CHRISTMAS DINNER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 December 1943, Page 3

CHRISTMAS DINNER

ENJOYED BY OUR TROOPS IN ITALY IN SPITE OF WINTER WEATHER & MUD. GENERAL FREYBERG TOASTS , HIS MEN. (Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) N.Z. HEADQUARTERS, Dec. 26. There were no mess rooms or tents for those New Zealand'units in forward areas fortunate enough to be able to celebrate Christmas, but they made the best of things, and dinners were good. I watched one unit's celebration which was typical of them all. The cookhouse was in a field churned up to about nine inches of mud. The men assembled in a long line to file past the large cooking containers from which their officers dished out pork, a variety of vegetables, and Christmas pudding. With filled mess tins in each hand the men next passed collection boxes, where apples and a handful of peanuts were thrust into their pockets and two bottles of beer tucked into their battledress jackets. Walking warily over the slippery ground they went off to the handiest spot where they could start their meal. Most of them ate standing up, because there was just nowhere to sit.

General Freyberg visited this unit during the meal. He was wearing gumboots —the most useful footwear in this country. Addressing the men General Freyberg said he wished to thank them with the greatest sincerity for their work. For some of them it was their fifth Christmas away from their families and for the majority three or four.. “And I hope this will be the last Christmas we spend away from our country,” said the general. He said he was glad to see that a grateful country had seen fit to give them a decoration (many men were wearing the newly-awarded Africa Star ribbon). “We have the finest military organisation of this war or of any other war,” he said. “There is no job the New Zealanders are given that they do not carry out without fuss and with the greatest efficiency.” With a small •glass of beer General Freyberg drank the men’s health, and there was a response of hearty cheers. “Some Christmas, isn’t it?” a soldier yelled to me as he passed. I can remember the same man marching in to the Sidi Rezegh battle a couple of years ago. He is a sergeant now, and I walked beside him for some distance. He talked cheerfully of his platoon, many of them new campaigners. “They’re good chaps,” he remarked. Yesterday, a three-ton truck stopped by many units to play Christmas carols. UNITED KINGDOM COMRADES. The New Zealanders have attached to them several British units, who shared our Christmas fare and patriotic parcels. The commander of one of these units wrote to the New Zealand officer in charge of arrangements thanking the New Zealanders for their hospitality. “We were very recent and untried arrivals at the beginning of December, but that didn't prevent you from giving us exactly the same comfort and privileges as your own troops,” he wrote. “We've been given the full benefit of your excellent Christmas arrangements. For practically everyone in-this detachment it is the third Christmas overseas, and you have-our gratitude. We couldn t wish to spend Christmas in any better company. We are very proud to be with the New Zealanders, and only hope that we will remain with you till the cease fire’ sounds.”