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Military history of New Zealand during World War II
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
New Zealand entered the Second World War by declaring war on Germany at 9.30 pm 3 September 1939 (NZT). Politically, New Zealand had been a vocal opponent of European fascism and also the appeasement of those dictatorships, national sentiment for a strong show of force was generally supported. Economic and defensive considerations also motivated the New Zealand involvement - reliance on Britain meant that if she were threatened, New Zealand would be too in terms of economic and defensive ties. There was also a strong sentimental link between the former British colony and the United Kingdom, with many seeing Britain as the "mother country" or "Home". Prime Minister of the time Michael Joseph Savage summed this up at the outbreak of war with a quote that would become a popular cry in New Zealand during the war;
- "Where Britain goes, we go! Where she stands, we stand!"[citation needed]
New Zealand provided personnel for service in the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy, the Royal New Zealand Navy was placed at the Admiralty's disposal and new medium bombers waiting in the United Kingdom to be shipped to New Zealand were made available to the RAF. The New Zealand Army contributed the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force (2NZEF). In total, around 140,000 New Zealand personnel served overseas for the Allied war effort, and an additional 100,000 men were armed for Home Guard duty. At its peak in July 1942, New Zealand had 154,549 men and women under arms (excluding the Home Guard) and by the war's end a total of 194,000 men and 10,000 women had served in the armed forces at home and overseas. The costs for the country were high - 11,625 killed, a ratio of 6684 dead per million in the population which was the highest rate in the Commonwealth (Britain suffered 5123 and Australia 3232 per million population). The 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force was formed under Major-General Bernard Freyberg and would see active service in Greece, Crete, North Africa, Italy, and Yugoslavia. The main fighting unit of the expeditionary force was the New Zealand 2nd Division also commanded by Major-General Bernard Freyberg.
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The 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force was deployed to the war in three echelons - all destined for Egypt, but one was diverted to Scotland (and would arrive there in June, 1941) following the German invasion of France. In April of that year, after a period training in Egypt, 2NZEF's New Zealand 2nd Division, stationed in Egypt, was deployed to take part in the defence of Greece against invasion by Italian troops, and soon German forces too when they joined the invasion. This defence was mounted alongside British and Australian units - the corps-size Commonwealth contingent under the command of British General Henry Maitland Wilson known together as W Force, supporting a weakened Greek Army. As German panzers began a swift advance into Greece on April 6, the British and Commonwealth troops found themselves being outflanked and were forced into retreat. By April 9, Greece had been forced to surrender and the 40,000 W Force troops began a withdrawal from the country to Crete and Egypt, the last New Zealand troops leaving by 29 April. The New Zealanders lost 291 men killed, 1,826 captured and 387 seriously wounded in this brief campaign.
Most of the New Zealand 2nd Division had been evacuated to Crete from Greece - two out of three brigades (the third and division headquarters to Alexandria) and here they bolstered the Crete garrison to 34,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers (25,000 were evacuees of Greece) and 9,000 Greek troops (see Crete order of battle#Allied Forces for more detail). Evacuated from to Crete on 28 April (having disregarded an order to leave on 23 April), the New Zealand General Freyberg was appointed commander of the Allied forces on Crete on the 30th. Ultra intercepts of German signals had already alerted Allied commanders to the German plans to invade Crete with fallschirmjäger (Luftwaffe paratroopers). With this knowledge of the plans General Freyberg began to prepare the island's defences, hampered by a lack of modern and heavy equipment as the troops from Greece had in most cases had to leave only with their personal weapons. Although German plans had underestimated Greek, British and Commonwealth numbers, and incorrectly presumed that the Cretan population would welcome the invasion, Freyberg was still faced with the harsh prospect that even lightly equipped paratroopers could overwhelm the island's defences.
Operation Mercury opened on 20 May when German fallschirmjäger were landed around the Maleme airfield and Chania area, at around 8:15 pm, by paradrop and gliders. Most of the New Zealand forces were deployed around this north-western part of the island and with British and Greek troops they inflicted heavy casualties upon the initial German attacks. Despite near complete defeat for their landing troops east of the airfield and in the Galatas region, German invaders were able to gain a foothold by mid-morning west of Maleme Airfield (5 Brigade's area) - along the Tavronitis riverbed and in the Ayia Valley to the east (10 Brigade's area - dubbed 'Prison Valley').
