OUT OF LINE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 82, 7 April 1945, Page 6

OUT OF LINE

SECOND DIVISION

WELL EARNED REST Official War Correspondent DIVISIONAL HEADQUARTERS, March 2-5. After three months in the line under severe winter conditions, the New Zealand Division has been withdrawn to an area well removed from the battlefront for rest and training.

It was at the end of November that the Division, after a month's rest, took up its position along the Lamone River before Faenza in a countryside of flat fields and vineyards, waterlogged by heavy and incessant rain. A fortnight later, j when conditions improved somewhat, two successive brigade attacks were put in under heavy artillery barrages. The first, which exploited a bridgehead established across the Almone by an English division, outflanked Faenza and forced the Germans to evacuate the town. The second sustained the momentum oi the drive and threw back the enemy to the line of the Senio River, the next water barrier on the road to Bologna. Nearly 500 prisoners resulted from these two operations. A winter line was established along the Senio, ana the New Zealanders settled down to two months' extremely monotonous type of warfare, enlivened only by patrol clashes and occasional small engagements, with the high stopbank of the . river as their main objective. Especially for infantrymen it was a wearisome period, witn successive spells in and out of the line so that when the time came for the division to be relieved they were more than ready for the relaxation they are now enjoying.

The countryside where the troops are at present located is a pleasant district in the foothills of the Appenines, and the perfect weather which has prevailed has provided ideal conditions for the strenuous training programme that has been undertaken in preparation for future operations. Opportunity has also been taken during the present break to hold ceremonial parades, at which honours and awards won by officers and men of the division have been presented by Lieutenant-General Sir Bernard Freyberg. At one such parade yesterday the awards included two won in fighting in the Pacific, as the recipients have since joined the Second Division.