NEW ZEALAND DIVISION

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24632, 31 July 1945, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND DIVISION

* Departure From Europe ANNOUNCEMENT BY COMMANDER (Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) TRIESTE, July 29. “We are now moving from the • European theatre, and although we feel the break of leaving old friends, we know we are leaving the Bth Army after a triumphal ending,” said Lieutenant-General Sir Bernard Freyberg, commander of the New Zealand Division. General Freyberg was speaking at a function at Divisional Headquarters in honour of LieutenantGeneral Sir Richard McCreery, commander of the Bth Army, which has now been disbanded.' “I consider your achievements are without parallel in this war,” said General McCreery, when reviewing thehistory of the New Zealand Division at the function. Senior officers of the corps and army were present, as well as officers of the division, and the function was a farewell to the Bth Army. “I feel that after five and a half years’ association with the armies of the Middle East, everyone in the division would wish me to express our thanks to those who have been so fenerous and kind to us,” said. General 'reyberg. in proposing the toast of General McCreery. "We are now moving from the European theatre, and although we feel the break of leaving qld friends, we know we are leaving the Bth Army after a triumphal ending.” “More Than a Division" “We fully appreciate the fact—and I speak for the whole Bth Army—that your force is much more than a division,” General McCreery said in reply. “It is an expeditionary force, Snd in operations during the last few years it has often been called the New Zealand corps. We also appreciate that your forces played a much longer part than the Bth Army itself. We are always Inclined to think of recent events, and to forget how in the first, two years of the war such a great amount was done when Britain was fighting along on such slender resources. Some of the historic campaigns you took part In, such Greece, had a tremendous effect, and without the assistance you gave the Greeks Russia might well have gone under in the summer of 1941, and we might have had another Napoleonic war, lasting 20 years;’’ Fighting Spirit. “You have played a unique part against the German army,” General McCreery added, “and I consider your achievements without parallel in this war. They have been of tremendous importance. You have been the spearhead of many of the big operations the Bth Army carried out. Your unique part is due to certain qualities your division always had. You have got that fighting spirit which is the basic thing a soldier must have in war. You have got endurance, and you will die, if necessary, for your country. You have always shown great initiative and a high standard of individual enterprise and skill." Credit for much of the division’s success must go to the gunners, sappers and supply columns, General McCreery added, as all these had a high level of efficiency, and the will to get things done, All this had enabled the division to develop a high standard of battle drill in every phase of operations. In the latest offensive in Italy New Zealand sappers had always got the troops across most difficult obstacles before anyone else could have done so. “You go away with a great record," General McCreery concluded. “The Bth Army wishes you every success in future, whatever your fate may be. This is the appropriate time for me to say good-bye, because this is the end of the Bth Army. Shortly the Bth Army will officially disappear, and we become headquarters of British troops in Austria. This end of the Bth Army is the result of victory. I wish the New Zealand Expeditionary Force the very best of good luck ana success in the future,” DESTINATION NOT STATED NO INFORMATION AVAILABLE IN WELLINGTON (From Our Parliamentary Reporter.) , WELLINGTON, July 30. No information about General Freyberg’s statement that the New Zealand Division is leaving Europe was available in Wellington to-day, and none is likely to be available until New Zealand's war effort is discussed in the House of Representatives on Thursday. It has been noted in the lobbies that General Freyberg did not say where the division was going from Italy. There is a clear distinction between Europe and the Middle East, so that his statement does no more than confirm information given in letters from soldiers that they expected to leave Trieste shortly.