NEW ZEALAND DIVISION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 90, Issue 7, 9 January 1946, Page 5

NEW ZEALAND DIVISION

A SPLENDID REPUTATION London, Jan. 7. “The 2nd. New Zealand Division leaves a splendid reputation,” says “The Times” in an editorial on a correspondent’s account of the division’s part in the Second World War. “One of the divisions placed in first order of merit by the German general staff after the First World War was the New Zealand Division. The 2nd. New’ Zealand Division has maintained the reputation of its predecessor as a formation of superlative quality, always giving its best, undeterred by heavy losses. It is doubtful whether any other division, with the possible exception of the Indian 4th. Division, endured

such heavy losses and casualties. The First World War exercised a serious effect on the development of the New Zealand population between the two wars, and this further cutting-off of New Zealand’s finest will be felt for a generation. Yet, if the cost was high, achievement was magnificent. “It may safely be said that no force of a similar size had a greater share in silencing the Hitlerian thunder. All conditions seem to have come alike to New Zealanders, whether in the fiercest slogging at close quarters, or lightning manoeuvres on the enemy flank.”