WAR AGAINST GERMANY

WARS – SECOND WORLD WAR

by Walter Edward Murphy, B.A., Lecturer, School of Political Science and Public Administration, Victoria University of Wellington.

WAR AGAINST GERMANY

The Outbreak of War

New Zealand, as an independent Dominion within the British Empire, formed a Navy of her own in 1921 and an Air Force (under Army control) in 1923. Both grew slowly, while the Army, after compulsory training ceased in 1930, actually diminished in size. Her commitments, however, had increased and now included the defence of Fiji. She was nevertheless quick off the mark when war threatened in 1939 and in fact “beat the gun” by dispatching the cruiser Achilles for America on 29 August and her sister ship the Leander next day with a platoon of infantry to guard the cable station at tiny Fanning Island (near the Equator, halfway across the Pacific). On 3 September the Government did not hesitate to follow the United Kingdom in declaring war on Germany.

Naval Expansion

The New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy (renamed in 1941 the Royal New Zealand Navy) possessed at the start of the war the light cruisers Achilles and Leander, the minesweeping trawler Wakakura, and the training ship Philomel. Three trawlers were taken over and fitted as minesweepers, and two other small craft took up port duties. Half a dozen merchant ships were equipped each with a 4 in. gun and the Monowai was requisitioned to be fitted as an armed merchant cruiser. Coastwatching stations, numbering in the end 58, were set up at key points, manned by reservists and civilians. No further immediate expansion was possible, but the demand for men, particularly to serve in the Royal Navy, steadily increased.

Naval manpower at the outset was as follows:

New Zealanders RN Personnel Total
Officers Rating Officers Ratings
Long Service 8 716 74 541 1,339
RNVR (NZ) 70 662 .. .. 732
2,071

The table (titled 'Naval Personnel'), although it does not tally with that above, shows how strengths increased

Thus a force predominantly officered at first by the RN was soon able to supply New Zealand officers not only for its own units but for the RN as well. The main expansion, of course, took place in the RN Volunteer Reserve (NZ), later the RNZVR. The NZ Auxiliary Patrol Service which started in December 1941 reached a maximum of 463 part-time volunteers, and the Women's Royal NZ Naval Service – “Wrens” – were formed for home service in 1942, and reached a maximum of 519.

The Achilles and Leander

After 10 weeks of inspecting ports and shipping on the coast of South America, the Achilles suddenly became famous as one of the three cruisers which, on 13 December 1939, defeated the powerful “pocket battleship” Admiral Graf Spee off the mouth of the River Plate . This was the first occasion – and what a thrilling one! – that the New Zealand ensign was hoisted in action. The Achilles fired a greater weight of shell in this action than either the Exeter or Ajax – 1,240 6 in. rounds at the phenomenal average of two rounds per gun per minute – and her company, led by Captain E. Parry, thoroughly deserved the applause of the crowd of 100,000 when they marched to the Auckland Town Hall on 23 February 1940. They had sailed 52,323 miles in 168 days.

Back from Fanning Island, the Leander, after escort duties, became in June 1940 the senior ship of the Red Sea Force and served as such for five months under frequent Italian sea and air attack from East Africa. Then, in 1941, she joined a hunt for raiders in the Indian Ocean, sinking the 3,667 ton Italian auxiliary cruiser Ramb I in February and next month seizing the Vichy-French motor vessel Charles L.D. of 5,267 tons. More adventures followed in the Arabian Gulf in April, and off Syria in June, and by the time the Leander docked at Wellington on 8 September 1941 the New Zealand ensign was already the proud emblem of a young navy.

War in New Zealand Waters

Early in June 1940 the German raider Orion laid mines in the northern approaches to Auckland and on the 19th the 13,415 ton Niagara struck one and sank. (The recovery of most of the gold it carried later became an epic of naval salvage.) In August the same raider sank the Turakina in the Tasman Sea and in November the Komet sank the small steamer Holmwood off the Chathams. Then both raiders sent the 16,712 ton Rangitane to the bottom, a day out of Auckland. Leaving New Zealand waters the raiders next appeared off Nauru Island near the Equator, sank five ships, and wrecked by shellfire the valuable phosphates plant. These acts caused much commotion. The Monowai, commissioned in August as an armed merchant cruiser, and the Achilles searched for the raiders; many air searches were flown, and minesweepers swept approaches to the main ports. In May 1941 the little Puriri, searching for floating mines, struck one and quickly sank with the loss of five lives. (That two more minefields were laid off Wellington and Lyttelton in June 1941 by a captured whale-chaser renamed the Adjutant was learned from German records after the war; they were never found.)

New Zealanders in the Royal Navy

Some 7,000 New Zealanders served in the Royal Navy. They were to be found in every type of naval vessel and aircraft, in most naval engagements and every major action, and they took their share of the routine of patrol and escort. They served in Arctic convoys to Murmansk, in the long-drawn-out Battle of the Atlantic, in the two-year struggle against commerce raiders, in minesweepers in the English Channel or off Sicily, or at Diego Suarez in Madagascar, and in the submarine service. They manned guns of merchant ships. Some of them helped to evacuate their countrymen from Greece and Crete. A few of them as Fleet Air Arm pilots flew obsolescent aircraft from Malta when its very name was a symbol of gallant defiance. All told, though their identity was submerged in the vastness of the war at sea, they did well and gained New Zealand many friends. Total casualties were 451 dead and 134 wounded or captured.

The Army

The New Zealand Army was less ready for war in 1939 than it had been in 1914. It had greater commitments and fewer trained men. Voluntary Territorials numbered only 10,364, the Special Reserve 374, and the Regular Force 578. Mechanised warfare called for more equipment and training than that needed for the “footsloggers” of the First World War. Permanent camps did exist, however, at Ngaruawahia, Trentham, and Burnham – in this, at least, the Army was better off – and they were soon crammed with recruits.

A division was again to be sent to Egypt, raised in three contingents, the first of which went into camp on 3 October 1939. An advance party sailed on 11 December, and the First, Second, and Third Echelons (as they were called) departed as follows:

First: 6,529 all ranks 6 January 1940.

Second: 6,460 all ranks (plus naval details) 2 May 1940.

Third: 6,434 all ranks 27 August 1940.