Over the course morning, the 600-strong New Zealand 22 Battalion defending Maleme Airfield found its situation rapidly worsening. Telephone contact had been lost with the brigade headquarters, the battalion headquarters (in Pirgos) was out of contact with C and D Companies, stationed on the airstrip and along the Tavronitis-side of Hill 107 (see map) respectively and the battalion commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Leslie Andrew (VC) had no idea of the enemy paratrooper strength to his west as his observation posts lacked wireless sets. While a platoon of C Company situated northwest of the airfield, nearest the sea, was able to repel German attacks along the beach, attacks across the Tavronitis bridge by fallschirmjäger were able to overwhelm weaker positions and take the Royal Air Force camp. Not knowing whether C and D Companies had been overrun, and with German mortars firing from the riverbed, Colonel Andrew (with unreliable wireless contact) ordered the firing of white and green signals - the designated emergency signal for 23 Battalion (to the south-east of Pirgos), under the command of Colonel Leckie, to counterattack. The signal was not spotted, and further attempts were made to get the message through to no avail. At 5:00 pm contact was made with Brigadier James Hargest at the New Zealand 2nd Division headquarters, but Hargest responded that 23 Battalion fighting paratroopers in its own area, an untrue and unverified assertion.
Faced with a seemingly desperate situation, Colonel Andrew played his trump card - two Matilda tanks, which were ordered to counterattack with the reserve infantry platoon and some additional gunners turned infantrymen. The counterattack was unsuccessful - one tank had to turn back after technical issues were discovered (the turret would not traverse properly) and the second tank ignored the German positions in the RAF camp and the edge of the airfield, heading straight for the riverbed. This lone tank stranded itself quickly on a boulder and, faced with the same technical difficulties as the first Matilda, the crew abandoned the vehicle. The exposed infantry were repelled by the fallschirmjäger. At around 6:00 pm the failure was reported to Brigadier Hargest and the prospect of a withdrawal was raised. Colonel Andrew was informed that he could withdraw if he wished, with the famous reply "Well, if you must, you must," but that two companies (A Company, 23 Battalion and B Company, 28 (Māori) Battalion) were being sent to reinforce 22 Battalion. To Colonel Andrew the situation seemed bleak; ammunition was running low, the promised reinforcements seemed not to be forthcoming (one got lost, the other simply did not arrive as quickly as expected) and he still had no idea how C and D companies were. The two companies in question were in fact resisting strongly on the airfield and above the Tavronitis riverbed and had inflicted far greater losses on the Germans than they had lost. At 9:00 pm Colonel Andrew made the decision to make a limited withdrawal, and once that had been carried out, a full one to the 21 and 23 Battalion positions to the east. By midnight all of 22 Battalion had left the Maleme area, with the exception of C and D Companies which withdrew in the early morning of the 21st upon discovering that the rest of the Battalion had gone.
This allowed German troops to seize the airfield proper without opposition and take nearby positions to reinforce their hold on the airfield. Ammunition and supplies were flown in by Junkers Ju 52 transport aircraft, as well as the rest of the fallschirmjäger and troops of the 5th Mountain Division. Although the landings were extremely hazardous, with the airstrip under direct British artillery fire, substantial reinforcement was made. On the 21st the village of Maleme was attacked and captured, and a counter attack was made by the 20 Battalion (with reinforcements from the Australian 2/7 Battalion), 28 (Māori) Battalion and later 21 Battalion. The attack was hampered by communications problems and although the New Zealanders made significant advances in some areas, the overall picture was one of stiff German resistance. 5 Brigade fell back to a new line at Platanias, leaving Maleme securely in German hands, allowing them to freely build up their force in this region.
On the night of the 23rd, and the morning of the 24th, 5 Brigade withdrew again to the area near Daratsos, forming a new front line running from Galatas to the sea. The relatively fresh 18 Battalion replaced the worn troops from Maleme and Platanias, deploying 400 men on a two kilometre front.
