DESERT NEW YEAR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 January 1942, Page 2

DESERT NEW YEAR

GAY NEW ZEALAND CELEBRATION IN SPITE OF DUST STORM. TOAST TO YEAR OF VICTORY & HOME. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (N.Z.E.F. Official News Service.) I CAIRO, January 6. Flares and Verey lights shot up from the New Zealand camp to welcome the New Year. Reunited for the first celebration since Libya, officers and men of the division joined in the messes in dugouts to farewell an unforgettable year of three campaigns. Everywhere there was an air of festivity, and the toast was “A New Year of Victory and Home.” German flares intended to light the Libyan battlefields showered across the sky, making a fireworks display for the New Zealanders. From early in the night till the small hours of the New Year the sky was bright with multi-coloured Hashes. Italian grenades, designed to frighten our troops, but noted for their harmless effect, were tossed about like crackers.

The fiercest dust storm for many weeks marred the day of celebrations arranged for the men, whose Christmas dinner had consisted of bullybeef and biscuits. Eels and muttonbirds were cooked in the Maori Battalion hongi, and a special meal for the pakeha troops was eaten in the shelter of dugouts. The gale kept most of the others beneath cover for the day. The day on which his knighthood was conferred on General Freyberg seldom saw him outside his wooden shed at desert headquarters. While most of the division enjoyed a holiday, the G.O.C. and his staff worked at their desks. General Freyberg found time for relaxation in the evening, however, and entertained the senior officers and nurses of the division.