HEAVY SHIPPING LOSSES

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 57, 5 September 1945, Page 8

HEAVY SHIPPING LOSSES

Rec. 9 a.m. LONDON, Sept. 4. More than 120 ships, totalling some 700,000 tons, were lost in South African waters during the war, says the London "Daily Telegraph's" Cape Town correspondent. The worst months were October and November, 1942, when U-boats sank 52 vessels, including seven in one day a few miles off Table Bay. "supreme gallantry and excellent achievements of tne New Zealand troops and their commander. . . ." It is interesting to note that General Freyberg retired in 1937 through his failure to pass the necessary medical test prescribed by military regulations for retention on the active list of the Army. He was then the youngest major-general, being only 47 years old. He fought against tne medical authorities in attempts to remain in the army as hard as he ever fought against the enemy in the last war, but all to no avail. His heart was supposed to be affected. He challenged the doctors who had "ploughed" him to take part with him in a mountaineering expedition, the survivors of the attempt to test his heart when they reached the summit, if any of them ever did! The wager was not accepted, and Genera] Freyberg went disconsolate into retirement. Very soon after the war broke out he was recalled to the active list and put in command of the New Zealand forces then assembling in Egypt. "It is indeed a paradox that the man who was officially too ill to remain on the active li?t in peace should be considered well enough to be sent to command a force in the field on the outbreak of war,", remarked a recent commentator.