He saw the New Zealand Forces Club in Cairo as a place where other ranks especially could go and feel normal in what was an extraordinarily abnormal situation.
General Freyberg was always anxious to have good leave centres for his men, maintaining, ‘You can't treat a man like a butler and expect him to fight like a gladiator’.
[1] Located at 33, Sharia Malika Farida (now Abd El-Khalik Tharwat), Cairo, Egypt (corner of Emad El-Deen).
Comfortable lounges where one could relax and drink tea in comparative coolness, or eat ice-cream and fruit salad, provided a welcome haven from the desert environs.
On the ground floor of the building was the Pall Mall Photo Studio where service personnel had portrait photographs taken to send to family back home.
Riunione Adriatica di Sicurta (insurance company) building, Corso Cavour 83, 70121 Bari BA, Italy.
Until the close of the campaign the sumptuous hotel was to remain the doyen of the several outstanding leave centres arranged for New Zealand troops in Italy.
In many of the churches priceless paintings and sculpture of the Renaissance era had been either bricked up, sandbagged, or removed, and the famous picture galleries were not open for inspection, so many of their exhibits having been deposited elsewhere for safer keeping.
[5] The Women's Auxiliary Army Corps, known as Tuis, undertook the work of establishing the NZ Forces Clubs, first in Egypt and later in Italy.
When they arrived in Cairo, they were placed in the care of Freyberg's elegant upper class English wife, Barbara.
In Italy the status of the members of the WAAC was changed so that within 2 NZEF they had all the privileges of an officer as regards travelling, accommodation, and the use of clubs.
The women worked long hours preparing and serving food, visiting hospitals, shopping, helping men select gifts for families at home, dancing with them at places like the YMCA, and providing sympathetic listening.