Their main components were the 4th, 5th, and 6th Infantry Brigades respectively and each was to have a field regiment of 25-pounder guns, a battery of anti-tank 2-pounders and another of Bofors light anti-aircraft guns, an engineer and a machine-gun company, and signals and ancillary services. The Divisional Cavalry Regiment (of armoured cars and Bren carriers) was to be committed in whole or in part as needed. Tradition was ignored in the naming of the infantry battalions, and units which in the First World War had been associated with the major provinces, now became mere numbers. The 18th, 21st, and 24th were from Auckland, the 19th, 22nd, and 25th from Wellington, and the 20th, 23rd, and 26th from the South Island. Each brigade had one battalion from each district and 5 Brigade had in addition 28 (Maori) Battalion. The 27th was the machine-gun battalion. A Forestry Group and a Railway Construction and Maintenance Group of engineers were also formed, and they sent off an advance party on 17 April 1940 – the same day that an anti-tank battery formed of New Zealanders in England left there for Egypt. (A survey battery of artillery and an army troops company of engineers were among non-divisional troops raised then or later.)

All three echelons linked with larger Australian contingents en route. The First and Third duly landed in Egypt; but the Second, on the high seas when Germany invaded France and Italy entered the war, was diverted to the United Kingdom and docked in Scotland on 16 June.

Thus the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force was born. Both 2 NZEF and the NZ Division were to be commanded by Major-General B. C. Freyberg (q.v.). He insisted on getting a “charter” which laid down his responsibilities to the New Zealand Government and which gave him considerable discretion in administering and training 2 NZEF, forming new units or detachments for it, and committing it to action.

Assembling the Division

During the Battle of Britain 2 NZEF (U.K.), as the Second Echelon was called, formed two brigades as a mobile reserve to meet the threatened invasion. Released from this role, its units began to reach Egypt in January 1941, after a long voyage round the Cape of Good Hope; but it was March before the last of them arrived. Some 4 Brigade detachments had meanwhile clashed with Italians on the Libyan-Egyptian frontier in July and August 1940. Others laboured on anti-tank defences in the Western Desert, while transport companies carried supplies, engineers developed water resources, signallers operated communications, and the railway companies, as they reached Egypt, hastened to work on the desert railway. The New Zealand “lemon squeezer” hat with its coloured puggarees therefore became a familiar sight from Cairo to the frontier. When the winter campaign against the Italians opened, 4 Brigade was in reserve at Baggush, though some of its lorries drove Indian infantry into action near Sidi Barrani, while engineers and signallers also supported the offensive. Freyberg strongly disliked committing his fighting units until the whole Division was assembled.

Greece and Crete

Before this could be achieved, however, elements of the Division were on their way to Greece. With 6 Australian Division and 1 Armoured Brigade, the Division sailed as part of W Force in a hasty expedition reminiscent of the Gallipoli adventure. Barely had they occupied the right of the Aliakmon Line, looking across the bay to Salonica, when they were withdrawn. New Zealand machine-gunners fought with Australians near Vevi on 10 April. The Divisional Cavalry and 5 Field Regiment briskly and competently delayed the enemy on the Aliakmon on the 12th and 13th. Then for four days 4 and 5 Brigades held up strong enemy forces in the Olympus and Servia Passes. So completely were the two brigades in command of the situation that they would have stayed until Doomsday had they been asked. But all was not well elsewhere. At a defile on the coast one battalion faced a whole division and was soon outflanked and forced back through the Vale of Tempe. An Australian brigade, rushed forward, could not stem the flood. Back came W Force to the Thermopylae Line, attacked every daylight hour from the air. All day on the 24th, 6 Brigade and the guns fought at Molos, destroying many tanks. But evacuation had been ordered and after dark the force withdrew, sadly spiking its guns. From beaches near Athens or in the Peloponnesus, W Force embarked up to 28–29 April. Thousands had to be left behind. In its first campaign the Division lost 291 dead, 599 wounded (212 of them captured), and 1,614 prisoners of war.

Most of 4 and 5 Brigades and other troops landed on Crete with nothing but what they could wear or carry. Freyberg was given command of the whole island and his place in the Division was taken by Brigadier E. Puttick. Puttick's force, besides 4 and 5 Brigades, consisted of 10 Brigade – made up of cavalry, gunners, and service troops acting as infantry – and three Greek regiments so poorly trained and armed as to be of little use. Forecasting accurately where the enemy would try to land, Puttick disposed his men to guard the so-called Prison Valley south-west of Canea and the airfield at Maleme, but he could spare no troops for a likely landing place on the coast to the west.

The landing on 20 May followed bombing and machine gunning from the air on a scale calculated to shatter the defences. But three battalions which landed by glider or parachute at Maleme were cut to pieces, one practically annihilated in a holocaust of small-arms fire. Others near Galatas were shot in the air or stalked on the ground until very few survived. A battalion which dropped on the undefended ground to the west, however, attacked the airfield under close and deadly air cover. By night the battalion guarding this vital sector was ordered to withdraw, a fatal mistake. Next day transport planes began to land supplies and re-inforcements. Counter-attacks on the 22nd failed to retrieve the position, though the Navy defeated a sea-borne force. On the 23rd, 5 Brigade withdrew and on the 25th the battle reached its climax with an attack by the surviving paratroops and fresh alpine troops on the village of Galatas. Air support was on a terrifying scale and mortar bombs rained down on the defence. The village fell, but was recovered in a brilliant counterthrust at dusk. After dark the Division withdrew. As its numbers dwindled those of the enemy increased. Freyberg had no choice but to make his way to the south coast and save what he could of his force. On the 27th an alpine battalion, incautiously following up, was overrun in a wild charge led by Maoris and virtually destroyed. Another rearguard on the 28th covered a weary 40-mile march over the White Mountains. On the last three nights of May the Navy took off all the men it could from the tiny beach at Sfakia. Naval losses had been severe and after that no more ships could be spared. Of the 7,702 New Zealanders on Crete 671 died, 1,943 were wounded (488 of them captured), and 2,180 became prisoners – a very severe loss for such a small force. Three V.C.'s were won in Greece and Crete, those of Hinton, Hulme, and Upham.

The Relief of Tobruk

Undismayed by these losses, the Division carried out amphibious and desert training in the next few months. With nearly 20,000 men and 2,800 vehicles, a powerful mobile force with its own light antiaircraft regiment and other valuable new elements, it crossed into Libya on 18 November 1941 in the first offensive of the newly formed Eighth Army. In the next four days the British armour was shattered. The Division, not knowing this, left 5 Brigade in the frontier area to hold its considerable gains and advanced with 4 and 6 Brigades to relieve Tobruk. The enemy armour under General Rommel fortunately made a simultaneous dash to the frontier area.

