N.Z. FORCE FOR JAPAN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 276, 22 November 1945, Page 8

N.Z. FORCE FOR JAPAN

CEREMONIAL PARADE INSPECTION BY GENERAL FREYBERG (By Telegraph - Pi t ss Association—Copyright) (N.Z.E.F. Correspondent.) Florence, Nov. 16 Yesterday General Freyberg attended a ceremonial parade on the Florence airfield, oi the force for Japan. This was the last ceremonial parade to be held by the divisional troops under his command. Some 4000 troops, commanded by Brigadier Gentry, participated. For them it was the highlight of everal weeks’ training, undertaken not only for the parade, but also to raise the standard of formal drill in preparation for departure for Japan. General Freyberg carried out a detailed inspection of the troops, took the salute at a march past, and presented decorations, won in the last stages of the campaign, to forty officers and men. General Freyberg asked the men to remember that when they left for Japan next month they would take with them the reputations both of the Second New Zealand Division and of their country itself. This was a high responsibility, but he was assured it was in worthy hands.

General Freyberg said that an obelisk would be put up in a prominent place at Maadi commemorating the fact that it had been the site of the New Zealand camp through which 76,000 New Zealand soldiers had passed on their way to the battlefields. Plaques would al o be put up in various churches in Cairo commemorating the fact that many New Zealanders worshipped there through six years of war.

The sustained effort and incomparable skill land determination with which the New Zealand infantry brigades fought in four years and a half of hard campaigning was emphasised by General Freyberg to-day addressing the Fifth and Sixth Infantry Brigade?, during his farewell tour of divisional units. Hp also visited the Fourth Armoured Brigade, the Ordnance Corps, and the Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, and the No. 6 New Zealand General Hospital. LEAVING FOR ENGLAND

He leaves to-morrow by car for Paris, and will go on by air to England In his address to the infantry brigades, General Freyberg said theirs had always been the first and greatest responsibility and always they had discharged it nobly. They led the way for the division, which had seen some of the hardest fighting in the war. No force for its size, had ever achieved as much. “When you are back in civilian life and you say to the people who fought with other Allied armies ‘I fought with the Second New Zealand Division,’ that is sufficient. Of that alone you may be very proud. The importance of the maintenance of transport and heavy equipment, m a division so highly mobile as the New Zealand Division was emphasised by Genera! Freyberg ir. an address to the Electrical and Mechanical Engineers Ordnance. “In this respect we got better and cheaper service than any other force in this war,’’ he declared, giving as reasons the natural skill of New Zealand drivers, realisation of the importance of maintenance work, and the thorough way the servicing was carried out by the workshops. He told the men of the Medical Corps that though they were away from the limelight of the division they had set and maintained a standard higher than anv other he knew. Later, General Freyberg was guest of honour at afternoon tea at the sisters’ mess, and took the opportunity to congratulate the sisters and nurses on the splendid job they had done. TRIBUTE TO MAORIS A tribute to the Maori Battalion was paid by General Freyberg in his farewell tour. The Maoris gathered informally round him while their commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel J. C. Henare, presented him with an illuminated scroll embellished with a design of Maori carving and set in a carved frame. The scroll bore an inscription expressing thanks to him and Lady Freyberg, “With everlasting gratitude from us the Maori Battalion, for all you have done for us (iuring the World War, 1939-45.’’ The scroll also bore the translation in Maori and the signatures of the brigade commander and battalion officers.

Lieutenant-Colonel Henare said he knew he was voicing the sentiments of all present and past members of the battalion in saying that the Maoris had received preferential treatment from General Freyberg. General Freyberg, in reply, said he had always been proud to command the battalion, which had a history full of honour. In spite of heavy casualties, the Maori people had always kept it up to full strength, even in 1944, the most difficult yeiar. He congratulated the battalion on the fact that, it had been, for most of it. career, commanded by one of its own race. “When I arrive in New Zealand I shall report to the Maori people and the Minister of Defence the magnificent work you have done throughout the war,” he said.