HEROES OF TOBRUK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 March 1943, Page 4

HEROES OF TOBRUK

TRANSFER TO PACIFIC THEATRE SORRY TO LEAVE MIDDLE EAST. COMRADELY REFERENCES TO NEW ZEALANDERS. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.15 p.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. “We did not like leaving our job overseas (before it was finished. We would rather have come back after the war. One aspect we all feel particularly keenly is that the New Zealanders are still Jin action over there. The Kiwis have done a magnificent job right through.”—This statement by a member of the Ninth Australian Division, the last of the A.I.F. to fight in the Middle East, typifies the general attitude of the returned men. Some insisted that the Ninth Division’s part in the break through at El Alamein had been “a bit over-pub-licised” and that other divisions, such as the New Zealanders, South Africans and Highlanders, had not received a just share of the credit. With the New Zealanders, as the most experienced troops in the Middle East theatre, they ranked the Indian division which has fought in almost every campaign there. “This is a vastly different sort of war from that in which the First A.I.F. fought, and this is a vastly different homecoming,” says the “Sydney Morning Herald” editorially today. "It is not so much a homecoming as a transfer to an active and vital theatre of operations in Australian waters and on Australian soil. The men of the Ninth Division, having reorientated themselves here, will soon come to understand, if they do not understand already, why it is possible for the New Zealand Division to remain with the Eighth Army when the Australians .had to return. New Zealand is by circurpstances not committed to extensive land operations in this region as is the case with Australia.” The “Herald” adds that the Ninth Division will not be lightly missed from the magnificent Eighth Army and says the Australians left the Middle East with feelings predominantly of regret. While no explanation, however sound, could console' them for having been “pulled out” of the battle just when they had helped to win a signal victory, nevertheless there were compelling reasons for their transfer to the Pacific theatre of war. The “Sydney Telegraph” says editorially: "Mr Churchill’s blunt announcement that no substantial help would be sent to the South-West Pacific until after Hitler had been defeated explains why the Ninth Division has come home.”