New Zealand Expeditionary Force

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The New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) was the name of New Zealand military forces, which in the First and Second World War abroad for Britain fought. Memorials can be found in many New Zealand places for those who died in these wars.

First New Zealand Expeditionary Force

A group of New Zealand officers in a World War I military camp in Egypt
General Birdwood on Gallipoli, December 5, 1915

The New Zealand Expeditionary Force was originally called the armed forces that fought alongside Great Britain in World War I. At the beginning of the war New Zealand offered to send an infantry and a mounted brigade , a total of 8,500 men. This contingent was embarked for Australia two months after the start of the war, where it joined a convoy of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) to Egypt .

The NZEF was under the command of General Alexander Godley during the war . The British officer had been appointed Commander in Chief of the New Zealand Armed Forces on the recommendation of Lord Kitchener in 1910 . After Godley left New Zealand with the Expeditionary Force in October 1914, Maj. General Alfred William Robin commanded the New Zealand armed forces at home. He played an important role in the supply, replenishment and supply of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force.

Like Australia, New Zealand had compulsory military training in the pre-war period, but initially the NZEF was only reinforced by volunteers. The conscription was introduced on 1 August 1916th At the end of the war, 124,000 men - almost half of the men fit for military service - had served in the NZEF, 100,000 of them overseas.

The NZEF often fought with Australians. When the Battle of Gallipoli began, the New Zealanders could not form a full division from their contingent . Therefore, they were combined with the Australian 4th Infantry Brigade to the New Zealand and Australian Division under the command of General Godley. This division formed the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) with the Australian 1st Division under the command of General William Birdwood .

After the Battle of Gallipoli, the NZEF formed their own infantry division, the New Zealand Division . This served on the western front until the end of the war . General Godley was promoted to corps commander and received the II ANZAC Corps , in which the New Zealand troops also fought. From 1916 until the formation of the Australian Corps in 1918 from five Australian divisions, there were two "ANZAC" Corps - I ANZAC Corps and II ANZAC Corps.

The mounted forces of the NZEF were combined in the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade . This brigade stayed in Egypt and served with the 1st and 2nd Australian Light Cavalry Brigades as the ANZAC Mounted Division on the Sinai Peninsula and in Palestine .

The first New Zealand Expeditionary Force was disbanded on December 31, 1921.

Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force

In Europe and North Africa

4.5 inch howitzer of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force during an inspection by King George VI in Burley in the New Forest , Hampshire, UK

At the beginning of the war in 1939, New Zealand decided to provide a division under Major General Bernard Freyberg at the time. These forces became known as the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force (2NZEF) and the division became known as the 2nd New Zealand Division .

The headquarters of the 2nd NZEF and one brigade landed in Egypt in February 1940, the second brigade followed when Italy entered the war, first to Great Britain and in March 1941 also to Egypt. A third part arrived in Egypt in September 1940. The entire association was relocated to northern Greece in March 1941 as part of the W Force , where it took part in the fighting during the German Balkan campaign and the defense of Crete .

After that, the 2nd Division remained part of the British 8th Army until the end of the war . During this time she fought in the Africa campaign in Operation Crusader (November to December 1941), at Minqar Qaim in North Africa (June 1942), in the First (July) and Second Battles of El Alamein (October to November 1942), in Montgomery's offensive in Libya and Tunisia (December 1942 to May 1943), as well as in the Italian campaign on the Bernhardt Line (October to December 1943), the Battle of Monte Cassino (February to March 1944), at the Goths in central Italy (May to December 1944) and in the spring offensive on the Italian Adriatic coast (April to May 1945).

The NZEF was demobilized under the command of Major General William Stevens from late 1945 to 1946.

In the Pacific

The 2nd NZEF also had a Pacific Section , which was originally responsible for the defense of Fiji . It was based on one infantry brigade, the 8th Infantry Brigade . This arrived in November 1940 on the main island of Fiji, Viti Levu . After the opening of the Pacific War by the Japanese Empire , the contingent was increased to two brigades and formally referred to as the Pacific Section, 2NZEF . Under the command of Major General Owen Mead , the Pacific Section was moved back to New Zealand, while the US 37th Division took over the defense of Fiji.

The Pacific Section later became the 3rd Division , the main unit of the 2nd NZEF in the Pacific region. After a period of training in New Zealand, she fought in the campaign for the Solomon Islands from 1943 to 1944, took part in the reconquest of Vella Lavella (August 15 to October 9, 1943), the Battle of the Treasury Islands (October 27 to October 12 , 1943) . November 1943) and the recapture of the Green Islands (January 29 to February 27, 1944), but never as a full division.

In early 1944, the New Zealand government faced a labor shortage - the two overseas divisions did not leave enough agricultural and industrial workers in the home country to produce goods for the Allies. The government saw the only solution in the dissolution of one of the infantry divisions. Consultations with the UK and the US indicated that the 2nd Division's contribution in Italy was seen as more important than that of the 3rd Division in the Pacific.

The 3rd Division was withdrawn to New Caledonia in June 1944 and returned to New Zealand in August. There the division was quickly downsized and formally dissolved on October 20, 1944. About 4,000 of their relatives were sent to Italy to reinforce the 2nd division. The rest returned to civilian life.

Third New Zealand Expeditionary Force

From 1950 a conscript army in division strength formed the main armed forces of New Zealand. This division was also known as the 3rd NZEF. It was dissolved in 1961.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Phillip O'Shea : Robin, Alfred William . In: Dictionary of New Zealand Biography . Volume III . Auckland University Press , Auckland 1996 (English, online [accessed July 1, 2018]).
  2. ↑ 2nd Infantry Division NZEF WW2 . Digger History , archived from the original on May 29, 2010 ; accessed on February 22, 2016 (English, original website no longer available).
  3. ↑ a b c d Oliver A. Gillespie: The Pacific  (= Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War 1939-1945). War History Branch, Wellington, New Zealand 1952, OCLC 59000607 (Retrieved January 13, 2015).
  4. ^ Damien Marc Fenton, 'A False Sense of Security,' Center for Strategic Studies: New Zealand, 1998, p.12