Our long Italian ‘adventure’
In October 1943, the 2nd NZ Division landed in Italy. A new book traces their arduous 20-month slog up the peninsula from Taranto to Trieste.
Seventy-six years ago this month, the entire 2nd New Zealand Division was in Italy for what turned out to be – after Russia – the longest single-country campaign of the war.
From 1940, New Zealand’s main army unit fought in the Mediterranean and North Africa, where the Axis forces were finally defeated at El Alamein in late 1942.
By then, the United States and Russia were also fighting the Axis. The next step for the Allies was continental Europe; Italy was the obvious starting point.
By October 1943, Sicily had been liberated, and the Allies had begun the invasion of mainland Italy, the Americans striking up the west coast towards Naples and the British towards the Adriatic.
In October, 14-15,000 men of the 2nd New Zealand Division, both veterans and fresh reinforcements, arrived in Italy from Egypt, at the ancient southern port of Taranto. The rest of the division, with the armour and transports, joined them via Bari, on the Adriatic coast.
Taranto, however, was just the starting point of the Italian ‘‘adventure’’.
It was to be an unexpectedly arduous campaign, on a circuitous route from the southern Mediterranean to the beautiful city of Trieste in the far northeast corner of Italy.
A journey of 20 months and thousands of kilometres, it would take them over high mountain passes, through scores of unheard-of hilltop villages and famous ancient towns, and across endless swamps, rivers and streams.
It would also take them through all the seasonal changes, including the blistering summer of 1944 and the appalling winters of 1943-44 and 1944-45.
In front of the New Zealanders all the way, the Germans were not fleeing in disarray but withdrawing to well reconnoitred ground and prepared defence positions. Skilled and unyielding, putting up a fierce defence, they would exact (and pay) a heavy toll for every line ceded.
In those 20 months, more than 2000 New Zealanders lost their lives and some 8500 were wounded. (At Cassino, best known to the public then and now, 343 troops died and more than 600 were wounded.)
For those who returned home, whether hardened troops or replacements, the experience in Italy was particularly significant. Italy left an indelible impression in their hearts and minds.
The Kiwi troops had come into close contact with the population for a considerable length of time and, in a way, that distinguished the campaign from others involving New Zealanders during the war.
Most recognised affinities in the rugged landscape and the agricultural environment.
Those from rural New Zealand observed with interest Italian farming. Many learnt the language. Others fell in love with the art, the architecture, the music.
The Kiwis discovered opera and many learnt the arias and other popular Italian songs of the time. Some took home Italian brides.
Author Jennifer Mallinson has now relived the 2nd NZ Division’s 20-month campaign in a seven-year odyssey. ‘‘Although a personal journey with personal reflections,’’ she says, ‘‘the real story is about the largely off-the-beaten-track places which the troops passed through, what they saw and experienced along the way and, in some cases what they missed.’’
Mallinson researched and wrote From Taranto to Trieste: Following the 2nd NZ Division’s Italian Campaign, 1943-45 because she ‘‘found most Italians had no idea of the New Zealand presence during the Second World War, even when Kiwis had been through their villages’’.
The division was part of a much larger British and US force and was often fighting in conjunction with their units. Italian villagers, with a limited knowledge of the outside world, tended to view all Allied troops as British or American. In the same way, many thought of Ma¯ ori as African-Americans.
Since the early 1970s, the author, a New Zealander with a history degree from Canterbury University, has lived in Verona, where she worked for 35 years in the international projects and marketing section of a civil engineering firm.
A fluent Italian speaker and naturalised Italian, she immersed herself in the history of the 2nd NZ Division’s campaign, and followed in their footsteps through modern-day Italy.
She says: ‘‘There are many people of the post-war generation, and their children, with direct connections to the Italian campaign, who would like to know more about the small, mysterious places the division passed through which appear in diaries, letters and on the back of photographs, but many of which do not appear on maps.’’
From Taranto to Trieste: Following the 2nd NZ Division’s Italian Campaign, 1943-45, by Jennifer Mallinson. Published by Fraser Books. $49.50.
Those from rural New Zealand observed with interest Italian farming. Many learnt the language. Others fell in love with the art, the architecture, the music.