BATTLE HONOURS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 755, 8 January 1954, Page 12

BATTLE HONOURS

24. BATTALION, by R. M. Burdon; Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War, 1939-45; War History Branch, Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington. HIS must surely have been one of the most battered and embattled units of a Division not generally regarded in its day as being very pacifically inclined. R. M. Burdon is to be congratulated on an excellent piece of craftsmanship. He has plainly had ample material, both official and semi-official, from which to choose, has appreciated the peculiar virtues of the best of it and shaped his

narrative accordingly. Realising that parallel, if not identical, routes have already been covered in earlier unit war histories, Mr. Burdon is admirably succinct in those parts of the narrative in which the mass experience of 24 Battalion was basically that of the bulk of the troops engaged, but (without diffusion) enlarges upon those actions in which the Battalion played a part peculiarly its own. The action at Sidi Rezegh, in which the Battalion was most bitterly and consistently engaged, is given almost as much space as is the campaign in Greece. The fighting in the El Mreir depression in July, 1942, for 24 Battalion almost as great a tragedy as Sidi Rezegh and for much the same reason-lack of armoured support-is most clearly and tellingly recounted. Mr. Burdon has a very apt turn of phrase which frequently illumines an intrinsically excellent nartative: "Notable among the officers killed was Lieutenant-Colonel Greville . . +. @ member of that select minority for whom personal danger is a stimulant, battle an opportunity, and war itself a not wholly indesirable state. But many others, far less distinguished, died as bravely that night; not only adventurous spirits revelling in strife, but men, peaceably inclined, for whom war was a necessary evil." The Battalion shared in every campaign of the 2nd N.Z.E.F. except Crete. Few units can have suffered more heavily in casualties-523 on Sidi Rezegh, 280 at El Mreir, 143 at the Tebaga Gap, 188 on the Sangro River and at Orsogna, 141 at Cassino, 98 in the fighting south

of Florence, and 188 between Rimini and the Serio. These are shattering figures, The rather splendid picture appears, however, of an infantry battalion well and at times outstandingly led, capably officered and of so high a morale that, confident of its own efficiency and of the outcome of the struggle, it could afford to regard disaster as a battle

honour.

L.S.

H.