C.R.A.'s Greetings

Observation Post, Volume 1, Issue 30, 11 December 1942, Page 2

C.R.A.'s Greetings

H.Q., 4th Div. Arty., 2nd December, 1942. The Editor, “The Observation Post.’’ It is a pleasure to accede to your Commanding Officer’s request that I should write a Xmas and New Year message to the Regiment for publication in the Observation Post. It is appropriate that my first thought should be to extend to Lieut. Colonel Lowe, the Officers, W.O.’s, N.C.O.’s and men of the Regiment my best wishes for Xmas and the New Year. This Ido most cordially, and I trust that your Xmas and New Year holidays in the comfort and security of your homes will be a period of real happiness and refreshment. The momentous year now drawing to a close has meant for most of you 12 months of hard work and still harder waiting for the chance to prove youi worth as soldiers. With the tremendous drama of the war claiming so much of the world. as its stage the role which the Regiment has been called upon to play has, by comparison, lacked the spectacular values which so effectively aid the defeat of boredom and staleness. That the Regiment has met this long sustained test and all the discomforts of a wet and muddy winter in the field with steadiness and unimpaired morale is a performance of which you may be proud, and one which augurs well for the future. And what of the New Year? As :i soldier speaking to soldiers I wish the Regiment ‘‘good hunting” on the field of battle. I know that your burning de sire is to apply your physical hardness, your training and your resolution to the supreme task of meeting and defeating our enemies in the field. I commend that spirit and charge each and all of you to keep that flame burning in your hearts with ever increasing ardour. On the other hand, as your C.R.A., it is my duty ■ to counsel patience without loss or keen--1 ness, to continue to make every avail I able hour of this period of preparation 1 produce its full worth in training value, i Training not only in the gunner techIniques of war, but in all those moral and spiritual qualities which transform |a, man into a good soldier. Perhaps the most important of these soldierly

qualities are Loyalty, Unselfishness, Keenness, Tolerance and Steadfastness —the flower of their cultivation is pride in one-self and in the Regiment, and the fruit the composite courage, steadiness and power of endurance of a well train' ed Unit demanding the respect of its frierids and the wholesome fear of its enemies. So my New Year message to the Regi ment is to train on with a quickened sense of the reality and urgency of the ■work you are called upon to do; to have faith in the value of the role to which you are allotted in the meantime and to devote yourselves whole-heartedly to preparation for the test which assuredly lies ahead. Thus each in his own sphere may contribute his full share to the honour and good traditions of the Regiment. E. J. PHILLIPS, Colonel. C.R.A.