Quote:
Originally Posted by ozjohn39  spidge,
Quite a few years ago I remember reading somewhere, that included in 'The Rommel Papers' was the quotation :- "The Australian 9th Division was the finest Infantry Division I ever faced".
I have never been able to actually identify the exact origin of this quotation and I wonder if Manfred Rommel was quoting an extract from that work?
Do you have any further info, if so I would be most grateful to receive it.
John |
It might have been a French general just after D Day when he said that he wished the 9th Div was there.
Or it might have been Montgomery himself. At the Battle of El Alemain he placed the 9th Div on the right as he expected the worst of the fighting to be there. But then again he was, in part an Australian himself.
The same 9th Div was the one that Churchill tried to send to Burma to join the 14th Army against the wishes of the Australian PM John Curtin. Curtain had to insist 3 times before they returned to Australia to face the threat of the Japanese. This they did with great distinction firstly in New Guinea.