Military History |
World War II | New Zealand
New Zealand (Kiwi) involvement in World War II
Posted 11 Apr 2006
At 1145 hours on 3 Sep 1939 a telegram was received by the Governor-General of New Zealand saying simply, "War has broken out with Germany" (Cody, 1953). Within a matter of hours a New Zealand Gazette Extraordinary declared that a state of war existed between New Zealand and the German Reich as from 2130 hours, 3 Sep, New Zealand standard time. That is when New Zealand joined the Allied effort of WW2.
Over time I will build up some details of the New Zealand involvement in WW2. In particular I'll focus on 2 NZ Division, not least because they were often considered the best allied division in Italy (Evans, 2001-5). I have not constrained myself to events involving Kiwis, as it is important to have the context in which they operated.
At the moment this is very much a work in progress, but check out my material on River Sangro and Orsogna (11 Nov 1943 - 17 Jan 1944) and Rimini (Sep 1944) to start with.