Galatas had come under attack on the first day of the battle - fallschirmjäger and gliders had landed around Chania and Galatas, to suffer extremely heavy casualties. They retreated to 'Prison Valley' where they rallied around the Ayia Prison and repulsed a confused counterattack by two companies of 19 Battalion and three light tanks. Pink Hill (named so for the colour of its soil), a crucial point on the Galatas heights was attacked several times by the Germans that day, and was remarkably held by the Division Petrol Company with aid from Greek soldiers, though at a heavy cost to both sides. The Petrol Company was comprised of poorly armed support troops, primarily drivers and technicians and by the day's end all their officers had been wounded, with most of their NCOs. They withdrew around dusk. On the second day the New Zealanders attacked nearby Cemetery Hill to take pressure off their line, and although they had to withdraw for it was too exposed, the hill became a no man's land as Pink Hill was, relieving the New Zealand front. Day three, the 22nd, saw German soldiers take Pink Hill. The Petrol Company and some infantry reserve prepared a counterattack but a notable incident pre-empted them - as told by Driver A. Pope:
- "Out of the trees came [Captain] Forrester of the Buffs, clad in shorts, a long yellow army jersey reaching down almost to the bottom of the shorts, brass polished and gleaming, web belt in place and waving his revolver in his right hand [...] It was a most inspiring sight. Forrester was at the head of a crowd of disorderly Greeks, including women; one Greek had a shot gun with a serrated-edge bread knife tied on like a bayonet, others had ancient weapons—all sorts. Without hesitation this uncouth group, with Forrester right out in front, went over the top of a parapet and headlong at the crest of the hill. The [Germans] fled."[citation needed]
Days four and five were marked only by skirmishes between the two forces. Luftwaffe air raids targeted Galatas on the 25th at 8:00 am, 12:45 pm and 1:15 pm, and the German ground attack came at around 2:00 pm. 100 Mountain and 3 Parachute Regiment attacked Galatas and the high ground around it, while two battalions of 85 Mountain Regiment attacked eastwards, with the aim of cutting Chania off. The New Zealand defenders were ready, but at a disadvantage - 18 Battalion, 400 men, was the only fresh infantry formation on the line - the rest were non-infantry groups like the Petrol Company and the Composite Battalion, consisting of mechanical, supply and artillery troops. The fighting was fierce, especially along the north of the line, and platoons and companies were forced to make retreats. Brigadier Lindsay Inglis called for reinforcement and received 23 Battalion, who along with an improvised group of reinforcements scraped together at Brigade Headquarters (including the Brigade band and the Kiwi Concert Party) they stabilised the north of the line. South of Galatas, only 18 Battalion and the Petrol Company were defending - 18 Battalion was forced to withdraw, and the Petrol Company on Pink Hill followed suit after becoming aware of this eventually. 19 Battalion was the only formation still in combat on Pink Hill, and they too withdrew. These forces withdrew past Galatas, as no defenders were in the village to link up with.
By nightfall Galatas was occupied by German troops and Lieutenant-Colonel Howard Kippenberger prepared a counter attack. Two tanks led two companies of 23 Battalion into Galatas at a running pace - heavy fire was encountered and as the tanks went ahead towards the town square, the infantry cleared each house of German soldiers as they worked inward. When the infantry caught up with the tanks they found one out of action. With German fire coming primarily from one side of the square a charge was mounted and with bayonets the New Zealanders cleared the German opposition. Patrols quelled resistance elsewhere in Galatas - apart from one small strongpoint, Galatas was back in New Zealand hands.
At a conference between Brigadier Inglis and his commanders, the consensus was that a further counterattack was urgently needed and if it were not to be made, Crete would be lost. Despite hard fighting so far in the battle, the 28 (Māori) Battalion was considered to be the only 'fresh' battalion available and the only one capable of carrying out such an attack. Their commander was willing to mount the attack despite the difficulty, but a representative sent from Brigadier Edward Puttick at New Zealand 2nd Division headquarters recommended against such an attack for fear of being unable to hold the line subsequently. The counter-attack was scrapped, and so too was Galatas, its position being far too vulnerable to hold. However, without Galatas the whole line was untenable and so the New Zealanders again retreated, forming a line from the coast to Perivolia and Mournies, near the Australian 19th Brigade.
