BATTLE STATIONS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 April 1941, Page 5

BATTLE STATIONS

| NEW ZEALAND TROOPS IN GREECE I — HOSPITABLE RECEPTION : IN VILLAGES. SPIRIT OF THE PEOPLE ADMIRED. (From the Official War Correspondent with the N.Z.E.F. in Greece; per Cable and Wireless. Limited.) ATHENS, April 12. I am writing from a Greek village on April 7 and, as the campaign ends its second day, the New Zealand forces look forward to contact with the enemy in a spirit, of undisguised eagerness. The New Zealanders, who occupy an important sector of the Graeco-Brilish bulwark against German aggression, took their battle stations in days that were made tense by the uncertainty of the Balkan situation, however remote the war then seemed from this pleasant Old World countryside. As always before,, digging was the first order of the day. since earthworks had to be built and country lanes converted into military roads. While the majority of the troops soon made their homes in dugouts or under canvas, by streams or in thickets, most of the headquarters were temporarily established in villages like this with the staffs billeted in cottages, schools and stores. Here the headquarters of the oldest infantry brigade functioned from the municipal building where the village elders still met and the postmaster continued his duties. With the same warm friendliness with which the New Zealanders had been received ever since they landed, the villagers took scores of our men into their homes like their own sons, so many of whom are serving at the front.

The troops have not ceased to marvel at the complete contrast between here and Egypt in the climate, surroundings and ways of living. Typical comment is, “Only one country could seem more like home.”

Moreover, the New Zealanders have been amazed and deeply impressed by the whole-hearted intensity of the Greek war effort. In the fields and towns, every member of the community seems to be bearing with cheerful fortitude the extra burden of work which must be shared among them as a result of the devotion of manpower to the rout of their enemies. Women and young boys are everywhere doing men’s work, while countless girls have become “little housewives” of the nation.

Even in the humblest peasant folk the war has thrown into striking relief qualities of nobility and endurance which make New Zealanders proud to stand beside them in the common cause.