OUR DUTY DONE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25924, 16 August 1945, Page 6

OUR DUTY DONE

It is ended. The scroll recording this history of our embattled country is completed with its sounding names, lettered in scarlet and gold, from Olympus to Tripoli, from Archangel to Rabaul and the Plate. There was a note of prophecy as well as steadfast loyalty in the words of the late Prime Minister, Mr Savage, when he said that where England went, New Zealand would follow. Throughout the continents and the oceans of the world, where the forces of Great Britain have gone, New Zealanders have been with them on land, on sea, and in ; the air. It is a proud record, achieved at the cost of many mourning homes and of a spiritual and social suffering the depths of which cannot yet be plumbed. The inevitable stroke of the pen that changed this Dominion from a land at peace to a country at war was like the shift movement of a lever that changed ,the tempo of our life. The new momentum pulsed swiftly through all the channels of industry and commerce. After the space of a few weeks, the forerunners of a formidable and flexible land force had left these shores for the Middle East. A few t more weeks and smaller but serviceable units of the air force and the navy were on active service. New Zealanders, too, were to be found in many British units. Elements of our land force first saw action in General Wavell’s Libyan campaign of 1940. They served principally in lines of communication, but the doings of the original Long Range Desert Group and of the drivers at Tummar, who brought troops within the enemy’s perimeter of defence and then seized rifles and spontaneously joined thfi attack, gave the first indications of the resource, the elan, and the individual combativeness that were to evoke the highest praise from military authorities, and draw reluctant respect from the enemy generals.

It was on the historic soil of Greece that the New Zealand Division saw its first actions. Retreat and hurried evacuation meant no disgrace here. Again the name Thermopylae had an honourable sound in the mouths of men. Then followed the swift tragedy and lasting glory of the defence of Crete. By now ships of the New Zealand Royal Navy had been blooded, and in England fighter pilots from New Zealand were numbered among the aces of the air war. Watchful and prepared under yet unclouded Pacific skies, reconnaissance and construction groups were quietly doing their part. For two years the uncompromising desert was the scene of our major land effort. There was again the bitterness «bf reverses but it was mingled with the sweets of victories, and through it all was the same high determination, not boastful but resolved to be of some account in the defeat of the menace to civilisation. The sweep from El Alamein to Tripoli brought with it the justification of confidence and the confirmation of the will to win. Such was the story of Sidi Rezegh, Ruweisat Ridge, Tobruk, El Agheila, and Mareth. As the story of the collapse of the first of the Axis Powers rang through the world, after prolonged and irksome duties on many islands of the Soiith Pacific, the 3rd New Zealand Division was landing in the Solomons. In the next 12 months it was called on for missions at Guadalcanar, Nissan, and the Treasuries. The record of its formation, though less lengthy and less spectacular than that of the 2nd Division, was, within these limits, no less than could have been expected to be achieved by men whose kith and kin had already so often won applause from the world. In the Pacific, also, New Zealand air and sea forces had been extended and their duties, often little heard of, were arduous and unremitting. And, from time to time, from further afield, from the mounting roar of the air battles of Europe came echoes of the deeds of the Dominion’s sons to inspire anew the hearts of those whose lot it was to remain at home in the unsatisfying routine of essential needs. From Africa the division moved to Italy to batter down the outer works of the European Fortress. Here its responsibilities and its achievements alike rose to new peaks. In the mud

of the Sangro the division had its first experience of a new type of fighting, grim and more wearing in some ways than any other it had faced' There was the heroic failure of Cassino; but the stubborn enemy gradually gave ground to the Arno and Florence, then to the Gothic Line and the Senio. The climax was as characteristic as it was satisfying; the New Zealanders swept to Trieste and there they stood while the campaign concluded ingloriously for the Germans. Soon after the European war reached its terrific climax, and the men of the air forces joined with the soldiers in respite from war and in the deep satisfaction and thankfulness of a cruel task honourably performed. In no bellicose mood, but with a sombre knowledge that another enemy must still be crushed, the Dominion prepared to adapt its resources to assisting in the war against Japan. But now, too, the ignoble leaders of another treacherous and lusting aggressor have had to acknowledge defeat. So ends the record of six long years. Even now there is not yet surcease from travail, but the pursuit of a way of living, free, just, and ennobling. New Zealand has by her efforts proved that she is worthy of these things. We have won our right to them. We have yet to attain them.