On 26 May the New Zealanders came under attack again, and although there were no major breakthroughs, the situation was grim. Like the New Zealanders, British, Commonwealth and Hellenic forces were being pushed steadily southward across the island by the Germans, using heavy aerial and artillery bombardment that the defenders simply could not match. Recognising that Crete could not be held, General Freyberg began preparations for an evacuation. The New Zealanders and Australians withdrew to take up positions defending '42nd Street' - a section of road between Suda and Chania. A surprise attack here by German soldiers was met with a bayonet charge by the Australians and 28 (Māori) Battalion (who led). German casualties were high and they withdrew. Around midnight 27/28th the New Zealanders and Australians again withdrew, to Sfakia this time, with the commandos of Layforce covering them. Stylos was reached by daytime and the decision was made to risk the threat of attack by the Luftwaffe and continue marching through the day, and two companies of the 28 (Māori) Battalion would remain as a rearguard. The next stopping point for the soldiers was the Askifou Plain, beyond the White Mountains, whose pass reached a height of 3,000 feet. It was a harsh obstacle for these tired soldiers, deployed in battle for the past nine days, but most made it to their rest point. The Māori soldiers of the rearguard made a fighting retreat to meet the main force.
On this day the official evacuation order was issued and the first 300 wounded were evacuated from the beach at Sfakia by Royal Navy destroyers. Later cruisers would join the effort, a total of seven vessels sent from the stretched Mediterranean fleet by Admiral Andrew Cunningham who was determined that the "navy must not let the army down." When army generals feared he would lose too many ships, Cunningham said that "It takes three years to build a ship, it takes three centuries to build a tradition." Ultimately 17,000 troops were evacuated to Alexandria by the British surrender on 1 June. Most of the New Zealanders made it, but 2,180 were captured. Additional New Zealand casualties for the Battle of Crete were 671 dead and 967 wounded.
New Zealand Second Lieutenant Charles Upham, the only person to receive two Victoria Crosses during World War II and the only combat soldier to receive the award twice, gained his first award during the battle.\
A small number of New Zealand transport and signals units supported the British Operation Compass in December 1940, but it was not until November of the following year that the New Zealand 2nd Division became fully involved in the North African Campaign. Following the evacuation from Crete, the Division regrouped at it's camp near Maadi - at the base of the desert slopes of Wadi Digla and Tel al-Maadi - reinforcements arrived from New Zealand to bring the Division back up to strength and the training cut short by the move to Greece and Crete was completed. On 18 November 1941, Operation Crusader was launched to lift the Siege of Tobruk (the third such attack), under the command of General Alan Cunningham and the New Zealand 2nd Division (integrated into the British Eighth Army) took part in the offensive, crossing the Libyan frontier into Cyrenaica. Operation Crusader was an overall success for the British, although Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps inflicted heavy armour and infantry losses before its weakened and under supplied units retreated to El Agheila and halted the British advance. The New Zealand troops were the ones to relieve Tobruk after fighting around Sidi Rezegh, where Axis tanks had inflicted heavy casualties against the several New Zealand infantry battalions, protected by very little of their own armour. In February, 1942, With Crusader completed, the New Zealand government insisted that the Division be withdrawn to Syria to recover - 879 men were killed and 1700 wounded in Operation Crusader, the most costly battle the Division fought in the Second World War.
On 14 June, the New Zealanders were recalled from their occupation duties in Syria as the Afrika Korps broke through Gazala and captured Tobruk. The New Zealanders, put on the defence, were encircled at Minqar Qa'im but escaped thanks to brutally efficient hand-to-hand fighting by 4 Brigade. Rommel's advance was prevented from reaching Alexandria, Cairo and the Suez Canal by the British in the First Battle of El Alamein, where New Zealand troops captured Ruweisat Ridge in a successful night attack. However, they were unable to bring their anti-tank weapons forward, and more importantly, British armour didn't move forward to support the soldiers. Heavy casualties were suffered by the two New Zealand brigades involved as they were attacking by German tanks, and several thousand men were taken prisoner. Charles Upham earned a bar for his Victoria Cross in this battle. Under the new command of Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery, the Eighth Army launched a new offensive on October 23 against the stalled Axis forces, the Second Battle of El Alamein. On the first night, as part of Operation Lightfoot the New Zealand 2nd Division, with other British divisions, moved through the deep Axis minefields while engineers cleared routes for British tanks to follow. The New Zealanders successfully captured their objectives on Miteiriya Ridge. By 2 November, with the attack bogged down, Montgomery launched a new initiative to the south of the battle lines, Operation Supercharge, with the ultimate goal of disintegrating the Axis army. The experienced New Zealand 2nd Division was called to carry out the initial thrust - the same sort of attack they had made in Lightfoot. The under strength Division could not have the required impact and two British brigades assisted. The German line was breached by British armour and on 4 November the Afrika Korps, faced with the prospect of complete defeat, skillfully withdrew.
