BRAVE OFFICER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23955, 3 May 1941, Page 8

BRAVE OFFICER

LEADER OF THE MAOBIS NOTABLE Vl/AR SERVICE "A VERY GALLANT CHAP" In a graphic despatch published today describing the heroic deeds of New Zealnaders in Greece Richard McMillan, the British United Press correspondent, says that the colonel of the Maori regiment was the hero of Thermopylae Pass. Exhausted, he'ordered his men to leave him behind. They protested, but he made them obey rather than endanger them. A well-known Auckland officer, Lieu-tenant-Colonel G. Dittmer, M.C., N.Z.S.C., left Now Zealand in command of the Maori Battalion, and so far as friends are aware was still in command in Greece. His wife is Jiving with relatives in Gisborne. Officers who served with LieutenantColonel Dittmer in the Great War described him yesterday as being a very stubborn fighter. "Once he has made up his mind to do a thing," said one officer, "nothing in the world can shift him in his decision. He is a very gallant chap." Promoted at the Front Lieutenant-Colonel Dittmer left New Zealand in the Great War with the Main Body, going as a sergeant in the 6th Hauraki Company, Auckland Battalion. He served on Gallipoli and was granted a commission on May 31, 1915.

From Gallipoli and Egypt he went to France and Belgium, serving throughout the war and returning to New Zealand in 1919, having been wounded more than once in action and being awarded the Military Cross for gallantry. Ho was promoted at the front to captain and then to temporary major, being appointed to the command of the Ist New Zealand Entrenching Battalion. Work on Staff Corps In New Zealand he was one of the members of the first group of N.Z.E.F. officers to be accepted for the New Zealand Staff Corps. Practically the whole of his service was in the Northern Military District, his last prewar appointment being as commandant of the Northern Military District School of Instruction at Narrow Neck. Among his former appointments had been that, of adjutant to the Auckland Regiment. In 1936 he was chosen to visit Australia for the purpose of studying training activities there. Toward the beginning of 1939, Major Dittmer, as he then was. was appointed area staff officer to the No. 1 Area and as such was in charge of the Auckland nrea recruiting for the Expeditionary Force after the outbreak of war. Later, when the decision was made to establish a Maori Battalion, he was intimately associated with its recruiting and was then promoted lieu-tenant-colonel and appointed to command the battalion, leaving with it when the second echelon went overseas.