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General Freyberg to the Minister of Defence [Extract]

….¹ I have just returned from the desert after a four-day training scheme with the First Echelon. The Artillery have now calibrated and fired a training practice with 18-pounders; they should get 25-pounders any day now. The 4th Infantry Brigade are fit and 95 per cent equipped. In my opinion the 4th Brigade Group are now trained and equipped on a sufficient scale to take any operational role. They will operate in the Western Desert until they are relieved by an Australian division.²