soc.history.war.world-war-ii

On Mar 31, 10:03 am, "Geoffrey Sinclair"
wrote:

> Sounds right, it is such a good story I am not surprised it has many
> versions, particularly as it is the way the Australians and New
> Zealanders tend to like to think that is the way they handled British
> officers. The version I reported comes from Barry Pitt's Crucible
> of War desert war trilogy, the last volume Montgomery and Alamein.
>
> It will be interesting to see how many versions of the story exist, that
> is who the troops were and the officers supposed to be talking to
> each other.



The versions online involving Freyberg all seem to have Monty or
unspecified as the Brit officer. When I saw the version with the other
named officer, my first thought was 'that might even be true, as the
officer isn't anyone I've heard of, while Monty could be slotted in as
the story spreads'.


I now think I saw that version on paper, so it is unlikely I'll be
able to relocate it promptly. It's just possible that it was in
Freyberg's biograghy (1991), if someone has a copy available.

--
"Somewhere between the bloody ridge of Chunuk Bair in August 1915 and
the black swamp in front of Passchendaele in October 1917, New Zealand
quite definitely found individuality and nationality."
Ormond Burton, 1935