ARRIVAL OF LEAVE DRAFT
ENTHUSIASTIC WELCOME MANY HAPPY REUNIONS Looking bronzed and fit, and obviously delighted to be home again, the Otago members of the special leave draft from the Middle East arrived in Dunedin yesterday afternoon. Most of the men had been away for nearly four years, and there were many joyful reunions as these veterans of the desert campaigns left the train. Some of them had seen more than desert fighting, and had been in the front line in Italy before being withdrawn to join the leave draft. The train carried 160 men for Dunedin, 5 for Mosgiel, and 80 to 90 for Invercargill and other towns south of Mosgiel. It was a royal home-coming. Long before the train was due people commenced to gather in Anzac square, and when a great burst of cheering and the blowing of train whistles and sirens heralded the approach of the train the crowd was packed into every available part of the square and extended up Stuart street to the Octagon. Every vantage point on the surrounding buildings was occupied, and as the cars drove off the men were sped on their way with rousing cheers.
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Bibliographic details
Otago Daily Times, Issue 25458, 12 February 1944, Page 4
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195ARRIVAL OF LEAVE DRAFT Otago Daily Times, Issue 25458, 12 February 1944, Page 4
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