ISLAND LANDING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 September 1943, Page 4

ISLAND LANDING

HIGH STANDARD SET BY NEW ZEALANDERS MEN & EQUIPMENT ASHORE IN RECORD TIME. CONGRATULATIONS FROM ALLIED COMMANDER (Bv Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. The following message has been received from an official war correspondent with the N.Z.E.F.. Guadalcanal. “I have just noted with great pleasure the splendid performance of elements of the New Zealand Division during their recent disembarkation. This excellent effort augurs .well for the success of future operations and reflects the high state of morale, discipline and training attained by all ranks in the units concerned. Please accept this expression of my appreciation and convey my personal congratulations to all elements of the command.”—This message from an Allied commanding general in the South Pacific area was received by the G.O.C. Third (New Zealand) Division, MajorGeneral H. E. Barrowclough, soon after the arrival of the New Zealand troops in a forward Pacific area. A frank testimony to the efficiency of the New Zealanders in their first landing in a combat area, this expression of a high officer’s opinion was shared by all the Allied officers and men who witnessed the landing operations. One officer who had served with the United States Marine Corps in the original Solomons landings a year ago and who had been with the Dominion troops since their departure from New Caledonia, found his estimate of the unloading time undercut by forty per cent. The New Zealanders shifted themselves, their gear, rations, vehicles, guns and ammunition from ship to shore ten per cent faster than any troops who had previously landed in that area, and though they sweltered their way across the sand in uncomfortable heat, their keenness for the job emptied the landing craft as fast as they could tumble their ramps on to the shore. Ship officers on the transports, which turned round in the shortest time on record, signalled to the Allied Command appreciation of the New Zealanders’ performance and the Allied Command added its congratulations to the New Zealanders' G.O.C. A copy of that message is now in possession of the officers commanding the units concerned.