SERVICE ABROAD

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 272, 17 November 1943, Page 4

SERVICE ABROAD

A.F.V. MEN INSPECTED Men undergoing training at the Armoured Fghting Vehicle School for service overseas were inspected at Waiouru last Wednesday by Lieuten-ant-General E. Puttick, Genera] Officer Commanding the New Zealand Military Forces. The parade, which consisted of 150 men, was in charge of Lieutenant-Colonel H. B. M. Groves, Royal Tank Corps, Commandant of the A-F.V. School. Colonel C. G. Powles, Commandant of Waiouru , Camp, was among the other senior officers present. After inspection, General Puttick, in i an address to the men, said that some of them at a later date would probably join the old brigade which he commanded overseas in 1940 and 1941. Outlining the history of the brigade, the general spoke of the 15 months’ hard training it carried out in the desert after arriving in Egypt in 1940, and of its role as part of the New Zealand forces in support of General O'Connor when his army, outnumbered by 250,000 to 80,000, completely wrecked and ruined the Italian army under Graziani, taking more than two and a-half times their own numbers in prisoners. General Puttick said that the armoured forces under General O’Connor played a verybig part in that success. The tanks used were Matildas and the trouble was that the Italians could not stop them because the guns they had would not penetrate the tank armour. After describing the part played by the New Zealand forces in Greece, General Puttick said the brigade, in its first clash with the Germans, when one company was attacked by a special type of German battalion, took 1 <’B German prisoners for the loss of only one man killed and five wounded. In Crete, in common wfth the rest of the division, inadequately armed and assailed by an overwhelming air force, the brigade was very roughly handled and left Crete mucn reduced in numbers. It was in action again in the western Desert against Rommel. “You have something to live up to when you join that veteran formation,” said the General, “Men who leave New Zealand have the great privilege of serving their country in time of war and the opportunity of seeing something of the world. If you have any personal fears that you may not be able to stand up to the rigours of war, then you can banish such feelings altogether. Ninety-nine point nine per cent, of all men are brave. You will be helped by the companionship and by the training you have undergone, which has fashioned you into an organised, efficient. and trustworthy fighting machine. And your own personal pride comes to

your aid. You may say to yourself, as I did in the 1914-18 war. ‘There are five or six million men facing each other, and 1 am not going to be lhe six million and first that can’t do it.’

“When you do get away from this country, don't forget you are not the only ones who are making sacrifices. The people you leave behind will be very anxious about you; so don't forget. to write Io them. A few lines

from you on a dirty bit. of paper will bo better to them than the finest epistle from anyone else.”