Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, JUNE 3, 1943. AN UNFALTERING DIVISION.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 June 1943, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, JUNE 3, 1943. AN UNFALTERING DIVISION.

“THE division has never faltered or failed in any of the difficult and hazardous missions it has been set, and no one realises as I do how much it has achieved. No commander lias been better served.” —tn these sentences of his report presented at the conclusion of the North African campaign Lieu-tenant-General Sir Bernard. Freyberg has summed up the admiration he feels “for the magnificent qualities and the great work done by all ranks” under his command.

Apart from these evidently sincere words of admiration and praise, General Freyberg’s report is in the main simply a report—a plain, matter of fact and unadorned account of the part played by the New Zealand Division in the final stages of the Tunisian campaign which ended in “a disaster ioi the enemy comparable to Stalingrad.” In the rugged simplicity with which it tells the story of the deeds, in a momentous campaign, ol: “a fast-moving, hard-hitting force,” this report is entitled to the cherished place it will take in the annals of the Dominion.

It is a story in keeping with all that has gone before in the achievement of the New Zealand Division, not only in offensive and defensive battles in the Western Desert, as a pait of the Eighth Army which has won so valiantly the admiration and respect of friend and foe, but in earlier and grimmer battles in Greece and Crete. There, too, the division gave proof of its quality, in days when it fought, side by side with British and Australian comrades, without hope of immediate victory and for the sake only of gaining precious time, and while doing that of inflicting all possible harm on the enemy. It is good to know that some at least of those who fought in forlorn hope battles and on stricken fields in Greece and Crete in 1941 have lived to share in the glory of winning decisive victory in North Africa.

Some suggestions have been made at times that the achievements of the New Zealand Division and those of New Zealanders serving in other branches of the fighting forces have been overglorified by their countrymen. It is doubtful if any evidence worth noticing could be advanced in support of these suggestions. Every reasonably intelligent New Zealander is well able to apply a sense of proportion to the war effort of the countries of the Empire and that of Allied nations.

To set clue emphasis on the renown that has been won so well and .worthily by the members of our own fighting forces on land and sea and in the air implies no exaggeration whatever of the relative contribution they are making to the war effort of the United Nations and most certainly implies no belittlemenf of the mighty efforts made at tragic cost by other and far more powerful partners in the war against the Axis.

The gratitude we owe to other Empire and Allied forces, and to the merchant .seamen who face day by day constant and deadly hazards, must not be allowed, however, to obscure the. well-established fact that the New Zealand Division and other fighting forces of the Dominion have proved themselves second to none and have played and are playing the part thus made possible in a war on which the fate of civilisation depends.

Appreciation of these truths should tend least of all to inspire vainglory. What it should do is to awaken throughout the population of this country a determination to handle its affairs and build its future in a manner worthy of the standards set by our fighting men.