HEROIC DEFENCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24631, 12 June 1941, Page 6

HEROIC DEFENCE

NEW ZEALANDERS IN GREECE OUTNUMBERED FIVE TO ONE GENERAL WAVELL'S TRIBUTE News of a high tribute by General Sir Archibald Wavell, commander-in-chief of the Imperial Forces in the Middle East, to the fighting qualities of the New Zealanders in Greece is contained in a letter received from a Dunedin officer who has since lost his life in Crete. The letter states:— “This morning Major-general Freyberg visited the battalion, addressing officers and n.c.o.’s in a sunlit clearing amid olive trees. It was an informal chat, really, that increased one’s confidence in the man. He told us the New Zealand Division was up against five German divisions and acted as rearguard to both the Australians and the British units, retiring over 300 miles in constant touch with the enemy. General Wavell said to him afterwards, ‘I don’t believe any other division but yours could have done it.’ So the 1914-18 blokes needn’t fear we let them down. There’s no doubt the average New Zealander strikes a happy medium between individual initiative and mass discipline. “ Major-general Freyberg also said there were several occasions when he gave the division up for lost, so fast were the Germans coming in on his left flank, but we got away with it/’