"ON THE WRONG SIDE"

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 66, 19 March 1943, Page 4

"ON THE WRONG SIDE"

"The only thing wrong with General Rommel is that he is fighting.'on. the wrong side," said a returned-soldier who arrived in New Plymouth ireoently. He said he had heard General Rommel find precisely .> the; same j fault with the New Zealanders.- .Corporal Jack Moore, who left New Zealand with the First Echelon,-; was wounded in action at El Alamein»and arrived back in New Zealand last; JDecember. He had b.een through all the campaigns in which New Zealanders had taken part in the Middle East jmd can recount some stirring tales.- Of particular interest at present -is an encounter he had with General ...Rommel, whom, he says, the New Zealand troops have reason to admire-as a perfect gentleman and clever general. Corporal Moore was one of the -New Zealanders captured by the Germans at Sidi Rezegh in November, 1941. .They were in German hands for three rdays before being handed over to the Italians, from whom they were subsequently released by their own forces. On the "third day, after their capture the New Zealanders were visited" by General Rommel, who addressed them in perfect English. He paid tribute to the New Zealanders' fighting qualities! and remarked that with a million New Zealanders he could conquer the world, "There is only one thing wrong with you," he said. "You are fightra& on the wrong side and you are' doing^too much pillaging." He gave them '^ a guarantee that their personal property would be respected, and it was.-'No* thing was touched. "We hadv to admire him for that," said Corporal Moore. - • ' • "