MACHINE-GUNNERS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 250, 4 August 1941, Page 3

MACHINE-GUNNERS

NEW ZEALANDERS IN GREECE. commander praises work. (N.Z.E.F. Official News Service.) CAIRO, August 2. Few jobs in land warfare demand more nerve and stamina than machinegunners. New Zealand gunners in the Balkan battles demonstrated these qualities so outstandingly that MajorGeneral B. C. Frevberg, V.C., visiting them yesterday, found cause to express unstinted admiration for the way they had proved themselves. The commander, who reviewed the unit at a ceremonial parade, recalled that he had watched the progress of the machine-gunners with particular interest, from mobilisation, through early training, and the building up of desert worthiness, to the first action. He was impressed by the state of physical fitness in which they took battle stations, and highly praised the way they carried the guns and other heavy equipment out across country inaccessible to motor vehicles.

Telling new members that they had a great reputation to live up to, General Greyberg urged the unit to maintain their standard of fitness. Because they wore divided in action into groups and operating in support of formations of infantry, machine-gunners did not often attract individual attention. The deadly fire of our Vickers guns on the northern border of * Greece was, however, one of the first tastes the German invaders had of British opposition, and the New Zealand machine-gunners left their mark on several other battlefields. Those who served later in Crete worked under extremely difficult conditions, sometimes having to use sand-bags and tree trunks instead of tripods to support' their guns. These men are as tough as any New Zealand troops. Training is particularly rigorous, and has included long desert marches in which the ' lightest load carried by any man, apart from regular equipment, is 500 rounds of ammunition. Some are burdened with guns, others with tripods, and others with four-gallon tins of cooling water. One- of the finest traits of all tho Now Zealand fighting men during the Balkans withdrawal marches was the instinctive way they clung to their weapons. The severe training of the ma-chine-gunners proved its value in the preservation of their heavier than average equipment.