After heavy fighting at Point 175, Sidi Rezegh, and Belhamed, the Division broke through in the night of 26–27 November with the help of British infantry tanks and joined hands with the Tobruk garrison at Ed Duda, thus forming the Tobruk Corridor. The three enemy armoured divisions, thwarted in the frontier area, then returned and counter-attacked the corridor. In furious fighting a New Zealand field regiment and four battalions were overwhelmed, and the corridor was severed by noon of 1 December. For Rommel, however, it was a Pyrrhic victory. The remnants of the Division withdrew into Tobruk or back to Egypt. A week later Rommel retreated from Tobruk to Gazala. There, assailed by 5 NZ Brigade and other Eighth Army troops, he gave up on the 16th and withdrew to the Gulf of Sirte. For four critical days the Division had borne the brunt of the fighting and suffered heavy loss: 982 dead, 1,699 wounded, and 1,939 taken prisoner.

Among these were 124 killed at sea, 80 in a ship which was torpedoed while carrying wounded from Tobruk, and 44 in an enemy ship sunk while carrying prisoners to Europe. But this was not all. Ratings trained at Auckland were gradually forming a crew for the cruiser Neptune and in December she carried two New Zealand officers and 148 ratings. In heavy seas off Tripoli, in waters thought too deep for mining, the unlucky Neptune struck three mines in quick succession at 1 a.m. on the 19th. Three hours later she struck a fourth, rolled over, and sank. Only one English rating survived of a company of 750-odd. The 150 RNZN men thus lost added an unhappy sequel to the battle.

The Battle for Egypt – June-November 1942

Recalled hastily from Syria, in June 1942, the Division fought a delaying action at Minqar Qaim, south of Mersa Matruh, to cover the retreat of the Eighth Army after the fall of Tobruk. Encircled by day on the 27th, the New Zealanders burst through by night and headed back to a line being formed at El Alamein. In this last ditch before the Nile – as in front of Amiens in 1918 – the enemy was finally halted and the Division at once regained the initiative. It routed an Italian division on 3 July and captured its artillery. Then came two bold night attacks, at Ruweisat Ridge on 14–15 July and El Mreir on the 21st–22nd. The infantry in each case won their objectives, but supporting weapons, including tanks, failed to get forward and the foremost infantry were overrun with heavy loss. As a result 4 Brigade and 22 Battalion of 5 Brigade withdrew to base to refit and train as an armoured brigade. In these actions two more V.C.'s were earned, that of Elliott and the second one of Upham's.

At the end of August Rommel attacked in the south, was decisively checked, and New Zealand counter-attacks on 3–4 September gained some success. Then the Division withdrew to train for a major offensive. In the Alamein attack which opened at night on 23 October with a heavy artillery programme, the New Zealand objective, Miteiriya Ridge, soon fell. After a week of hard fighting, Freyberg, with three British brigades added to his command, attacked again on 1–2 November and broke the Axis line. Next day the NZ Provost Corps began marking out with black diamond signs a route which was to guide the two-brigade Division for nearly 2,000 miles across North Africa. The enemy was in full retreat. Before dawn on 11 November some 110 men of 21 Battalion stormed the formidable Sollum Pass and took 600 prisoners, opening the way into Libya. Near Bardia the Division halted for supplies. Since June it had lost 1,437 dead, 3,370 wounded, and 1,662 prisoners, mostly at Ruweisat and El Mreir.

Tripolitania and Tunisia

The Division carried out the first of its famous “left hooks” in December, moving over extremely rough desert to outflank the El Agheila position. The enemy at once withdrew, clashing briefly with New Zealanders astride his rear at Nofilia. The next stage in January 1943 took the Division through the inland oasis of Beni Ulid to hill country south of Tripoli, which fell on the 23rd. The third left hook, following a one-day defensive success at Medenine in Tunisia, passed round the southern end of the Mareth Line to the Tebaga Gap. There the New Zealand Corps (the Division with attached British armour and other troops) mounted a setpiece battle with close tank and air support and broke through. In so doing the Maori Battalion greatly distinguished itself at Point 209 and one of its members, Lieutenant Ngarimu, won a posthumous V.C. Leading the pursuit from the Wadi Akarit a week later, the Division soon reached the formidable heights before Tunis, including the dominating feature of Takrouna, which 5 Brigade gained in bitter hand-to-hand fighting on 19–20 April. Early next month veterans of the German 90th Light Division asked if they could surrender to the New Zealanders, whom they had come to respect in many a hard-fought battle, and some did so. On 13 May Freyberg took the surrender of the Italian First Army and the fighting in North Africa ended. Since Alamein the Division had lost 336 dead, 967 wounded, and 21 prisoners.

Back to Egypt: Furlough and Regrouping

The Division turned back within a day or two from the flowery Tunisian fields and purple hills and re-entered the familiar desert. In easy stages the 1,900 miles to base camp at Maadi near Cairo took 16 or 17 days and the reunion at the end with 4 Brigade, now an armoured formation with three regiments of Sherman tanks and 22 Motor Battalion, was heart-warming. Men in the ranks, most junior officers, and a sprinkling of senior officers of the first three echelons, went home on furlough in two drafts three months apart. Reinforcements took their places, diluting the fighting units with inexperience. Such was the Division's reputation, however, that Churchill, writing of the Division which had “always held a shining place in the van” of the historic advance across North Africa, urged that it be allowed to continue into Europe.

Italy: the Sangro and Orsogna

It was a very different Division which disembarked at Taranto in October 1943 and entered the line, after a 250-mile journey by road, in mid-November. It now had 4,500 vehicles and these had no open highway such as the Western Desert; they were tied to a few muddy roads and tracks. The weather was filthy and the Sangro River ahead and the Abruzzi Hills beyond promised a cold and muddy introduction to the Italian campaign. After careful preparation, 5 and 6 Brigades, with two tank regiments, attacked in the early hours of 28 November, crossing the swift, icy current and floundering across the muddy river flat. The infantry then climbed slippery cliff faces while engineers laboured to bridge the river in two places. Fortunately opposition was slight.

In the next fortnight the New Zealanders fought their way and manhandled their supporting weapons and supplies up into the Abruzzi, capturing several villages. Only at Orsogna did they fail. This large village enjoyed great natural strength. Its stubborn paratroop garrison beat back two frontal attacks and two outflanking moves. When the last elements of the Division were relieved on 17 January 1944 the paratroops still held Orsogna. On this wintry front 413 New Zealanders died, 1,132 were wounded, and 89 captured (18 of them wounded).

