EIGHTH ARMY VETERANS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25428, 8 January 1944, Page 7

EIGHTH ARMY VETERANS

DISAPPOINTED WITH RIBBONS THE ABSENCE OF FIGURES LONDON, Jan. 5. Although the battledress tunics of the First and Eighth Armies are now glowing with Africa Stars, real old Western Desert “sweats" feel that they have been badly done by, declares the Daily Mails correspondent on the Italian front. These old “ sweats ” ■ are entitled to wear only the bare ribbon because they were not in the line last winter. The trouble is the absence of numbers on the ribbon which indicate that the wearer saw the Eighth Army through the difficult heroic years preceding the great victory. The old brigade regard the figures one and eight as the highest distinction. The feelings of some of those New Zealand, South African, and Australian troops who are so proud of being in the Eighth Army, and now, because they were perhaps wounded or sent home before a certain date, are not allowed to wear the figure eight, can be imagined. The best thing might have been to have no figures at all. That would have avoided quarrelling and resentment between the two armies.