HISTORIC PARALLEL

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 78, 29 June 1943, Page 3

HISTORIC PARALLEL

CRAUFURD S LIGHT DIVISION GENERAL FREYBERG’S TRIBUTE TO NEW ZEALANDERS “The 2nd N.Z.E.F. is second to none, and when the history of the period comes to be written, even if the division were not to fight again, we will, I feel, be referred to in a hundred years’ time in much the same way as Craufurd’s Light Division in the Peninsular War,” said Lieutenant-General Sir Bernard Freyberg, V.C., at the civic welcome extended to him at Wellington. “Looking back, it seems to me as if the division was always astride some vital place at a vital time—in Crete, which has borne so much fruit at such a cost, in the Libyan desert, the dash back from Syria to stop Rommel’s headlong advance on Alexandria, the grim battles for the Ruweisat ridge, and the final assault on the Mareth Line, when the Germans were hurled back in disorder. All this has been achieved by the division, and I feel that, just as Mr Churchill’s words have inspired the United Nations, so the New Zealanders by their deeds have provided a counterpart.”

General Robert Craufurd (1764-1812), third son of a Scottish baronet, has been described as unquestionably the finest commander of light troops to serve in the Peninsular War. In October, 1807, he sailed from Britain for the Peninsula, in command of the light brigade of the corps which had been ordered to go to the assistance of Sir John Moore. This corps joined Moore’s army at Mayorga on 20th December, and Craufurd’s brigade was perpetu-' ally engaged. Craufurd later returned to England, but in 1809 he was again ordered to the Peninsula, to take command of the light brigade, consisting of the 43rd, 52nd, and one battalion of the 95th Regiment. When on his way to join Sir Arthur Wellesley (later created Duke of Wellington) he met with stragglers who reported that a great battle had been fought, and that the general had been killed. Craufurd at once determined to make a forced march to the front and reached the army on the day after the battle of Talavera, after marching 62 miles in 26 hours in heavy fighting order, a feat then unparalleled in modern warfare.

From this time, says the Dictionary of National Biography, the career of the light brigade and its leader was one of exceptional brilliance; Craufurd was an unequalled commander of light troops, his officers and men believed in him and trusted him implicitly, and he remained continually in advance of the allied army in the very face of the overpowering number of the French.

During the retreat from Torres Vedras the light division which Craufurd by this time commanded, covered the retreating army, a task of much difficulty, and at Busaco it drove back and charged down the corps of Ney, which had formed a lodgment upon the English line of heights. In the battle of Fuentes de Onoro on sth May, 1811, the light division played a distinguished part and covered the extraordinary change of position which Lord Wellington found it necessary to make in the very face of the enemy. The division remained under the command of Craufurd until the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo was formed in January, 1812. When the breaches were declared open, the light division was directed on 19th January to attack the smaller breach. Craufurd led on the stormGrs, and at the very beginning of the assault he was shot through the body. He lingered in great agony until 24th January. when he died, and was buried in the breach itself.