Cassino

In secret the Division crossed the snowy Apennines to form (with an Indian division, an American group, and corps troops) another New Zealand Corps for the pursuit towards Rome, after the Fifth Army broke through to the Liri Valley behind Cassino. The Corps was to link up with troops from the landing at Anzio. Freyberg commanded the Corps and Major-General Kippenberger the Division. Severe fighting by Americans, however, failed to breach the line and soon it was evident that NZ Corps would have to fight its way through. In wind and rain on 4–5 February, units of 5 Brigade splashed through flooded fields and into sodden foxholes facing Cassino, to relieve the Americans for a final effort. The scene by day was daunting. The Rapido River in front was flooded. On the right the outskirts of the town lay less than a mile ahead and behind them Montecassino rose steeply, topped by the gigantic abbey, like a huge all-seeing eye. Beyond it, snow-capped Monte Cairo loomed higher still. Heights and marshy flats were all strongly fortified, and patience was clearly called for until the ground dried. But the Allied Command in Italy, worried about Anzio, could not wait.

When the last American assault failed, Freyberg undertook a two-pronged attack; but first the dominating appearance of the abbey was drastically altered. On 15 February it was heavily bombed and its massive walls reduced to ruins – an act, controversial though it later became, which accorded with opinion at the front. Again before dusk on the 17th it was bombed. After dark Indians from the north got within 300 yards of the ruins while two Maori companies crossed the river and seized Cassino Railway Station. But daylight came too soon, engineers failed to bridge the river, and the Indians and Maoris were driven back with heavy loss. Firmer ground was essential and an anxious month followed, the Division meanwhile edging round to the north into the outskirts of the town and preparing for a frontal assault. Kippenberger was wounded on 2 March and Brigadier Parkinson took command of the Division. On the 15th heavy bombers (and “mediums”) dropped 1,100 tons of bombs and battered the town beyond recognition. Artillery took up the destruction. Then a battalion of 6 Brigade attacked, supported by tanks.

The bombing and shelling, however, had substituted one kind of obstruction for another. Everywhere the ground was deeply cratered and tanks were held up. One company of infantry climbed cliff faces and brilliantly captured Castle Hill. Elsewhere the attack petered out in a maze of fallen masonry and jagged walls. Reinforcements were only slowly committed after much delay and, as they advanced, rain turned the craters into ponds. A morning attack gained 200 yards. On the 17th tanks and infantry gained the railway station. In the hills above, Indians took several useful features in hard fighting and it became imperative to break through from the town to ease the pressure on them. Even in the town 6 Brigade was thin on the ground and two Maori companies on the 19th scarcely filled the gaps. A long detour through the hills could not receive infantry support and partly for that reason it failed. The New Zealand tank crews nevertheless gained a tantalising glimpse of the Liri Valley – as the Wellingtons at Chunuk Bair in August 1915 saw the Dardanelles. The offensive was halted on 24 March and two days later NZ Corps disbanded. Isolated detachments on the hillsides withdrew with great difficulty, all bitterly disappointed – New Zealanders, Indians, and Ghurkas.

It took firmer ground in May to carry both Fifth and Eighth Armies through the enemy line on a broad front. The Division held the line to the north, but its 18th and 19th Armoured Regiments took part in this final offensive. The 19th, after much hard fighting, proudly entered Cassino on 18 May. A week later the 18th took up the pursuit through country almost impassable for tanks and, when relieved on 4 June, was well on the way to Rome. The Division had meanwhile penetrated the hills to Sora, and then Balsorano, on the upper Liri. At last came a well-earned rest. The Cassino fighting up to mid-June cost 460 New Zealand lives, 1,801 wounded (7 of them captured), and 43 unwounded prisoners.

Florence

A quick move in mid-July took the Division to the Arezzo front where 6 Brigade fought a sharp two-day action against rearguards barring the way to the Arno Valley and Florence. Its next task was to exploit the impending fall of Florence. Within a few days plans were changed and the Division began on 22 July to push towards the Arno below the city. In this country of vineyards and woods and many hill villages, Tiger tanks with guns and armour far heavier than those of the Shermans offered lively opposition and caused much loss. After fighting to gain a suitable start line, a divisional attack before midnight of 1 August, under a strong artillery barrage, pierced the last line of hills before Florence, and early on 4 August Maoris and men of 23 Battalion raced each other into the outskirts of the town, only to be recalled within an hour or so. The Division took over a sector to the west of the city and on 10–11 August pushed forward to the bank of the Arno. The confused fighting which took the Division through two strong defensive lines on the way to the city cost 298 lives, 900 wounded (4 of them captured), and 27 other prisoners.

Winter in the Romagna

A hasty and secret move across the Apennines at the end of the month led to fighting north of Rimini on the Adriatic at the end of September. The land was quartered by ditches, canals, and stopbanks thickly sewn with mines and booby traps. In heavy rain 5 Brigade attacked from the Marecchia River on the 22nd, and by the 26th 6 Brigade had reached the Uso. Over sodden ground in blinding rain 5 Brigade resumed on the 28th and reached the Fiumicino – officially the Rubicon of old. But the storm won and the river was in raging flood; thus the Division had to push inland. In this laborious fashion the Division snatched a bridgehead opposite Gatteo on 11 October, crossed one river or canal after another in the next fortnight, and ended up on the River Savio north of Cesena. There was now a shortage of infantry and the cavalry, anti-tank gunners, and others had to hold the line. On the 22nd the weary units withdrew for a month in reserve.

In villages round Fabriano units were reinforced, and on 25 November the Division passed through the large town of Forli to take up positions on the Lamone River facing Faenza. In frequent snowstorms and an icy wind, 5 Brigade crossed the river to the west and in heavy fighting between 14 and 17 December reached the Senio. Ghurkas cleared Faenza on the 16th and three days later 6 Brigade pushed northeastwards to complete the line on the Senio. The rest of the winter passed quietly with frequent reliefs for the infantry, and early in March the Division moved back to the Fabriano area, well knowing that the Germans would not have wasted their time and that the next advance would be through a maze of barbed wire, mines, traps, and fortifications. Already the campaign in the Romagna had cost 419 dead, 1,733 wounded, and 33 prisoners.

From the Senio to Trieste

For the Division's last campaign another brigade, the 9th, was formed from the Divisional Cavalry, and machine-gun battalion reorganised as infantry units, and reinforced with anti-tank gunners and others no longer needed in their normal roles. The third battalion was 22 Motor Battalion from 4 Armoured Brigade. An assault squadron of engineers was ready to build bridges under fire. Flame-throwing “Crocodiles” and “Wasps” and troop-carrying armoured “Kangaroos” were to help the infantry across the stopbanks.

