TRIBUTE TO N.Z.E.F.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 78, 9 February 1943, Page 2

TRIBUTE TO N.Z.E.F.

MR CHURCHILL AT TRIPOLI FIGHTING QUALITIES PRAISED PRIME ROLE IN FUTURE (Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) Near Tripoli, Feb. 4. “You will march into fairer lands. You will march into lands when the irrim and severe conditions of the desert will be but memories. But having endured these conditions the fighting qualities which you have displayed will only shine brighter and be turned to greater advantage.” In these words Mr Churchill spoke of the future to the New Zealand Division in an address near Tripoli today to the largest single parade of New Zealanders ever assembled in the Middle East.. Before him as he spoke was almost the entire New Zealand fighting force that advanced from El Alamein to Tripoli. For the first time in its history the greater part of the New Zealand Division stood on a single parade ground under General Freyberg.’s command. “Far away in New Zealand homes at the other side of the globe all hearts are swelling with pride at your deeds,” Mr Churchill continued. “It ts the same throughout the small island of Britain, which stood alone for a year, championed only by its children from overseas and against dire odds. All are filled with ad-

miration for the desert army. Ail are full of gratitude to the people of New Zealand who have sent this splendid division to win fame and honour across the oceans.” CHANGE SINCE VISIT TO EL ALAMEIN Contrasting his arrival in Tripoli with his last visit to the New Zealanders, the Prime Minister said, “When I last saw you, General Bernard Freyberg—my friend of so many years of war and peace, ‘the Salamander’ as he may be called, of the British Empire—it was on those bare rocky slopes to the south of El Alamein, where you were preparing to receive what was expected to be the most dangerous and deadly enemy thrust by the hitherto victorious Rommel. At that time also we had great doubts and anxieties as to the position in Russia and what would happen in the Caucasus and in the approaches to the great oilfields, without which the plight of Germany is grave. “But what a change has taken place since then. By the immortal victory of the battle of Egypt, Axis powers who had fondly hoped and loudly boasted that they would take Egypt and the Nile Valley, found their army broken and shattered and ever since then by a march without example in history for speed and the force of its advance, you have driven the enemy before you, until now the would-be conqueror of Egypt is endeavouring to pass himself off as the deliverer of Tunisia.

“These events will live long in the annals of war, and will be studied minutely by other generations than our own. These feats of arms entitle the army of the desert to feel a deep-found-ed sense of comfort and pride based on a valiant duty faithfully done. IMPROVEMENT IN WORLD FORTUNES

“Now I come to find you here, 1400 miles from where I saw you last. You may all feel that in that period a decisive Change has taken place in the war and that we now have the right to say that the term will be fixed to its intense exertions and sorrows. A transformation has come upon the scene. Just as after all these hundreds of miles of desert you suddenly came again into green and fertile land, so there has been a vast improvement in the fortunes of the who’e world cause with its 29 United Nations

“Struggles and victories lie ahead. The enemy has been driven out of Egypt driven out of Cyrenaica and out of Tripolitania. He is now coming towards the end of his means of running, and in a corner of Tunisia a decisive battle has presently to be fought. Other great forces arc coming in from the west, but I am sure the desert army and the New Zealand Division will play a prime part. The good cause will not be trampled down. Justice and freedom will reign among men.” DIVISION THANKED “On behalf of His Majesty’s Government and on behalf of all the peoples of the Homeland I give you our expression of earnest, warm-hearted thanks. We cherish the memory of all you have done. We wish you godspeed and God's assistance in your further conquests. You can be sure that as your duty will not fail so your success will be achieved.”

No ground on which the New Zealanders have paraded in the Middle East has resembled the countryside they knew at home more than the stretch of open, green country at the edge of Tripoli’s orchard district, where they stood to-day. A few days ago it was just part of an Italian colonial farm but to-day it became an immense parade ground at the edge of which stood a gathering of almost ail the military leaders who planned and directed our advance through Egypt and Libya. Through lanes of bluegums which might have been almost anywhere in Nelson or 0 n the plains of Hawkes Bay Mr Churchill drove beside the line of divisions on to the wide green paddock where our troops stood in long closely-packed lines. Seated beside him as he stood looking out across the parade ground Was the Commander of the Eighth Army, General Montgomery. His escort of armoured cars swept into line beside the saluting base and as the Prime Minister’s car halted General Freyberg ordered the general salute.

His stick swinging by his side Mr Churchill, who wore the uniform of an Air Commodore, then walked quickly towards General Freyberg and greet ed him warmly. Together, Mr Churchill still standing, they drove down the lone lanes that separated the divisions of artillery, infantry, army service corns and medical units formed in mass bel bmd their commanders. In the line of

cars that followed the Prime Minister on the inspection were General Alan Brooke, General H. AlexS- ® d seven,! senior officers of the Eighth

SPECTACULAR PARADE To the music of massed pipe bands of a Highland Division our troops headed by men of a famous English armoured regiment attached to the d“S n a u Ch ,? C L' last the salu .hng base in mass Behind them came wide lines of divisions of tanks, guns, Bren-carriers and trucks churning the brown earth to dust as they rumbled past. For half an hour an almost unbroken line of men and guns swept past in the salute. From the time of his arrival by plane ye“ terday afternoon Mr Churchill’* to the Eighth Army has been the widest possible contrast to his visit tothl desert front last year. Then when he could see only a small representative group of *ew Zealanders in the worst of Egypt s mid-summer heat and dull he brought a message of encouragement and determination to the men who had endured three months of bitter fightine on a Static line. This time he came o f day of military pageant by troops of I Victorious army stationgd in or near Libya s capital. Mr Churchill’s day be Han with a spectacular parade throiiok Tripoli by Scottish infantry divis°o n ffi units and by some of the desert's oldest

English armouied regiments. By the time he reached the New Zealanders’ parade he had seen many thousands of troops and when he left again for Tripoli later in the afternoon there were still further inspections on his programme.—P.A.