zealand Army Service Corps drivers, particularly the lieserve Motor Transport Company. in the British offensive are given added value by stories told by the men themselves. Endurance, coolness and courage are reflected in their accounts of their experiences.

The Reserve Company drivers hesitate to single out individual officers and men for special praise. It is clear that a fine spirit of comradeship helped to make the operations in the tWick of battle so outstandingly successful. This spirit was expressed in the way that several of them went beyond the' theoretical limits of their responsibility when they joined their fellow Britishers in the actual fighting. The troops speak highly of the example set ' by all their superior officers. A number of trucks were reserved for the transportation of wounded and their drivers have been congratulated by the commanding officer of the British ambulance unit for the way in which “they upheld New Zealand’s traditions of wholehearted co-operation and devotion to duty.” The officer said also: “They did sterling work in the evacuation of wounded and were at all times willing and cheerful.”