New Zealand Military
5 primary works • 6 total works
Book 3
Book 4
Book 5
In June 1942 the Panzerarmee Afrika, led by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, surged into Egypt. The only intact force standing between the Axis army and Cairo was the Second New Zealand Division -- classified by Rommel as the elite of the British Army. They were led by Lieutenant-General Sir Bernard Freyberg, a man the Germans officially considered a 'dangerous opponent'. A few days later, a German Panzer division surrounded 2 NZ Division at Minqar Qaim. Outnumbered and cut off, the Kiwis should have surrendered. Instead, they smashed their way out with rifle and bayonet. This was not an isolated performance. American observers thought 2 NZ Division was 'by far the best fighting unit in the Middle East', and described Freyberg as a 'very great leader of men, possessed of tremendous courage and sound judgement.' These observations are at odds with post-war attempts to 'de-mythologise' New Zealand's desert war -- to cut the Kiwi contribution down to a size befitting a small South Pacific nation. Desert Duel tells the story of New Zealand's desert war, which surged back and forth across the arid, stony wastes of Egypt and Lybia for nearly four years from 1940.
In a lively and well-illustrated account, making extensive use of original source material, Matthew Wright argues that modern efforts to re-interpret the performance of the New Zealanders and their commander are not supported by the documented facts.
In a lively and well-illustrated account, making extensive use of original source material, Matthew Wright argues that modern efforts to re-interpret the performance of the New Zealanders and their commander are not supported by the documented facts.
Book 6
Book 7
In December 1941, Japan attacked the British Commonwealth and the United States. For a few desperate months during early 1942, New Zealand faced down the threat of a blockade and, ultimately, invasion. Despite a heavy commitment to the European war, New Zealanders eventually fought the Japanese on land, sea and air, from Malaya to the Solomons and, finally, in Japanese home waters. New Zealand also provided bases and recreation facilities for US forces, food for the whole campaign, and even physicists for the atomic bomb project. This remarkable effort had to be balanced against the demands of a European war to which New Zealand was also making a contribution, and New Zealand's land forces were withdrawn from the Pacific in 1944 after manpower shortages reached crisis point - an issue that soon became entwined with Pacific politics. In Pacific War, Matthew Wright recounts the story of New Zealand's Pacific struggle, focusing particularly on the politics of war and the short-lived army contribution to the Pacific Islands. Diaries and letters from the front, some previously unpublished, help bring New Zealand's war experience alive.
This is the story of New Zealand's military aviation from its modest beginnings in 1914 to the formation of the Royal New Zealand Air Force in 1936, the struggles of the Second World War and then the gyrations of the Cold War, wrapping up with the transition to the very different post-Cold War world of the 1990s. It is a story of politics, of aircraft, and especially of people - of the everyday New Zealanders who fought the Second World War, who served with the RNZAF and the RAF, then and later; and who found strengths in themselves that, perhaps, they did not know they had.