In the line north of Faenza, the Division gained full control of the southern stopbank of the Senio early in April. A heavy bombardment by 17 artillery regiments and bombing by heavy and medium bombers and fighter-bombers (all dropping light fragmentation bombs so as not to crater the ground) preceded a night attack on the 9th under “artificial moonlight” created by searchlights. The flamethrowers hosed the opposite stopbank, infantry crossed by boat or kapok bridge, led off behind a barrage, and won their objectives. Crossings of the Santerno followed on the 11th and 12th, and, on the 15th–16th, 9 Brigade crossed the Sillaro with 6 Brigade. A bloody crossing of the Gaiana Canal by 9 Brigade and a Ghurka brigade finally broke the defence. Dead German paratroops lay everywhere as 5 and 6 Brigades passed through. And so on to the Idice, daringly crossed on the 20th, then 20 miles to the Reno and, on the 24th, to the southern bank of the Po. A few bold spirits paddled across at once; but the main crossing, largely unopposed, took place on Anzac Day.

Beyond this 250-yard-wide barrier, the Division raced through turbulent countryside to Padua and Mestre, sent a detachment into Venice, skirmished by the Piave River on the 30th, and pushed on rapidly towards Trieste. At 3 p.m. on 2 May, tanks of 20 Armoured Brigade drove into the city, and in the evening 22 Battalion took the surrender of the garrison of the castle. The German forces in Italy officially surrendered that day; but in Trieste and its environs many Germans refused to give themselves up to Yugoslav partisans. Some 12,000 non-supporters of General Tito caused trouble and the Tito partisans in the city were truculent. But on 11 June the Yugoslav troops began to withdraw from Trieste and the Division was able to relax. Its long campaign in Italy had at last ended. The last phase cost 436 dead and 1,159 wounded.

Demobilisation and J Force

The furlough scheme continued and in September 1945 the 9th Reinforcements departed. By this time Japan had surrendered (on 15 August), and a composite brigade known as “J Force” was formed to take part in the occupation – men of late reinforcements plus unmarried volunteers. It kept the units of 9 Brigade, but in name only, their ranks being filled from eligible men throughout 2 NZEF (including 270 Maori volunteers who formed an extra squadron of the Divisional Cavalry Battalion). The force sailed for Japan in February 1946, by which time the Division had long since ceased to exist.

The Losses of the 2nd Division

The total dead from all causes amounted to 6,581, the wounded to 16,237, and the “unwounded” prisoners (including many wounded not reported as such) to 6,637. For the operations carried out these totals are not high.

The Air Force

The Royal New Zealand Air Force, set up as a separate service in 1937, numbered only 756 Regulars and 404 Territorials at the start of the war, though it had already contributed over 100 trained pilots to the RAF. Its main concern was to supply trained aircrew for service in the RAF, and its quota under the Empire Air Training Plan was eventually fixed at 880 fully trained pilots per year and 520 pilots, 546 observers, and 936 air gunners partly trained and then sent to Canada to complete their training. This high rate of output was expected to be reached by the end of 1940; but by straining all resources to the utmost an annual rate of 1,480 fully trained and 850 partly trained pilots was reached by January 1941. Only an instructional and maintenance staff was retained in New Zealand, plus aircrew and ground staff for three bomber-reconnaissance squadrons.

New Zealanders in the RAF

Many New Zealanders had stayed in the RAF after the First World War or had joined it between the wars and, including those trained by the RNZAF, they numbered 550 in September 1939. Several of them held high positions. Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Park (as he later became) was chief of staff to the head of Fighter Command. Air Marshal Sir Arthur Coningham was then a group commander in Bomber Command, as was Air Vice-Marshal C. T. MacLean. Park commanded the RAF at Malta at the height of its ordeal in 1942, then the RAF in the Middle East, and finally became Allied Air C-in-C, South-East Asia. Coningham commanded the Western Desert Air Force, then the 1st Tactical Air Force in Italy, and finally the 2nd Tactical Air Force in the invasion of Europe. Air Vice-Marshal F. H. M. Maynard was sent to command at Malta early in the war.

At the outset the Government waived its claim to 30 Wellington bombers ordered in 1937, the first six of which were about to be flown to New Zealand. These, with their New Zealand crews, were therefore formed into the New Zealand Flight and this built up by April 1940 to squadron strength and became No. 75 New Zealand Squadron, RAF. Other RNZAF men attached to the RAF were already serving in France in support of the BEF and one of them, Flying Officer “Cobber” Kain, with 14 enemy aircraft to his credit by June 1940 (when he was killed), became the first air ace of the war. The last Hurricane to fly over Cherbourg in June 1940, when the BEF left, was piloted by Park.

The Battle of Britain

The Luftwaffe began to exert its great strength against south coast shipping, ports, and airfields on 10 July 1940 and began its grand assault on 15 August. Park, as commander of No. 11 Fighter Group, directed the defence. Four New Zealanders commanded fighter squadrons and 95, in all, fought as fighter pilots in the battle. Several proved outstanding. But fighter pilots were not the only heroes of the battle. Bomber and Coastal Commands were also engaged, and of the 47 New Zealand airmen killed in the Battle of Britain, 32 belonged to these two commands. Other New Zealanders served as night-fighter pilots when the Germans turned to night bombing of English cities and, of the 90 night raiders shot down in May 1941, 16 were claimed by New Zealanders.

New Zealand Units of the RAF

Besides 75 Squadron, New Zealand units were formed in the RAF (though by no means exclusively of New Zealanders).

Some other units at various times gained a strong New Zealand flavour and one, No. 258 Fighter Squadron, in 1941 had a majority of New Zealand pilots. It adopted a fernleaf emblem, and became an “unofficial” New Zealand squadron.

