MEN OF FAMOUS BATTALION

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 66, Issue 191, 27 May 1946, Page 4

MEN OF FAMOUS BATTALION

IMPRESSIVE PARADE IN CHRISTCHURCH GENERAL KIPPENBERGER TAKES SALUTE (P.A.) CHRISTCHURCH, May 26. Men of the 20th Battalion and Armoured Regiment marched again, possibly for the last time, on Saturday, during a parade in f the city. The original commanding officer, Major-General H. K. Kippenberger, C. 8., C.8.E., D.S.O. and Bar, E.D., took the salute. Almost <BOO men, gathered from all parts of New Zealand for this reunion, took part in the parade, which assembled at Latimer Square. Brigadier J. T. Burrows was in command of the parade and he handed it over to Major-General Kippenberger, who gave the order to move off, to musicprovided by the band of the Ist Canterbury Regiment and the Woolston Band. The parade marched along Hereford Street, down Manchester Street to Cashel Street, where MajorGeneral Kippenberger took the salute from a raised dais outside the Union Jack Club. All along .the route the crowds watched and cheered the marching men. - The parade continued into Colombo' Street and so to the Square, where a hollow square was formed around the Cenotaph. Major F. Davis, the original adjutant of the fattalion, handed the general a wreath, which he placed at the base of the Cenotaph in memory of the men of the unit who gave their lives in the war.

After attending a service in the Cathedral and in the Roman Catholic Cathedral, the men re-formed their ranks and marched to the Union Jack Club. They were present at the official closing of the club and also listened to the Mayor (Mr E. H. Andrews), who expressed the thanks of the citizens of Christchurch to their old unit.