2nd New Zealand Division - Aftermath

Aftermath

By the end of the war, the New Zealand Division had a reputation as a tough unit with good troops. This opinion was expressed by Rommel in his report to the OKH 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 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 Eighth Army and who would later command the land forces in the Normandy Invasion, was so impressed with the New Zealanders that he recommended that the division should be used in the invasion of Normandy, but it was fighting in the Battle of Monte Cassino at the time.

Captain Charles Upham, VC and Bar, of the New Zealand 2nd Division, was the only person to be awarded the Victoria Cross twice during World War II. 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 Brian Horrocks.

Elements of the division, the 9th Brigade, were reorganised as the division disbanded to become J Force (later 2 NZEF, Japan), the New Zealand contribution to the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan.