Peacetime reunion for former enemies

Press, 17 July 1980, Page 4

Peacetime reunion for former enemies

Members of one of New Zealand’s most famous battalions, the 23rd, have just returned from a world tour that included meeting an old enemy, the Afrika Korps. The tour was organised by two Christchurch men, Messrs D. Leckie and E. R. Baird, and lasted two months. The 100 members of the tour spent most of their time in Europe and visited old battlefields, including Crete and El Alamein. The 23rd Battalion was a South Island one but the tourists came from throughout New Zealand. While the group was in Germany it was treated to a civic reception by the Burgermeister in Munich. The group , also met members of the Afrika Korps and the Germqji Paratroopers’ associations, counterparts of the Returned Services’ Association. < • i Mr Leckie said he talked to the Germans about the

battles where they had opposed the 23rd Battalion. The Germans overwhelm-, ed the New Zealanders with their genuine hospitality and friendship. Mr Leckie said the language barrier posed some diffi- , culty in talking with the 1 Germans but members of the ’ soldiers’ families were “most ■ eloquent” and helped out. I While the tour party was ; in Rome they were granted seats of honour at a public 1 audience with the Pope. 1 After the audience, the Pope - talked to the Roman Catholic members of the party and 1 thanked them for what New 1 Zealand had done during the ; war. -■ ••,. ;;■■■ ; The tour coincided with : the' thirty-ninth anniversary ; of the German invasion of ■ Crete. s One of . the group’s most • moving experiences was at a memorial service in Crete. I “We were at..a memorial > service for 25 Cretian soldier

cadets who had been mach-ine-gunned by the Germans as part of reprisals,” said Mr Baird. “After each name was read there was a burst of machine-gun fire in the valley below.. It was very moving.”

Mr Leckie said the New Zealanders felt very much at home in Crete, a visit which turned out to be ■ rather special for a Christchurch man, Mr Herbert Stove. “Herb was wandering up to the cemetery and on the way, by a church, was an old gardener, who turned out to be the man' who had helped Herb while he was on the run from the Germans,” Mr Baird said. “He spent five months hiding in the hills before escaping by submarine.” Other high points of the tour were church services, at El Alamein cemetery and at a Lpndon church,,. St...Law? rence of Dury.