NEW YEAR IN TRIPOLITANIA

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLXII, Issue 15241, 6 January 1943, Page 4

NEW YEAR IN TRIPOLITANIA

N.Z.E.F. CELEBRATION. United Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. (N.Z.E.F. Official Wajr Corres.-r pondent.) TRIPOLITANLA, Jan. 1. New Year’s Ev,e ior the New Zealand fighting troops in Tripolitania was one of the quietest days in an eventful year. It was little different from any other day sine© our long desert trek around the Agheila line ended and the process of consolidating our gains and building up our supply lines alottig the Gulf of Sirte began some days ago. Only in the evening when the troops gathered in dug-outs and tents to welcome the new year with a bottle of beer per man brought about 700 miles from Libya by a special convoy was there any kind of celebration. It was a peaceful euiding to tiie greatest year of continuous action the Second N.Z.E.F. has known. One of the only events that has made New Year’s Day different from most other days in the desert are football matches in th© competition for the divisional championship—probably the first Rugby series ever played in this section, of Tripolitania. General Freyberg watched the match which the Divisional Signallers and a maofiine-gun battalion played a few hundred yards from his headquarters. Among the greetings and messages to the New Zealanders which General Freyberg has received from many parts of the world ;is one from the former commander of the Sixth Brigade, now Major-General Barrowclough, commanding the New Zealand forces in the Pacifis. “Kiwis in the Pacific send greetings to wew Zealanders in Tripolitania. Congratulations on your show/’ the message .says.

A message from General Blarney says that each of the land forces under his command send best wishes to the N.Z.E.F.