DESERT CHRISTMAS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 December 1942, Page 3

DESERT CHRISTMAS

NEW ZEALAND TROOPS CELEBRATE BIG TRANSPORT TASK ENTAILED GENERAL FREYBERG VISITS FORWARD UNITS. TALKS WITH SICK & WOUNDED. (Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) TRIPOLITANIA, December 25. Along the sandy ridges of the Gulf of Sirte, New Zealand troops, who are still among the foremost- in the Eighty Army’s advance toward Tripoli, celebrated today their third Christmas m the Middle East. New Zealand por>£, Canadian beer, vegetables and cigarettes were carried 1200 miles from the Nile Delta for Christmas dinner, which General Freyberg described as "most memorable.” “I think we can say our advance is going well/i he said. “Our high spirits this Christmas must be in direct contrast to those of the Axis. The Fuehrer and Mussolini must have very wistful thoughts about their African adventure. As our pincer closes, they must be wondering from which port they can evacuate their force.” Of the 'New Zealanders’ recent outflanking movement, the general said he thought it a most important action which would be written in every his--lory of the desert campaigns. At all the many troops’ celebrations the general attended during the day, he spoke of the tremendous effort that had been made to make Christmas enjoyable for the men in the forward areas. Every one ton -of food that had come from the delta had taken two tons of petrol, he said. . With Colonel Ardagh, Christchurch, AD M.S., General Freyberg visited wounded and sick New Zealanders in the tents of the main dressing station. To each patient he gave his personal greetings. The highlight of his visit was a conversation with a soldier whose leg was in plaster. "Was it a mine?” General Freyberg asked. "No, sir,” came the reply, ‘football.’ Several of the wounded with whrm the general spoke were sappers injured while clearing treacherous minefields and booby traps left by the German rearguard. . . Though dinner was cooked in improvised field ovens of mud and petrol tins and the men just sat about in groups on sandhills to eat it, the old army custom of the officers serving the meal was observed at every cookh°AlLthe way along the thousand miles we have come from the El Alamein line the question has been, “Where will’ we be for Christmas?” A few days ago we halted near the coast', and while forward patrols remained active every possible effort has been directed toward making today the troops’ day of the year. A special convoy of trucks drove to El Agheila to connect with transport bringing from Benghazi hundreds of bags of Christmas parcels and mail from New Zealand. Thousands of loaves of bread were delivered from a New Zealand field bakery—a new section of the Army Service Corps and the most forward organisation of its kind in the desei’t. With his greetings to every section of our .fighting force, General Freyberg congratulated the troops on their effort in this campaign. Fighting had been hard, he said, and there was still harder fighting ahead of them. If victory did not come in 1943, we would at least be well in the right direction.