New zealand territorials

[antoniop]

Can anybody give me information about the 1st, 4th, 5th New Zealand infantry divisions.?

I imagine that they were expansions of the territorial brigades in existence on the eve of Pearl Harbour attack, but I have got no information.

Best regards

Antonio

[Peter H]

The Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War 1939–1945 can be found online here.Forty-five volumes to date,with 5 to come.

http://www.nzetc.org/corpora/WH2.html


These HTML links might help:

The NZ 'Home Guard"(From The Home Front Vol 1):

http://www.nzetc.org/etexts/WH2-1Hom/c12.html


NZ defensive measures Dec 1941(From The Pacific Volume):

http://www.nzetc.org/etexts/WH2Paci/_N74177.html

[13thredarmy]

I am fairly sure there were no 4th or 5th divisions.

The 1st and 2nd were in UK, Nth Africa and Italy with the 3rd formed later for service in the Pacific.

The latter always suffered from insufficient manpower with NZ not really able to support 3 divisions and it was disbanded in early 1944 (I think) and it's personnel used as replacements to the 1st and 2nd.

[antoniop]

Hi,

It is the first time I have heard that the 1st division went to UK during the world war 2.

I believed that the second division was the only one that went to Europe. Could you give some more information about this?

Thanks

Antonio

[13thredarmy]

My mistake, only 1st Div. was ever in UK. 2nd was in Italy though.

[13thredarmy]

My mistake, only 2nd Div. was ever in UK. 1st was in Italy though.

[Peter H]

Only the 2nd NZ Division served in the Med & Europe.

The NZEF 1st Division was its WW1 predecessor.The New Zealanders followed the Australian approach of not repeating the same AIF divisional numbering system in both wars.i.e 1st AIF 1914-18 1st,2nd,3rd,4th,5th Divisions;2nd AIF 1939-45 6th,7th,8th,9th Divisions.

Therefore NZEF--1st Division 1914-18;2nd,3rd Divisions 1939-45.

Something on the NZ 4th Armoured Brigade that also served in Italy can be found here :

http://kiwisinarmour.hobbyvista.com/index.html

[13thredarmy]

God it's true, I really know very little (no 4th or 5th divs though !).

[Michael Tapner]

Here is a brief summary of New Zealand forces.
As stated by Peter, the Kiwis followed the Australian way of numbering their divisions that served overseas in World War II.
Thus the NZ division that served in Europe (From England in late 1940 through to the desert, Crete and Italy was the 2nd NZ division. For most of its life the division had a 10 battalion structure, having an extra 'Maori' battalion. These were big lads. Very big.

The 3rd division served in the Pacific through the war, predominantly in Fiji but seeing some action in the solomon islands as the war progressed.

The 1st, 4th and 5th divisions were formed out of the troops that were mobilized when the Pacific war started and were bought up to manpower strength by about April 42. Some 7 extra brigades were mobilised (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 7th, 10th, 11th 12th) in addition to the territorial formations. The formations

In early 43 the 1st, 4th and 5th divisions were slowly disbanded as personnel were required for industry. These were replaced with some armored formations and a home guard, with the home guard also being stood down late 43/early 44. These units were replaced by tank battalions

[antoniop]

Thanks Michael,

Have you any information about the brigades and battalions of those 1st, 4th and 5th Infantry divisions.?

I think that the named regiments (i.e. Canterbury, Wellington, Nelson....) were part of these divisions.

[Michael Tapner]

Antoniop,

I don't have much information. Hope this helps though.

The 1st was made up with the 1st and 12th Brigades.
The 4th was made up with the 2nd and 7th Brigades
The 5th was made up with the 3rd, 10th and 11th brigades

The named brigades would best be likened to home guard formations, with the name derived from the place at which they were raised. I am not sure on this but I believe these home guard formations were raised in 1941.