The Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month......

 

Below, hand drawn sketch of my father in law done by a street artist in  Rome in 1945, whilst serving with the 21st Btn of the 2nd NZ Division

This is just a brief post, inspired by Mark over at My Brave Fusiliers blog

My father in law, Gordon Alexander Rowland, served in the 21^st NZ Battalion in Italy in 1944/45 and also with the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan after the end of the war.

Though we all enjoy collecting, painting and playing with toy soldiers, I am sure we all realise that there is nothing glamorous or heroic about warfare. However, sometimes, it is necessary. A quote from an officer of the Gordon Highlanders whilst commenting on a Commonwealth graveyard in Berlin, where several Gordon Highlanders are interred:

“The second world war was a war that needed fighting. The world would have been a desperate place if Hitler and the Nazis had not been defeated, and as I look around me at this grave yard and think of all the British and Commonwealth soldiers lying here, they truly should be remembered and I hope, forever”

 

 

Gordons WW2 kitbag, still in his possession 75 years later

 

 

 

The 2nd New Zealand Division, initially the New Zealand Division, was an infantry division of the New Zealand Military Forces (New Zealand's army) during the Second World War. The division was commanded for most of its existence by Lieutenant-General Bernard C. Freyberg. It fought in Greece, Crete, the Western Desert and Italy. In the Western Desert Campaign, the division played a prominent role in the defeat of German and Italian forces in the Second Battle of El Alamein and the British Eighth Army's advance to Tunisia.

In late 1943, the division was moved to Italy, taking part in the Eighth Army's campaign on Italy's Adriatic coast, which ground to a halt at the end of the year. In early 1944, the division formed the nucleus of the New Zealand Corps, fighting two battles attempting unsuccessfully to penetrate the Gustav Line at Monte Cassino. The division saw further action on the Gothic Line in Italy in 1944 and took part in the Allied 1945 Spring offensive, which led to the surrender of German forces in Italy in May. After returning to New Zealand, reorganised elements of the division formed part of the occupational forces in Japan from 1945.

By the end of the war, the New Zealand Division had a reputation as a tough formation with good troops. This opinion had earlier been expressed by Rommel in his report to the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht on 21 July 1942 (at the end of the First Battle of El Alamein) in which he highly rated the New Zealand Division. This view was repeated within the German 5th Panzer Division intelligence reports. Rommel also paid tribute to the division in his memoirs:

This division, with which we had already become acquainted back in 1941–1942, was among the elite of the British Army and I should have been very much happier if it had been safely tucked away in our prison camps instead of still facing us.

General Bernard Montgomery, who commanded the British Eighth Army and who would later command the Allied land forces in the invasion of Normandy, recommended that the division should be used in the invasion of Normandy but the New Zealand government did not approve the move. This was because the division was fighting at Monte Cassino at the time.

Captain Charles Upham, VC and Bar, of the New Zealand Division, was the only person to be awarded the Victoria Cross twice during the Second World War. Other Victoria Crosses were awarded to John 'Jack' Hinton, Alfred Hulme, Keith Elliott, and Moana-Nui-a-Kiwa Ngarimu. Lance Sergeant Haane Manahi of the Māori Battalion was posthumously honoured in 2007 by representatives of the Queen after it was decided that his Distinguished Conduct Medal, awarded for actions at Takrouna, was not to be upgraded to a Victoria Cross, despite recommendations from senior officers, including Lieutenant-General Brian Horrocks.

Elements of the division, the 9th Brigade, were reorganized as the division disbanded to become J Force, (Japan), the New Zealand contribution to the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan.