VISIT TO NEW CALEDONIA

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 78, 24 June 1943, Page 5

VISIT TO NEW CALEDONIA

FREYBERG ON WAY TO N.Z. (Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) New Caledonia, June 17. Lieut.-General Freyberg paid a flying visit to New Caledonia on his way to New Zealand this week. In the course of a short talk on the part played by the New Zealanders in the battle at El Alamein. and in the subsequent pursuit of Axis forces across Libya and Tripolitania, General Freyberg related an amusing sidelight on the final stages of the New Zealanders’ long-standing rivalry with the 90th German Light Division. When the German division was finally trapped by the New Zealanders, General Freyberg selected an enemy prisoner to carry a demand for surrender to the German commander, Major-General Count von Sponeck. That prisoner never reached his own lines, for an Allied patrol, not knowing of his role, “recaptured” him as he was on his way to the German lines and brought him back with them. General Freyberg tried again, and this time his emissary got through, only to be told by von Sponeck that surrender was never contemplated. The New Zealand response was an exhortation to “come out and fight properly” if there was to be no surrender. “And,” added General Freyberg, “to cut a long story short, we took 50,000 prisoners. Good show!”

Count von Sponeck was the proud possessor of the finest pair of binoculars General Freyberg had ever seen. Asked whether the binoculars had now changed ownership, General Freyberg said, laughing: “No. One general to another, you know, I could not have robbed him of them.

“I did get Rommel’s caravan, however,” said General Freyberg. This was a most luxurious vehicle, complete wit.: bathroom, bedroom and sittingroom. German generals, he said, did themselves very well in Africa. General Freyberg, who was accompanied by Brigadier R. A. Row, D. 5.0., when he visited the New Zealand camp in New Caledonia, met the following officers, all of whom has served under him in the Middle East: Brigadier Row, Colonel J. M. Twigg, Colonel A A. Tennent, Colonel N. C. Speight, Lieut.Colonel J. I. Brooke, Lieut.-Colonel F. L. H. Davis, Lieut.-Colonel H. W. D Biake, Lieut.-Colonel D McN, Burns, Major P. L. Bennett, Major D. M. Jack, Major E R. Ferguson. Major Y K. Fleming Major J. D. Willis, Major C. G. Riley, Major S. W. Crawford. Major G. F. T Hall, Captain I. H. Galbraith, Captain H. J' Heron, Second-Lieutenant S. J. Conlon. Second-Lieutenant D T Scholium, Sister E. St. M. Jones, and Sister P. E. Curtis.