The New Zealanders continued to advance with the Eighth Army through the Tunisia Campaign, driving the Afrika Korps back into Tunisia, and notably fought at Medenine, the Tebaga Gap and Enfidaville. On 13 May 1943, the North African campaign ended, with the surrender of the last 275,000 Axis troops in Tunisia. On the 15th the Division began the withdrawal back to Egypt and by June 1 the division was back in Maadi and Helwan, on standby for use in Europe. Total New Zealand losses since November 1941, were 2,989 killed, 7,000 wounded and 4,041 taken prisoner.
- October/November 1943 New Zealand troops assembled in Bari
- November 1943 crossed the Sangro River with a view to breaching the German Gustav Line and advancing to Rome
- 2 December 1943 captured the village Castelfrentano
- 3 December 1943 attacked Orsogna but were repulsed by the strong German defence
- January 1944 withdrew from stalled front line
- 17 February attacked Cassino but it was strongly defended and they withdrew in early April. Cassino was eventually captured on 18 May 1944 by British and Polish troops, with support of NZ artillery
- 16 July 1944 captured Arezzo and reached Florence on 4 August, by the end of October they had reached the Savio River
- 14 December 1944 captured Faenza
- 8 April 1945 crossed the Senio River then began their final push across the Santerno River and Gaiana River and finally the Po River on Anzac Day 1945.
- 28 April 1945 captured Padua
- 1 May 1945 crossed the Izonso River to reach Trieste on 2 May 1945, the day of the German unconditional surrender in Italy
When Japan entered the war in December 1941, the New Zealand Government raised another expeditionary force known as the 2nd N.Z.E.F. In the Pacific, or 2nd N.Z.E.F. (I.P.), for service with the Allied Pacific Ocean Areas command. This force supplemented existing garrison troops in the South Pacific. The main fighting formation of the 2nd N.Z.E.F. (I.P.) was the New Zealand 3rd Division. However the 3rd Division never fought as a formation; its component brigades being involved in semi-independent actions as part of the Allied forces in the Solomons, Treasury Islands and Green Island.
The New Zealand army units were eventually replaced by American formations, which released personnel for service with the 2nd Division in Italy, or to cover civilian labour shortages. Air force squadrons and Navy units contributed to the Allied island hopping campaign.
In 1945, troops who had recently returned from Europe with the 2nd Division were drafted to form a contribution (known as J-Force) toward the British Commonwealth Occupation Force (BCOF) in southern Japan. No. 14 Squadron RNZAF, equipped with Corsair fighters, and RNZN ships also joined BCOF.
German and Japanese surface raiders and submarines operated in New Zealand waters on several occasions in 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943 and 1945 sinking a total of four ships.
- On the 13 December 1939 HMNZS Achilles took part in The Battle of the River Plate as part of small British force against the German heavy cruiser Admiral Graf Spee. The action resulted in the German ship retiring to neutral Uruguay and being scuttled a few days later.
- HMNZS Leander
- RAF
- Ian McGibbon. The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Military History (2000)
- List of New Zealand divisions in World War II
- Equipment losses in World War II
- Military history of New Zealand
- Participants in World War II
- World War II casualties
- NZhistory.net.nz - war and society
- Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War
- WW2 day by day
- New Zealand Fighter Pilots Museum
- New Zealand Victoria Cross winners
- New Zealand in the Second World War
- NZ Women's Army Corps
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