The bare details of the varied operations of these squadrons are impressive. No. 485 flew 10,717 sorties and claimed 63 aircraft destroyed, 25 “probables”, and 32 damaged. No. 486 flew 11,019 sorties, destroyed 81 aircraft with five probables and 22 damaged, accounted for 223 flying bombs, and probably sank 16 ships at sea or in port. No. 487 suffered heavy loss when flying Ventura day bombers, only one out of 11 returning from an attack on 3 May, when the squadron leader, L. H. Trent, won the V.C. With Mosquito bombers it bombed Amiens Prison to help condemned patriots to escape and, as an aid to the Resistance, bombed Gestapo headquarters at Jutland from rooftop height. In the course of 3,112 sorties, it did much other damage, especially to transport facilities. No. 488 in 2,899 sorties destroyed 67 aircraft, with four probables and 10 damaged. No. 489, in daring low-level torpedo attacks against fierce anti-aircraft fire in the North Sea, sank 11 ships totalling 38,700 tons, mostly off the dangerous coast of Norway, and damaged a further 13 of 30,000 tons. In the last year of the war it formed, with an Australian squadron and an English one, the Anzac Strike Wing, which attacked shipping off Holland and then off Norway; it sank 19 ships of 67,000 tons and 12 escort vessels and damaged 18 cargo ships and 49 escorts. In 2,380 sorties the squadron lost 31 aircraft, from which very few of the aircrew survived. No. 490 flew only 463 sorties, but these averaged 10 hours each. Only once did a squadron flying boat sight and attack a submarine and by a coincidence another submarine was attacked less than 100 miles away at that very time by a New Zealander, L. A. Trigg. From the evidence of survivors of the submarine about the way in which Trigg maintained his attack despite his crippled aircraft, he gained a posthumous V.C.

Bomber Command

Most RNZAF men attached to the RAF served in heavy units of Bomber Command, which fought the greatest air campaign of the war against Germany and suffered the heaviest losses. Their experiences, if they survived, usually followed the pattern of operations of No. 75 Squadron, which began with Wellingtons, gained four-engined Stirlings towards the end of 1942, and changed these for Lancasters in the spring of 1944. Their worst enemy at first was the weather. Then, as navigation and bombing aids improved, they had to contend with stiffening air defences, and the most costly raids were quite late in the war. No. 75 Squadron won a V.C. in August 1941 – that of J. A. Ward. In May and June 1942 it took part in the first 1,000-bomber raids. In the Battle of the Ruhr in the first seven months of 1943 and in laying mines in enemy waters between January 1943 and February 1944, the unit lost about 50 Stirlings. Re-equipped with Lancasters, the squadron resumed the bombing of Germany and flew many an anxious night sortie into the heart of this fortress – missions which strained courage and endurance and tested skill as searchingly as any other task of the war. In the final battle the unit lost 32 Lancasters – more than 200 aircrew. This brought the total to 8,150 sorties, averaging five hours each, in which 21,630 tons of bombs were dropped and 2,344 mines laid. In addition, 75 Squadron probably shot down 45 fighters.

Strengths and Losses

There were 6,127 RNZAF men attached to the RAF in October 1944, the peak figure. The cumulative total, plus New Zealanders known to be in the RAF, was 10,950. Of these, 3,285 were killed, at least 138 seriously wounded, and 568 captured. This was a very high rate of loss indeed. Losses would have been far fewer had New Zealand sent aircrew and ground staff in balanced proportions to serve in the RAF. But in that case some memorable pages in the history of the RAF could never have been written.

War Against Japan

A few hours after Japanese hostilities against British Malaya were known to be in train, the Japanese attacked the United States Naval Base of Pearl Harbour on 8 December (New Zealand time). This act brought the United States into the war. New Zealand, along with the United Kingdom and other members of the Commonwealth, met the challenge without delay. At 11 a.m. on 8 December New Zealand declared war on Japan. Pacific defence was a poor relation of New Zealand's war efforts in the Middle East and Europe. Instructors and equipment for the small Fiji Defence Force had been sent in the last quarter of 1939. Then 8 NZ Infantry Brigade Group with 3,053 men reached there in November 1940 and began fortifying Viti Levu. A detachment of the RNZAF in Fiji became No. 4 General Reconnaissance Squadron, but its aircraft were obsolescent, as were the four flying boats which at the end of 1941 formed No. 5 GR Squadron. A flight of six old biplanes served for local reconnaissance and army cooperation. So weak was the RNZAF at home that it had to call on civil aircraft to search for the German raiders in New Zealand waters in 1940.

American requests for landing grounds in Fiji to take large modern service aircraft brought a spurt of activity in November 1941. No. 2 Aerodrome Construction Squadron, RNZAF, supervised the building of three long concrete runways; the Ministry of Works sent over a Civil Construction Unit of 1,219 civilian employees with heavy equipment, and one runway was finished in January 1942 and the other two by April. By the end of November 1941 Cunningham's force had grown to 4,943 men, including 945 troops of the Fiji Defence Force. In Tonga there were 462 Tongan troops commanded by 13 New Zealanders. In Samoa one New Zealand warrant officer commanded 150 Samoans. On Fanning Island there were 110 New Zealanders. In the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, near the Equator, 22 New Zealand soldiers and 15 Post Office employees manned coastwatching stations and report centres, as did detachments in other island groups including the Kermadecs and Chathams. The civilian status of the Post Office employees in their military work left it open to the Japanese to regard them as spies, a serious oversight. All were captured and half of them, with their army colleagues, were brutally executed on Tarawa in October 1942. The civilians were posthumously given military status for the benefit of their dependants.

The Beginnings of the Pacific War

All three New Zealand services reacted strongly to the outbreak of war with Japan. The Achilles, Leander, and Monowai served as escorts for the many troop movements which took place in the first few months and in January 1942 the Monowai clashed briefly with a Japanese submarine off Fiji. The little HMNZS Gale, a coaster converted to minesweeping, reached Suva on Christmas Day 1941, the first of many small New Zealand vessels to serve in the Pacific.

There were 13,250 men in Army camps at home and 4,600 fortress troops were mobilised. Another 11,000 Territorials entered camp on 15 December and by the 28th 28,850 men were in camp, to be increased to 39,350 by January. A mixed anti-aircraft battery was sent to Fiji in December, and 14 Infantry Brigade, of three battalions, brought the force in Fiji (called the Pacific Section, 2 NZEF) to divisional strength in January. The RNZAF dispatched six of its 36 Hudson bomber-reconnaissance aircraft – the only modern aircraft it possessed – to Fiji in December and six more in February 1942.

Malaya

No. 1 Aerodrome Construction Squadron and No. 488 NZ Fighter Squadron, RAF, reached Malaya between August and November 1941. The construction squadron worked hard at Johore and in northern Malaya only to see its labours rendered fruitless by the speed of the Japanese advance. The fighter squadron barely had time to take over Buffalo fighters before the Japanese attacked. Ill trained though it was, the squadron soon found itself in the air against large numbers of Japanese fighters of far superior performance. Both New Zealand squadrons withdrew to Sumatra in February and then to Australia under incessant air attack which caused some 30 casualties. They reached home in March and were in due course disbanded.

