BATTLE HONOURS FOR 2nd N.Z.E.F.

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28080, 22 September 1956, Page 13

BATTLE HONOURS FOR 2nd N.Z.E.F.

CLAIMS COMMITTEE NAMED

AFFILIATION WITH UNITS OF TERRITORIAL FORCE (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, September 20. Second World War battle honours claims among regiments of the Royal New Zealand Armoured Corps and the Royal New Zealand Infantry will be adjudicated on by a battle honours committee, said the Minister of Defence (Mr T. L. Macdonald) today. Preparatory work had been going on for many months by a Commonwealth committee in London and the New Zealand war history branch, and Army Headquarters had now drawn up a table of inheritance. Schedules of battles and engagements in which New Zealand units took part in the Second World War had also been prepared.

It had been necessary to establish a relationship between those 2nd N.Z.E.F. units which earned the battle honours and the inheritor territorial units of today, said the Minister. Regimental committees would decide which actions may justifiably be claimed by the unit and which honours of special importance, with a limit of 10. they wished to have emblazoned on guidons and colours in the traditional way. Claims were to be completed by February 15, 1957. The battle honours committee would consider regimental recommendations and the Government would submit final recommendations for Royal approval. There was no question of a

unit being entitled to an honour because it was present at a battle. It must have taken an active and creditable part in that battle. The committee comprises—the Adju-tant-General (Brigadier L. W. Thornton), Major-General Sir Howard Kippenberger (representing the New Zealand Returned Services’ Association and 2nd New Zealand Division). Colonel J. I. Brooke (3rd New Zealand Division), Brigadier M. C. Fairbrother (War History Branch), the Director of Infantry (LieutenantColonel W. R. K. Morrison), and the Director of the R.N.Z.A.C. (Major H. K. Chapman).