2nd New Zealand Division - Outbreak of War

Outbreak of War

At the outbreak of war in 1939 it was decided that New Zealand should provide an Expeditionary Force of one division, under then Major-General Bernard Freyberg. This force became known as 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force and the division, initially, as the New Zealand Division. The first echelon of 2NZEF Headquarters and a Brigade Group landed in Egypt in February 1940. The second echelon, also a Brigade Group, was diverted to Britain on Italy's entry into the war, joining VII Corps and did not reach Egypt until March 1941. The third echelon arrived in Egypt in September 1940 and concentration of the division was completed just before it was deployed to northern Greece in March 1941.

The division remained as part of the British Eighth Army to the end of World War II in 1945 during which it fought in the Battle of Greece (March–April 1941), the Battle of Crete (May 1941), Operation Crusader (November–December 1941), Minqar Qaim (June 1942), First Battle of El Alamein (July 1942), Second Battle of El Alamein (October–November 1942), Libya and Tunisia (December 1942–May 1943), the Sangro (October–December 1943), Battle of Monte Cassino (February–March 1944), Central Italy (May–December 1944), and the Adriatic Coast (April–May 1945).