Expansion of Forces in the Pacific

HMNZS Rata and Muritai relieved the Gale at Suva in January 1942 and the 600-ton corvette Moa, newly arrived from Scotland, soon took over from the Rata. Other small ships, forming the 25th Minesweeping Flotilla, took turns in home and foreign service. The Moa was joined later in the year by her sister ships Kiwi and Tui and four 560-ton minesweeping trawlers were supplied a few months later by the Admiralty. Thirteen ships all told were built in New Zealand, mostly steel vessels of 290 tons, and between October 1942 and December 1943 twelve 80-ton Fairmile launches were built in Auckland. By 1943 there were 26 small ships in commission, two in reserve, and one nearly built. This construction went hand in hand with immense effort and expense to provide static defences for the many American merchant and naval ships expected to be based on New Zealand ports – contact and controlled minefields and anti-submarine loops, with huge auxiliary installations. But the war moved on and in the end these underwater defences all had to be swept or fired.

By March 1942 New Zealand's manpower resources were heavily committed. There were 61,368 men overseas (52,712 in the Army), 67,264 in camp in New Zealand (52,983 of them Army), and 100,000 in the Home Guard. The Pacific Section, 2 NZEF, was relieved in Fiji by Americans (except for 269 men who stayed with the Fiji Defence Force) and returned home. While training in the Waikato, however, this section had its strength soon depleted by the dispatch in October of 34 Battalion to garrison Tonga, and of “N Force”, 1,488 strong, including 36 Battalion, to garrison Norfolk Island.

The RNZAF had to convert itself in very quick time from an organisation designed mainly to train aircrew for the RAF to an independent and balanced operational service with its own ground staff and maintenance facilities. After some argument, its expansion to 20 squadrons by April 1943 was approved by the Allies. The first new squadron under this scheme was established in New Caledonia in July and equipped with Hudsons at the expense of units at home and in Fiji. Another squadron with 13 Hudsons went to Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides in September. A fighter squadron took over aircraft and equipment (all in poor condition) from an American unit in Tonga in October, and was joined in December by a radar unit from New Zealand. Eighty Kittyhawk fighters had been allotted to the RNZAF, though only 44 of them actually arrived, and three squadrons were formed. In the first year of the war against Japan, RNZAF strength rose from 10,600 to 20,600 at home and from under 600 to 1,850 in the Pacific – all without limiting the flow of aircrew for the RAF.

Campaign in the Solomons

Most of the islands of the huge Solomons group north-east of Australia were in Japanese hands by July 1942 and next month American marines began the long task of recovering from them the southernmost, vital island of Guadalcanal. The Leander joined an American task force on escort duties in September and continued until her withdrawal to Auckland in late November for a refit. Her place was soon taken, however, by the Achilles, while the 25th Minesweeping Flotilla (the Matai, Kiwi, Moa, and Tui) began anti-submarine and escort duties in the Guadalcanal and Tulagi areas. On 4 January 1943, however, off Guadalcanal, a Japanese bomb wrecked a gun house of the Achilles, killing 13 Royal Marines and wounding eight. At the end of January 1943 the 600-ton corvettes Kiwi and Moa had a furious night engagement with the Japanese submarine I–1, more than three times their size. The Kiwi rammed her prey three times and the Moa took up the chase until the I–1, badly damaged already, was wrecked on a submerged reef. Next night the Moa and Tui sank two barges and drove two more ashore. Retribution followed in April, however, when the Moa was sunk by bombing in Tulagi Harbour. In a high-speed clash with the “Tokio Express” off Kolombangara in the night 11–12 July, the Leander was badly holed by a Japanese torpedo, but Captain S. W. Roskill, himself wounded, brought his crippled ship safely to port. (She went on to Auckland after temporary repairs and thence to Boston, where she paid off in May 1944 after seven years in the RNZN.)

The Pacific Section, 2 NZEF, renamed the 3rd New Zealand Division, under Major-General H. E. Barrowclough, moved to New Caledonia by January 1943 and began training for the Solomons campaign. By June it was established with only two brigades at a strength of 17,831 men, including 2,000 reinforcements, and in August it moved to Guadalcanal. Some 3,700 men, mainly of 14 Brigade, landed on the island of Vella Lavella already partly occupied by Americans, on 18 September to begin a difficult operation of patrolling through dense jungle and barge-hopping from bay to bay to clear nearly 1,000 Japanese from the northern half of the island. All told, some 200–300 of the enemy were killed, and 589 succeeded in escaping. The Division lost 32 killed and 31 wounded.

RNZAF strength had meanwhile increased in the forward area. No. 3 Bomber Reconnaissance Squadron had operated from Guadalcanal as a more or less self-contained unit until March 1943. Then No. 1 (Islands) Group, RNZAF, set up headquarters at Espiritu Santo under Group Captain S. Wallingford. By June two fighter squadrons and a radar unit were also based on Guadalcanal and another squadron operated from Santo. The same month No. 40 (Transport) Squadron was formed at Whenuapai and by August was making scheduled round trips to the group, carrying personnel, mail, and urgent freight. Two more fighter squadrons also reached the Solomons and the units took turns, two being forward and two in reserve. New Zealand fighters shot down seven Japanese dive bombers trying to attack shipping off Vella Lavella on 1 October, to the delight of men of 3 Division, in the ships or ashore. No. 18 Fighter Squadron reached Guadalcanal in September and next month with 15 Squadron moved on to New Georgia as the NZ Fighter Wing.

The next landing was on 27 October 1943 by 8 Brigade on Mono and Stirling Islands in the Treasury group. Two destroyers gave covering fire and the RNZAF Fighter Wing patrolled overhead (with American fighters) and shot down four fighters. A total of 3,795 men landed, including 1,966 Americans. There was little fighting and organised opposition ended on 3 November. By the 12th all was quiet: 223 enemy had been killed and eight captured, for a loss of 40 New Zealand and 12 American dead, and 145 and 29 respectively wounded. Two radar stations were soon operating to cover the impending landings on the large island of Bougainville and a 7,000 ft runway was constructed on Stirling Island.

The 25th Minesweeping Flotilla meanwhile found plenty of work in the Solomons and in August the Tui was chiefly responsible for sinking the 2,200-ton submarine I–17. Early in 1944 the 80th and 81st Motor Launch Flotillas also reached the areas and their 12 Fairmile launches averaged 3,000 miles per month on escort and patrol duties. In mid-1944 some of the small ships moved on – the Kiwi and Tui to New Guinea, and a new arrival, the corvette Arabis, to the Ellice Islands.

