STRONG DIVISION

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24214, 4 March 1942, Page 6

STRONG DIVISION

THE NEW ZEALANDEES WELL TRAINED FOR BATTLE INTEREST IN MEN'S WELFARE Several matters of interest to relatives of men in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in the Middle East were discussed in an interview yesterday bv Lieutenant-Colonel J. R. Page, of 13*Milford Road, who has been invalided back to New Zealand with a. wound in the lung. s Well known as a New Zealand Rugby representative and as an officer of the Royal New Zealand Artillery, he was wounded in. the final assault on Sidi Rezegh. Asked if the New Zealand Division was sufficiently trained in field exercises to know how to look after itself in battle, and so avoid unnecessary casualties, Lieutenant-Colonel Rage said that in his opinion the division was very well trained for desert warfare. Its standard was as good as, if not better than any of the other divisions which fought in Libya. Little Parade Ground Work Parade ground work was to the absolute minimum and all the time was spent in preparing the men for the conditions under which they had to fight. Ceremonial parades were so few as to be almost negligible, although it was true that an occasional parade of this nature was good for the troops. It enabled them "to throw a chest J 1 *' take pride in showing that New Zealanders were as smart as any of the other soldiers in the Middle East. But when they went into action ip the desert their training had been such that they well-knew how to look after themselves. . Lieutenant-Colonel Page said the people in New Zealand could he assured that their men were well clad, well fed and well looked after. General Sir Bernard Frevberg was particularly careful about the welfare of his men. It was a matter on which he placed considerable importance and in which he took the deepest personal interest. This interest was in no way modified in action and the general never asked any man to take a risk which he would not take himself. Excellence of Food The food was excellent and the ration scale quite sufficient. The division had received fresh meat as far away from its base as Mersa Matruh, and bread had been delivered well out in the desert. There were naturally times during the fighting when the men had to go without food, but throughout his period with the division the excellence of the supply services had been a constant feature. Commenting on the fighting in Libya, Lieutenant-Colonel Page said the battle was essentially one of communications. It was exceedingly fluid in character, as was instanced bv the continual difficulty of deciding whether a convoy was friendly or enemy. It was possible to stand on a rise and see convoys crossing and criss-crossing in all directions, hut it was equally impossible to tell, even at comparatively short distances, to whom the convoys belonged. Confusing Conditions For instance, an enemy vehicle might approach and just as action was about to be taken against it, the New Zealanders might discover that it contained some of their own men. On the other hand, a British convoy could come up and just when it had been decided that everything was all right and that it was British, it would be found to be manned by the enemy. Vehicles were being captured and recaptured so frequently that it was impossible to identify them. The fluid character of the fighting also led to the capture of a number of New Zealanders, who became prisoners of war. A battalion could reach its objective without even sighting one German, but it was quite possible for large numbers of Germans to be on either side of the line of approach without having been detected. Obvioiisly these Germans were free to move in and isolate bodies of the Allied troops, just as it was possible for the British to do the same thing to the Germans.