AFRICA STAR

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 January 1944, Page 5

AFRICA STAR

DISSATISFACTION REPORTED

LONDON, January 5. Although the battledress tunics of the Ist and Sth Armies are now glowing with Africa Stars, the real old Western Desert “sweats” feel that they have been badly done by, says the “Daily Mail’s” correspondent on the Italian front. “These old sweats are entitled to wear only the bare ribbon, because they were not in the line last Winter. The trouble is the absence of numbers on the ribbon, which indicate that the wearer saw the Sth Army through the difficult and heroic years preceding the great victory. “The old brigade regard the figures one and eight as the highest distinction. Some of those New Zealand, South African, and Australian troops, who are so proud of being in the Bth Army, because they were perhaps

wounded or sent home before a certain date, are not allowed to wear the figure 8. Their feelings can be imagined. The best thing might have been to have no figures at all. That would have avoided the quarrelling and resentment between the two armies.”