Information Required For Official History of South Island Battalion

Evening Star, Issue 26102, 16 May 1947, Page 7

Information Required For Official History of South Island Battalion

Already, enough material lias been collated and .prepared in the rough draft form to provide the early portion of the official history of the 26th Battalion, which was formed in Burnham in May, 1910, and fought in 1 Greece and m the first Libyan cam- j pnign in November, 1940, the Battle i of Egypt (October, 1942), the Tunis- | ian campaign in 1943, and finally in Italy. So far drafts have been completed up to the period when the El Alainein line was stabilised preparatory to the break-through in October, 1942. The history will be of special importance to returned servicemen in the South Island, as the 26th was essentially a South Island unit, most of the men coming from Otago and Canterbury. The official historian is F. D. Norton, incidentally a former pupil at John MeGlashan College, and it would appear from his annotations to the drafts that have already been circulated from : Wellington that there are many points requiring clarification from former members of the unit. The historian has faithfully interpreted the major operations of the battalion with the material at his disposal, but there are, as he comments, many gaps in the narratives, too much emphasis being placed in the rough drafts of the history to divisional, brigade, and other formations’ activities. The drafts have been distributed throughout the South Island for the purpose of sealing those gaps through the production of accurate information. The method employed in keeping a record of the battalion’s history up to the conclusion of the Tunisian campaign has not paid dividends, war diaries, and even private diaries, not being sufficiently informative, nor even accurate enough in the case of the former sources, to provide the his- . torian with a lucid and factual picture of the operations from which to prepare the history. During the turbulent phase of the Battle of Egypt, when the costly skirmishes took place for the possession of the Ruweisat (Ridge, and there were several minor actions, the battalion was seriously depicted in strength, and it is a commentary on the somewhat haphazard methods that were employed in keeping records that lists of officers and sergeants who took part in these attacks or were changed because of casualties were not faithfully kept. It took the Army authorities . until the Italian campaign to have attached to units official correspondents or men with journalistic experience to record straight after an action what actually happened, and all the information incidental to a battle. However, what- has been, written,, even in the rough state, is sufficient to indicate that the history of the 26th Battalion should be factually correct, even if-the author will have to gloss over some actions, or dismiss them briefly without recourse, to all those details that ijiake the ’book, live' in the eyes of those for whom it is primarily intended—the personnel of the 26th Battalion. The historian urgently requires additional information covering all the unit’s campaigns, and those men who have not yet had the opportunity of studying the rough drafts may obtain thorn if application is made to Mr F. D. Norton, Archives Section, Army Headquarters, Wellington, or from “ Bofor,” care of the ‘ Evening Star ’ office. R.N.Z.A.F. Reunion. The second reunion of men who were posted to the R.N.Z.A.F. station at Taieri during the war years will be held in the Buffalo Hall, Clark street, on Friday, May 23, at 8 >p.m. Tickets may be procured from W. Breeze, men’s outfitter, Stuart street.