NEW ZEALAND DIVISION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 May 1941, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND DIVISION

BRIGADIER E. PUTTICK IN COMMAND FOLLOWING ON PROMOTION OF GENERAL FREYBERG. GENERAL WAVELL’S TRIBUTE TO DOMINION TROOPS. (By Tel.~ A raph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. The appointment of Major-General Freyberg, Officer Commanding the New Zealand Forces overseas, as Com-mander-in-Chief for the time being of the Allied forces in Crete, was announced in Wellington yesterday by the Minister of Defence, Mr Jones. General Freyberg. whose appointment was made at the special request of the Commander-in-Chief of the British Forces in the Middle East, General Wavell, has appointed Brigadier E. Puttick, D. 5.0., to the command temporarily of the New Zealand Forces in Crete. It has been very gratifying to learn that Major-General Freyberg has been selected for this important post,” Mr Jones said, “and I am sure that both these officers and the men under their command will carry out their present tasks as worthily as they carried out their wonderful action from the north to the extreme south of Greece.

“I should like to add,” concluded Mr Jones, “that the Government has this morning received a message from General Wavell. In this message General Wavell states that' he has heard from General Wilson and other officers of the magnificent rearguard action fought by the New Zealand Division under General Freyberg in Greece, and he concludes with these words: ‘New Zealand may well be proud of this Division.’-”