IN HIGH SPIRITS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25111, 30 December 1942, Page 2

IN HIGH SPIRITS

THE NEW ZEALAND FORCES CHRISTMAS DINNER IN DESERT (Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) TRIPOLTTANIA, (Rec. 11 p.m.) Dec. 25. Along the sandy ridges of the gulf of Sirte New Zealand troops, still amo/ig the foremost in the Eighth Army's advance towards Tripoli, celebrated to-day their third Christmas in the Middle East. New Zealand pork, Canadian beer, vegetables and cigarettes were carried 1200 miles from the Nile delta for the Christmas dinner, which General Sir Bernard Freyberg described as "most memorable." " I think we can say that our advance is going well." he said. "Our high spirits this Christmas must be in direct contrast to those of the Axis. The Fuhrer and Mussolini must have very wistful thoughts about their African adventure. As our pincer closes they must be wondering from which port they can evacuate their force."

Of the New Zealanders' recent outflanking movement, the general said he thought it was a most important action, which would be written in every history of the desert campaigns. At all the many troops' celebrations which the general attended during the day, he spoke of the tremendous effort that had been made to make Christmas enjoyable for the men in the forward areas. Every one ton of food that had come from the delta had required two tons of petrol, he said. With Colonel Ardagh, of Christchurch. Assistant Director of Medical Services. General Freyberg visited wounded and sick New Zealanders in the tents of the main dressing station, and to each patient he gave his personal greetings. A feature of his visit was his conversation with a soldier whose leg was in plaster. "Was it a mine?" General Freyberg asked. "No, sir. Football." Several of the wounded with whom the general spoke were sappers who were injured while clearing the treacherous minefields and booby traps left by the German rearguard. Although the dinner was cooked in improvised field ovens of mud and petrol tins, and the men just sat about in groups on the sandhills to eat it, the old army custom of the officers serving the meal was observed at every cookhouse. All the way along the 1000 miles we had come from the El Alamein line the question had been: Where will we be for Christmas? A few days ago we halted near the coast, and while our forward patrols remained active every possible effort had been directed towards making to-day the troops' day of the year. Special convoy trucks drove to El Agheila to connect with transport bringing from Benghazi hundreds of bags of Christmas parcels and mail from New Zealand. Thousands of loaves of bread were delivered from a New Zealand field, bakery—a new section of the Army Service Corps and the most forward organisation of its kind in the desert. With his greetings to every section of our fighting force. General Freyberg congratulated the troops on their eTEort in this campaign. The fighting had been hard, he said, and there was still harder fighting ahead of them. If victory did not come in 1943, we would at least be well in the right direction.