Freyberg Critical Of Army Changes

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28346, 3 August 1957, Page 13

Freyberg Critical Of Army Changes

(Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, August 1. _ Lord Freyberg recalling his command of the New Zealand Division at the battle of El Alamein criticised the tactical value of brigade groups as envisaged under the reorganisation plans for the British Army when the Army Estimates were debated in the House of Lords.

“Much has been said about the reorganisation, but very little about the effect the changes will have on Army tactics.” Lord Freyberg said. “I am interested and glad this reorganisation has received such a good response and I am only doubtful on one count —the tactical value of the brigade group.

“We won our wars certainly against the Germans by pinning the enemy on the ground and then breaking their resistance by massed artillery fire,” he said. “A brigade group can neither pin. nor has it the artillery necessary to break the enemy resistance.

“I speak with a certain amount of experience of the brigade group. For two years, 1941 to 1942, in the Western Desert, vou heard of nothing but columns and brigade groups and disaster after disaster followed. We had defeats. We lost Tobruk, we lost Mersa Matruh, we lost thousands of unwounded prisoners—and a great many generals lost their jobs.

“On, October 3 there was a complete change of command in the Western Desert I went to see

the Army commander (and he, in his book, says I looked very unhappy) to find out from him whether he intended to fight battles as brigade groups or as divisions. He gave me an assurance that he was going to fight as a division and furthermore that he was going to adopt Rommel’s plan of a permanent corps. “That was 20 days before the battle of Alamein. On October 3 (and the document is in the collection of documents of the New Zealand Government) I cabled the New Zealand Prime Minister (Mr Peter Fraser) and said that the benefit we had got from the changeover of command was that thev now insisted that divisions must fight as divisions and not as brigade groups. They had gone even further: they were fighting as a perm ament Army corns and I ended by* saying that the result of this simple decision would be evident in all our future battles.

“On November 3, 10 days after the start of Alamein, I wired the New Zealand Government and said that I had been in the front line and how well we were doing.” Lord Freyoerg said.

“I said the enemy had now been broken through our massed artillery fire in the last 10 days I then said: ‘I know that it is rash fny anybody to make a forecast in |he Western Desert, which has produced so many difficulties and disappointments,. but for what it is worth, here is my opinion: the Germans ar* broken. Tht? w’ll go back to the frontier and in certain circumstances we theU C?t

them right out of Africa.’ ” Lord Freyberg said that telegram was an official document with New Zealand records.

“I agree with the general terms of the defence White Paper," he added. “I am only doubtful about the value of the brigade group I wonder how it will be received in places like New Zealand and Australia, whose forces fought in the Western Desert and not in North-west Europe.”

Lord Bridgeman, in the same debate, said the defence White Paper did not give a broader picture to show how the defence commitments of the Commonwealth and Empire were beint? met by the military forces at the disposal of the Commonwealth and Empire. Nor did it give a complete picture of Commonwealth and colonial manpower It did not follow that because the establishment of British troops had been cut that Britain’s commitments were necessarily less. “We mav be able to offset the cuts in British trnons by recruiting more col*'- ial troops in Africa or relying m eon the new Federation of M laya to look after its own de*snce or for all I know we may have been able at the recent Commonwealth conference to reach agreement among the Commonwealth Prime Ministers in such a wav that certain tasks will be reallotted as between the military forces of the Commonwealth.”

Marilyn Monroe in Hospital.— Marilyn Monroe entered a New York hospital yesterday “to fight off a threatened miscarriage,” her press representative reported. This was-, the first announcement that the actress, wife 6f the playwright Arthur Miller, was expecting a child —-New York, August 1.