PARTY RETURNS IN ORANJE

Southland Times, Issue 24536, 10 September 1941, Page 6

PARTY RETURNS IN ORANJE

NETHERLANDS’ GIFT SOLDIERS WELCOMED AT WELLINGTON (P.A.) WELLINGTON Sick and wounded soldiers of c the 2nd N.Z.E.F., most of whom had served their country in the fighting in Greece, Crete and at Tobruk, returned to New Zealand by the hospital ship Oranje. This luxurious ship is the fastest motor liner in the world and is the war-time gift to Australia and New Zealand of the Queen of the Netherlands and her Government. The returning soldiers had little to say of their experiences that had not already been told by those who came back previously. Instead, they preferred to speak of the wonderful kindness of the Oranje’s medical officers, nurses, ship’s officers and personnel and the Javanese of the crew.

After the indescribably trying times in Greece and Crete, they felt that aboard the Oranje they had come into another world where everyone concerned with their care and welfare strived to the utmost to make them well and happy. On the. other hand, the spirit of all on the Oranje was expressed by the captain, Commodore Potger, when he said on arrival that his people felt the New Zealand soldiers to be those of the Netherlands as well as of the British Empire. The Oranje was an unforgettable sight as she entered the harbour. The sea was dead calm and the sunshine brilliant, making the setting perfect for this graceful white liner. WELL-KNOWN WRESTLER Among those ' who returned was the well-known professional wrestler, Sergeant-Major (“Lofty”) Blomfield. He said he certainly was going to wrestle again if the trouble with varicosed legs which sent him home again allowed him to do so. Speaking of the Italian and German prisoners, Sergeant-Major Blomfield said they were glad to be out of it, specially the conscripted soldiers. The Black Shirts had to be kept separate from the other Italian prisoners. Alive to tell the tale after five months on a water barge at Tobruk, in one month of which alone 483 bombing raids occurred, one soldier thought he had exeprienced as much bombing as anyone in his theatre of war. He confirmed previous accounts of the effects of bombing being more moral —till those attacked became used to it—than material by stating that his section of 28 lost only one man on water barge duty. He recalled one day when there were 22 big daylight raids and 25 night raids. This was in Tobruk harbour, two miles long and 1| miles wide. Once, he said, the German aircraft ignored merchant and naval shipping to bomb and machine-gun a hospital ship. Then he said what he thought of them. “I was just stepping aboard a ship in the evacuation of Crete when I was struck by a fragment from a trench mortar shell; the next thing I was conscious of was waking up in hospital in Alexandria with the Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, shaking my hand,” said Private J. Egan, of Southland. He was one of a supply column of 200 cut off in Crete by a much larger enemy force. Not normally a combatant unit, the men had to take to their rifles and fight their way out, some of them hand-to-hand. Driver Egan closed with his man, using his rifle as a club. The outcome of the combat was indicated by his presence in New Zealand. After what he experienced and saw in this incident he was convinced that man to man, the Germans are not much good. They were trained on the idea of plenty of mechanized and air support; away from it and relying solely on the ordinary small arms, they wilted. The Tommy guns, he said, were only effective up to 40 yards; his supply column mates had proved this when they were fighting the crowd who cut them off. ESCAPED IN ROW BOAT A member of the 21st Auckland Battalion was one of a party of six which escaped from Crete in a row boat, going from island to island with the Hun always just a jump behind, till they reached safety. “These girls will do me.” said an older soldier who acted as spokesman for a large number who wanted to show their appreciation through the Press of the attention and care which had been given them by the Hollander nurses. This soldier said that if a patient thanked a nurse for her kindness the usual reply was that “we are only trying to show our appreciation of your fighting for and with us in the same cause.”

At the reception aboard ship on arrival, the chairman of the Wellington Harbour Board, Mr W. H. Price, said we -in New Zealand were grateful to the whole staff of the Oranje for bringing the men safely home. It was a fine gesture by the Queen and the Netherlands Government to place such a fine ship at the disposal of the Australian and New Zealand Governments.

The acting Prime Minister (the Hon. W. Nash) said he had overheard a soldier say as the official party entered the lounge, “Make it snappy.” That was what he would do. Firstly, he called, for cheers for the Queen of the Netherlands for the magnificent gift by tier Government and herself, of the hospital ship. The men would be glad to know that he had that day received a message from "Major-General B. C. Freyberg, V.C., that their comrades overseas were in magnificent fettle and in better spirits than they had been for a long time. It was the desire of the Government to see that those who returned got back to their normal life at the earliest possible time, that they had decent homes to come to and that the liberty for which they had fought was more secure than ever. CAPTAIN’S REPLY Commodore Potgei;, captain of the ship, said that it was a great pleasure for his people to do anything for the soldiers who were fighting the same enemy as them. In fighting that fight, they were the soldiers of the Netherlands as well as of their own empire. He thanked Sergeant-Major Blomfield for his appreciative references on behalf of the New Zealanders at a gathering aboard ship the night previous. It bad been the Oranje’s first trip as a hospital ship and everything had been a real success because of the co-opera-tion of all concerned, specially the soldiers.

Sir Apirana Ngata spoke on behalf of the Maori people. “Welcome back to what used to be called ‘God’s Own Country,’ ” he said. After the dust and dirt of the Middle East he felt the men would believe they were back in the best country God had made. He continued in the Maori tongue, finishing with a haka which was taken up by the soldiers and created more interest with the Hollanders and Javanese than anything so far at the gathering.