BRITISH SOLDIERS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXII, Issue 264, 7 October 1942, Page 5

BRITISH SOLDIERS

FINEST IN THE WORLD COMMANDER’S TRIBUTE (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright.) (12.30 p.m.) LONDON, Oct. 6. “Britain’s soldiers have qualities which make them the finest fighters in the world,” said General Alexander in an interview with the Daily Mirror correspondent in the Middle East. • “They are not soldiers, but warriors. They have no fierce lust for blood or killing, yet they go into battle with cool determination and the intention of wiping out the Nazi savagery. I have seen British soldiers unhappy, bewildered and fed up, hut never fearful. Even when they endured demoralising withdrawals, they responded to leadership and re-formed ready to withstand the next ordeal.

“The Eighth Army is a perfect example of that. It was pushed back hundreds of miles after a scries of defeats. Just when the world might have been expected to collapse around its ears, it stopped dead, reformed and returned to face the enemy, and its morale again rocketed. I wonder how many armies would have kept their morale after the frightful military reverses we have had in this war. I think the explanation is the British soldier’s pride of race. The time is past when we had to fight a first-class enemy with inadequate equipment and inadequate training. From now on we haye all the equipment we require.”