Pacific Battalion Now In Tunisia

THE French Pacific Battalion, under the orders of General Koenig, which is attached to the British Eighth Army, recently had the distinction of hoisting the French flag over a strong point in Tunisia which it had succeeded in capturing.

Af Q NfflimP!) cere:m<ony m the church in Noumea, in honour of the Battalion’s

dead, a woman, accompanied by two small children, approached and pinned two tri-colour ribbons on the flag. She was Madame Broche, widow of Colonel Felix Broche, gallant leader of the Battalion, who was killed in the Battle of Bir Hakkeim, last year. Madame Broche, and her children, formerly lived in that part of Tunisia which the Pacific Battalion has just entered.

This photograph shows the gallant Colonel Felix Broche (killed at Bir Hakkeim) at a parade of departing New Caledonian troops, in May, 1941. The figures, left to right, are: The Mayor of Noumea; Governor-General Richard Brunot

(whose advent caused an uproar in Tahiti in July-August, 1941); Governor Henri Sautot; Colonel Broche; M. Patzel (Governor Sautot’s Chef de Cabinet). Colonel Broche’s famous dog is, as usual, beside him.