DIGGERS’ TRIBUTE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20571, 3 June 1941, Page 2

DIGGERS’ TRIBUTE

GERMANS AS FIGHTERS GRUDGING ADMIRATION fj BATTLES IN GREECE Soldiers of the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force who have el come up against the Germans in ''Greece yield the same grudging admiration to the fighting qualities of vi.he enemy as those of the First New Zealand Expeditionary Force who encountered the flower of the German .. armies in Northern France in 1916-17-18. In one of the first letters to reach . Gisb.orne since the evacuation of Greece by the British, Sergeant Ralph De Costa, Gisborne, gives an 'impression of the regard in which the New Zealanders hold the enemy. "It’s quite a while since I last wrote, and believe me a lot has happened since then. I expect you will have \ read all about it in the papers. Anyway, I am quite sure that I should not be allowed to tell you about everything, as you know,” he writes. "Well, at present, all I possess is , what I stand UP in. I haven’t changed • my clothes for about a fortnight, or " even taken them off. I shaved to-day for the first time in over a week. We have had a couple of goes at Jerry, land, unfortunately, I have to take my 7 hat' off to him. He’s not bad! He has been amusing -himself this afternoon by bombing and machine-gun-ning us. “I haven’t been into Athens again, or likely to, either, by the look ol things. Still I have seen plenty of the countryside this last week or two, and '‘reckon it’s a good place being spoiled by this war." In a letter written from Crete, Sergeant De Costa described the island as highly picturesque, and a place in which he would not mind living if things were a little different. "The island is full of olive groves, vineyards, oranges, and barley crops, and is intensively cultivated,” 'he adds. “The : people are ’hospitable to a degree. and cannot do enough to help you. Still, it was the same in Greece.”