New Zealand fighters had plenty to do from the day of the landing on Bougainville on 1 November 1943. Airstrips were soon operating ashore and in December the RNZAF Fighter Wing made three sweeps from there over Rabaul, destroying 18 aircraft. New Zealand Venturas and Catalina flying boats ranged widely over the Solomons.

The 3rd Division reconnoitred Nissan Island, the largest of the Green Islands at the northern end of the Solomons, at the end of January 1944, and Divisional Headquarters and 14 Brigade landed unopposed on 15 February, covered by New Zealand fighters, though a company on Sirot Island had a hard fight. A 5,000 ft fighter strip opened on 6 March and was used the same day by 20 RNZAF fighters refuelling en route to Rabaul. Then came a shock: 3 Division was to be withdrawn to provide men for 2 Division in Italy and for industry at home. It is doubtful if those who made this decision fully appreciated the skill 3 Division had acquired in amphibious operations, the high regard in which the American command in the Pacific held it, and the importance of the projected operations in that theatre as compared with those that 2 Division faced in Italy. Moreover, in terms of post-war influence there was far more to be gained at this stage by fighting in the Pacific than in Italy. The 3rd Division was disbanded on 20 October 1944.

Another shock followed: no further combat role was allotted the RNZAF in the Pacific – only garrison duties. A compromise softened this grave blow to New Zealand's prestige and influence, and it was agreed that seven RNZAF squadrons should take up garrison duties and that seven more should have an active role under General MacArthur's South-West Pacific Command. Even this, however, was in the end disappointing, because the squadrons were kept back in the Solomons and Bismarcks where Australian troops were clearing Bougainville, New Ireland, and other bypassed centres of Japanese resistance while the war moved up through the Marshalls to the islands of Japan. For the last year of the war, therefore, the RNZAF rarely saw a Japanese plane in the air and scarcely a single enemy warship, though it undoubtedly did valuable work in close support of the Australians or in attacking Rabaul. In April 1945 four RNZAF fighter squadrons on Bougainville flew more than 2,500 sorties and dropped over 1,000 tons of bombs. The following squadrons all served at some time or other in the Pacific:

Bomber or general reconnaissance: Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, and 9.

Dive-bomber: Nos. 25, 30, and 31.

Flying boat: Nos. 5 and 6.

Fighter: Nos. 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, and 24.

Transport: Nos. 40 and 41.

Casualties of the RNZAF in the Pacific were 338 dead, 58 seriously wounded, and four prisoners.

The War in the Islands of Japan

New Zealand was represented, as the war moved north, by its RNZN units and by the New Zealanders in the Royal Navy. Both the Achilles and the Leander were refitting and the cruiser Gambia (which took the place of the latter) reached Trincomalee in February 1944, took part in a bombardment of Sabang off northern Sumatra in July, and reached the Pacific early in 1945. The Achilles was recommissioned just in time, reached Auckland in February 1945, and with the Gambia sailed north. Leaving Manus Island in March as one of a task force of nearly 100 ships, the Gambia next month had a taste of the Japanese suicide attacks and had to tow the damaged destroyer Ulster back to the Philippines (where the New Zealand hospital ship Maunganui was at that time stationed). In May the Gambia took part in bombardments of the Sakishima Group by the British Pacific Fleet, and later in the month the Achilles arrived to help cover the final series of air strikes against airfields there. Some 100 New Zealand pilots of the Fleet Air Arm, flying from British aircraft carriers, joined in these attacks and nine of them were decorated. Another corvette, the Arbutus, also joined the Fleet, serving as radio and radar repair ship with the Fleet Train from July. The Achilles sailed for Manus on 10 August; but the Gambia was off Tokyo when the war ended five days later, and was actually struck by part of an aircraft which attacked, and was shot down, while the “Cease hostilities” signal was flying.

The Gambia thus had the honour of representing New Zealand in the force of occupation. Air Vice-Marshal L. M. Isitt, of the RNZAF, accompanied by Lieutenant J. D. Allingham, RNZVR, signed the surrender on behalf of New Zealand.

The Occupation: J Force

J Force, under Brigadier K. L. Stewart, reached Kure on 29 March 1946 and was quartered in and around Yamaguchi, with detachments at many points on the coast, supervising the repatriation of nearly 300,000 Japanese and checking illegal immigration. The first relief, 1,605 volunteers from New Zealand, arrived in June 1947. From March 1946 until November 1948, New Zealand was also represented by No. 14 Fighter Squadron, RNZAF, and some elements of it remained until March 1949. J Force withdrew in September 1948.

Summing Up

Total casualties in the New Zealand forces in the Second World War are listed in the table.

The table, taken from a White Paper, does not quite agree with the text.

The cumulative total of New Zealand men and women who served abroad in the Second World War has not been compiled – for one thing there were many who embarked twice or more. But the maximum overseas at one time approached 75,000, and in July 1942 the total mobilised (other than the Auxiliary Patrol Service and Home Guard) was 154,549. The women's services contributed about 8,500 of these. The Home Guard reached a peak of 124,194 in April 1943. Seamen in ships on the New Zealand register in 1940 numbered 2,990.

This huge mobilisation in proportion to population was about the same as that of the First World War, though its cost in lives and injuries was fortunately lower. New Zealand servicemen visited nearly every part of the world in the course of the war and everywhere they made a good impression. Unquestionably they fully lived up to the high standards set by their fathers in the First World War.

by Walter Edward Murphy, B.A., Lecturer, School of Political Science and Public Administration, Victoria University of Wellington.

  • To Greece, McClymont, W. G. (1959)
  • Crete, Davin, D. M. (1953)
  • The Relief of Tobruk, Murphy, W. E. (1961)
  • Battle for Egypt, Scoullar, J. L. (1955)
  • Bardia to Enfidaville, Stevens, W. G. (1962)
  • Italy, Vol. I—The Sangro to Cassino, Phillips, N. C. (1957)
  • The Royal New Zealand Navy, Waters, S. D. (1956)
  • Royal New Zealand Air Force, Ross, J. M. S. (1955)
  • New Zealanders with the Royal Air Force, 3 vols., Thompson, H.L.
  • Vol.I, European Theatre – Sep 1939-Dec 1942 (1953)
  • Vol. II, European Theatre – Jan 1943–May 1945 (1956)
  • Vol. III, Mediterranean and Middle East, South-East Asia (1959).

WARS – SECOND WORLD WAR 23-Apr-09 Walter Edward Murphy, B.A., Lecturer, School of Political Science and Public Administration, Victoria University of Wellington.