FOUGHT BESIDE N.Z. DIVISION

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23948, 15 May 1943, Page 6

FOUGHT BESIDE N.Z. DIVISION

FRENCH FORCES UNDER GENERAL FREYBERG (Official War Correspondent N.Z.E.F.) CAIRO, May 10. For a few weeks last March, Fighting French forces, under the orders of General Leclerc, operating in the desert, came under the command of Lieutenant-General Freyberg and fought hand in hand with the New Zealanders. The story of the Fighting French contact with the New Zealanders is told in a broadcast by Lieutenant Benard, a member of General Leclerc’s forces. Tire first meeting with the New Zealanders was in the winter of 1940-41, when a few Frenchmen with practically no arms or equipment, but fired by General de Gaulle’s rallying call, struck out across 500 miles of previously unknown desert to attack the strong Italian oasis outpost of Koufra. This force on the way met a New Zealand soldier for the first time. He was a member of the Long-range Desert Group. His unit had been attacked by Italian land and air forces and his truck was destroyed. With one comrade he set out on a 300-miles trek. There was only one well on the way. but when they reached it they found it filled with sand. One New Zealander died of thirst and the other was found unconscious by a French patrol. This meeting in dramatic circumstances was not easily forgotten. Lieutenant Benard told the story of the gradual strengthening of the French forces in the Chad territory and said that raids had been carried out on Mourzouk and other oases. General Leclcrc’s /orce moved northward for the third and last time last December, conquered the whole of the southern territories, and met the Bth Army 60 miles south of Tripoli. The brigade came under the command of General Freyberg and was linked with other French troops. During the fortnight after the start of the turning movement towards El Hamma, the French acted as a screen west of Matmata for the New Zealanders, fighting a fierce battle with a German armoured column. “We French feel that we have made one step nearer the liberation of France.” commented Lieutenant Benard. "To our ffiends of all nations bound in the common struggle against the Axis, to New Zealanders at homo, and to Frenchmen in New Zealand and the adjoining countries, I bring greetings from General Leclerc’s soldiers, who have never been beaten by the Boche, and never will be.”