WAR COMRADESHIP

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 May 1941, Page 6

WAR COMRADESHIP

< CRUISER AJAX AND NEW ZEALANDERS RENEWED IN MIDDLE EAST. RETURN OF THE AUCKLAND > BATTALION. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.25 a.m.) (N.Z.E.F. Official News Service.) CAIRO, May 10. At the Battle of the River Plate, the Ajax and Achilles established a bond of friendship born in adversity, with ultimate success. The Ajax had an opportunity to renew acquaintance with j New Zealanders when it was found that she had the pleasant task of taking ( the officers and men of the Auckland Battalion to Greece. The Navy soon made the New Zealanders embarked on a great adventure comfortable, drinking toasts and telling stories. The battalion lived up to its reputation of making friends quickly and willingly and readily the Navy, down to the ship's cat, Horsey, responded. After a short and memorable trip, the cargo of wonderful fighting material was delivered. The Ajax reported back for new instructions and, about a month later, was waiting off a lonely beach in Southern Greece, on a dark, calm night, which was by no means quiet for thunder and lightning in the hills beyond the horizon were the noises and flashes of battle. Our Army, outnumbered by more than ten to one on the land and subjected to unchecked and constant attack from the air, was falling back preparatory to embarking, after carrying out the biggest and most successful raid ' on the Germans we have yet attempted. The Ajax had already heard that they were to take off their old friends of the Auckland Battalion. Officers and men were anxiously peering into the gloom, trying to see if there were anyone on the beach. Arrangements were complete for embarking the men who had become heroes. At last they appeared—the battalion forming the last organised rearguard. The Germans had received such a hiding that they left the New Zealanders alone. The Auckland Battalion went aboard hungry and tired. They had only the clothes they stood in, because they had discarded their personal equipment in order to save their weapons. This principle was followed rigidly. The Battalion clerk came aboard with a duplicating machine donated to the battalion by the Patriotic Funds strapped on his back. Food, clothing and warm drinks soon made them comfortable and old friends gathered to talk over new stories, with Horsey the cat comfortably purring on a captured Nazi flag. Thus was enacted another among several episodes bearing out the complete harmony and un- i derstandjng between all branches of the British Imperial forces in the Middle East.