Divisional Supply Company reunion at Timaru

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34123, 8 April 1976, Page 23

Divisional Supply Company reunion at Timaru

By

DOUGLAS HODGE

The Division! Supply Company went overseas with the First Echelon of the 2nd N.Z.E.F. The unit—irreverently referred to by the rank and file as the “Jam jugglers"—will hold its national reunion at Timaru on May 8 and 9. About 300 former members of the company will | assemble at the Caroline Bax Hall for their “get-to-gether" on May 8. Com-, memorative services will! take place the next day. | 3 he history of the Supply ! Company is chiefly a story of devotion and of behind-! the-scenes work that was an indispensable part of every! operation of the New Zealand Division. There were, however, mo-! ments of glory, and of, heroism. The Supply Company: served in the campaign in! Greece fought with gallantryin its unaccustomed role as! infantry on Crete, partici-, pated in the 1941 winter campaign in Libya, and in! the great campaigns waged in the Western Desert until Supply Column dotted the

lines of communication to the battlefront. In a post-World War II eulogy. Lieutenant-General Lord Freyberg said: “Withj out their resourcefulness and 15'...11, the New Zealand Division could not have at-, tempted, let alone carried! .out, the long marches such as the turning movements at Agheila and the Mareth Line”. The Supply Company originated , at Burnham in October. 1939. It embarked at Lyttelton on January 5, ,1940, in the Polish ship So-, jbieski. The next morning, the Sobieski and Dunera joined the other transports outside Wellington. It was a memorable occasion. In 1940, after Italy had declared war, the Supply i Column shuttled battalions Ito and from the Western , Desert, and transported supplies, petrol, and ammunition. I It was a strange new ! world, a universe of oases land escarpments, of tracks, marked by empty petrol drums, of petrol and food dumps in the unlikeliest places, “Charing Cross’’ and ! “Knightsbridge of insignificant map references

i such as Siwa. Sofafi,: Nbeiwa, and Sidi Barrani — names destined to explode in the violence of desert war. In December, 1940, Egypt was clear of the enemy. Never, at any time, had , there been a shortage of ' supplies in General Wavell’s forces, and the “Colonial Carrying Company". by which the three New Zealand Army Service Corps units — the Supply Column and the Petrol and Ammunition Companies were known — earned for itself a reputation for reliability, willingness, and efficiency. At the end of the Libyan campaign early in 1941, Field-Marshal Lord Wavell's 31,000 men had pushed back about 180.000 Italians and had taken 133.289 prisoners. The Second Echelon details of the Supply Company went to Britain, while Third Echelon members landed in the Middle East. The unit, well below establishment after Greece and Crete, was soon back in the Western Desert, settled into a troglodyte existence in the Buggush Box. In November, 1941, 100,000 enemy’ troops with! 357 tanks were poised across the border. The \

Eighth Army was 118.000 strong, and had more than 800 tanks. Lieutenant-General Sir Alan Cunningham's first aim was to destroy the German tank force. The Supply Column resumed its endless task of weaving a web of supplies across the desert in a vast expanding and contracting movement. For the column and for the whole administration group, tank battles were fought over much of the ground they occupied. Only after the siege of Tobruk was broken and the enemy in retreat did the Supply’ Column leave Tobruk: and when it came, out of Libya in December, it was a veteran unit.

It was not until May 26, 1942. that Rommel began his I eastward drive. His plan was| to . seize Tobruk in three days and push straight through to the Egyptian frontier. His timing’ plan! broke down, but he achieved' his purpose. The Supply Company was] recalled to the desert in June, travelling down the bitumen military- road that' traced a winding course! through Syria. Palestine, and; the Sinai Desert, skirting the’ Sea of Galilee, dragging its i way out of the Valley 7 of! Gahlee through the Jordan Valley and beyond Cairo along the Alexandria Road “into the blue” — to Mersa Matruh.

It was not to laager un-. molested near Smuggler's: Cove, or to bathe in the lim-l pid water of Cleopatra’s Pool, but to run the guantlet of Panzer units, elite motor-: ised infantry and 88mm.. guns.

the stage was set for the Battle of Alamein. Until then, it was hit and run in self-supporting, "Jock” columns, lightning raids against the Ariete Division, the Ninetieth Light: Motorised Infantry and Panzer divisions — culminating in the breakthrough' that still sears the memory, the magnificent feat of arms at Minqaar Qaim.

i ue ;\ew z.eaiana Division, bloodied but proud, returned to Maadi in mid-1943. the bitter campaign against the enemy 7 forces in Tunisia completed. Then came the Italian campaign. Time, especially for the enemy , was running out. Its achievements behind them, the Supply Column men sailed east down the Mediterranean in late 1945. It had learned its lessons well — lessons in improvisation, adaptability, and initiative — but above all. the lessons of efficiency and devotion to duty. The year 1946 began thus: January 1: Very quiet with no transport details. January 2: Advice received from HQ 2nd N.Z.E.F. that Company would disband with effect from January 1, 1946. Preparation for "disposal of vehicles and equipment, closing of canteen and regimental funds. On January 18, the war diary signed off with the entry: Unit ceases to function as a unit of the 2nd N.Z.E.F. Sir Winston Churchill, addressing the Eighth Army 7 after its victorious advance, said: “You have nightly pitched your moving tents a day’s march nearer home”. tn like manner, the Supply Column fulfilled its herculean task, whether in the mountains and olive groves of Greece and Crete, in Syria and the Lebanon, in Egypt and on the Suez Canal, in the featureless Western Desert, and in Italy. Theirs is the glory . . .