2nzef

'I wasn't a great believer in the war. I was a bit cynical about war aims and all the rest of it, but when you're on a tank and there are thousands of Italians milling around, throwing flowers at you and cheering and offering you loaves of bread and glasses of wine, you start to think, Well, perhaps I am a liberator. It goes to your head a bit. But that was the highlight - there was a lot of hard slogging before that happened.'

Gordon Slatter, 441668, Private, 26 Battalion.

Fighting in North Africa stemmed from the area’s strategic importance to the Commonwealth. Egypt’s Suez Canal, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea, was a vital transport artery, while the Middle East oilfields were crucial to sustaining the Allied war effort. Italy’s decision in June 1940 to enter the war on Germany’s side seriously jeopardised Britain’s position in Egypt. Italian forces in Libya and Abyssinia (Ethiopia) dwarfed the 36,000 British troops in the region.

The 2NZEF

Strategy determined that New Zealanders involved in combat with Germans would mostly do so at a distance from New Zealand. New Zealand's security, it was accepted, depended on the success of British arms, which would inevitably be concentrated in Europe. Only there could the British Commonwealth be defeated; and New Zealand's contribution, necessarily relatively small, could help prevent such an outcome.

Cassino

The Division was to enjoy only a brief respite before being called upon to participate in a new attack on a strong point which would prove the most tragically elusive prize of the entire campaign for the New Zealanders. They now marched across to the other side of Italy to join the Allied forces massing before the town of Cassino.

North to Florence

Major Major, No. 1 Dog, 2NZEF, and member/mascot of 19 Battalion since 1939, died of sickness in Italy. He was buried with full military honours at Rimini.

Major was a white bull terrier who served with distinction in North Africa and Italy. He attained the rank of major in September 1942, shortly after receiving a shrapnel wound at El Alamein.

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Image: Major Major in front of officers of 19 Battalion