Italian Refugees with New Zealand Soldier

Image size: 1600 x 1070 pixel. 601 KB
Date: Saturday, 3 June 1944
Place: Sora, Lazio, Frosinone, Italy
Photographer: George Frederick Kaye

Italian refugees are brought to the town of Sora, Italy, from heavily shelled areas in an ambulance jeep driven by C.P. Kerrisk of the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force, 3 June 1944. On this day, the 2nd New Zealand Division (led bc charismatic Bernard Freyberg) captured the town of Sora after the advance from Monte Cassino up into the upper Liri Valley. The advance was hampered by lack of communication between the infantry and the supporting tanks of B Squadron, 20 Armoured Regiment, which were to work up the road from Sora. A Company claimed that it reached the road west of Campoli, but did not make contact with the tanks, which in turn reported that they could find no sign of the infantry. D Company also reported that it gained the road (on the right of A Company), and in doing so had taken 10 prisoners from 134 Regiment. A possible explanation of the inability of the infantry and tanks to join up may be that the tanks, proceeding in a compact bunch, had passed before the infantry reached the road. The picture was taken by George Frederick Kaye.

Source :
http://historyinphotos.blogspot.co.id/2015/04/george-frederick-kaye.html
http://www.newzealandersatwar.com/Timeline.html
http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-WH2-2Ita-c2-2.html#name-001145-mention

2 NZ Personnel Division Sorting Out Maps

Image size: 1600 x 1067 pixel. 510 KB
Date: Thursday, 8 June 1944
Place: Italy
Photographer: George Frederick Kaye

Personnel sorting out maps during 2nd New Zealand Division's rapid advance in Italy, 8 June 1944. The Italian campaign was New Zealand’s primary combat contribution to the war following the hard-won victory over Axis forces in North Africa. Almost all the New Zealanders who served in Italy did so as members of the 2nd New Zealand Division – a highly competent fighting force affectionately known as the 'Div'. The men of the Div endured harsh winters and 18 months of gruelling combat before ending the war in the city of Trieste in May 1945. The legacy of the campaign was profound and long-lasting: more than 2100 New Zealanders were killed and 6700 wounded during the liberation of Italy; placenames like Orsogna, Cassino and Faenza continue to evoke the memory of their contribution and sacrifices.

Source :

http://historyinphotos.blogspot.co.id/2015/04/george-frederick-kaye.html

https://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/the-italian-campaign

New Zealand Tank Crew at Cassino

Image size: 1074 x 1600 pixel. 442 KB
Date: Thursday, 18 May 1944
Place: Cassino, Frosinone, Italy
Photographer: George Frederick Kaye

New Zealand tankmen, possibly 4th New Zealand Armoured Brigade personnel, in Cassino, Italy, on the day it fell to the 8th Army, 18 May 1944. The Brigade arrived in Italy on 5 October 1943, over a month after the initial invasion, landing at Taranto and were involved in the first actions to break through the Bernhardt Line on the Sangro front. In 1944 they were transferred to U.S. Fifth Army on the Italian western coast. The New Zealand Division was joined by the 4th Indian Division and the British 78th Division, and together with units of the U.S. 1st Armored Division formed the New Zealand Corps and was tasked with the capture of the town of Cassino, its skyline dominated by a 13th Century Monastery. During this period the 4th New Zealand Armoured Brigade was tasked with supporting the infantry. Individual squadrons were employed in a fire support role, often being used as makeshift artillery. The 20th Armoured Regiment participated in a flanking attack, approaching the Monastery on a specially constructed road from behind. Surprise was achieved, but insufficient infantry reserves to press the initiative saw the German defenders regain the upper hand and the tanks fell back. In March tanks from the 19th Armoured Regiment entered the town proper to support members of the 28th Māori Battalion in the bitter house to house fighting, using their 75mm guns to dig the defenders out of strong points. The degree of rubble clogging the streets made progress slow and by the end of the month when relieved by the 20th Armoured Regiment the Shermans had reverted to the role of static fire support. This continued for the next two months, with the tanks able to provide little more than morale support to the infantry until the monastery finally fell to Polish forces on 19 May 1944.

Source :
National Library of New Zealand Ref: DA-05712-F
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4th_New_Zealand_Armoured_Brigade

German Tank Crew Surrendered to New Zealand Troops

Image size: 1600 x 1158 pixel. 64.3 KB
Date: Wednesday, 3 December 1941
Place: Near Tobruk, Cyrenaica, Libya
Photographer: Unknown

A captured Matilda put into use by the German forces, is recaptured and its crew taken prisoner by New Zealand troops, 3 December 1941 during Operation Crusader. On 18 November 1941, Operation Crusader was launched to lift the Siege of Tobruk (the third such attack), under the command of General Alan Cunningham and the New Zealand 2nd Division (integrated into the British Eighth Army) took part in the offensive, crossing the Libyan frontier into Cyrenaica. Operation Crusader was an overall success for the British, although Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps inflicted heavy armour and infantry losses before its weakened and under supplied units retreated to El Agheila and halted the British advance. The New Zealand troops were the ones to relieve Tobruk after fighting around Sidi Rezegh, where Axis tanks had inflicted heavy casualties against the several New Zealand infantry battalions, protected by very little of their own armour. In February, 1942, With Crusader completed, the New Zealand government insisted that the Division be withdrawn to Syria to recover - 879 men were killed and 1700 wounded in Operation Crusader, the most costly battle the Division fought in the Second World War!

Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matilda_II
http://www.privateletters.net/allies_newzealand.html

New Zealand Soldiers Drinks Tea in Cassino

Image size: 1600 x 1065 pixel. 397 KB
Date: Wednesday, 5 April 1944
Place: Cassino, Frosinone, Italy
Photographer: George Frederick Kaye

New Zealand soldiers belonging to the 22nd Battalion / 2 New Zealand Expeditionary Force, take a break during a lull in the fighting and drink tea during the bloody battle for Cassino, Italy, 5 April 1944. In 1943 the Allies took Sicily and began to land into Italy. They met little and patchy opposition throughout most of their advance northward but small pockets of fierce German and Italian resisters still remained here and there. Just a few miles outside of Rome now, the Allies were preparing for the final push into the heart of Italy. In early 1944 they began to advance and then some hit shocking happen. The radios lit up with a chaotic rabble basically all about the same issue: We have hit heavy resistance and are taking heavy casualties. What the Allies had just hit in Italy was what would soon become deadliest sector on that front, the Gustav Line. The Gustav Line was a line of fortifications in the mountains that stretched from west to east Italy. It was the last large obstacle blocking Rome from the Allies and it had to be broken through. For months and months Allied soldiers fought through the mountains, taking thousands of casualties every week, and seemingly making no gains. As casualties mounted the Allies knew they had to try something new, land a small American force at Anzio as a distraction to the Germans. As soon as the Americans landed they would charge towards Rome since they landed in Anzio which is behind the Gustav Line and in theory this would distract the Germans. The American commander at Anzio instead landed and waited a full 9 days to prepare which was more than enough time for the Germans to regroup and hold off the Americans. Now you have the invasion forces bleeding out and not even crawling towards Rome, in other words; the situation was not looking good. Finally, after months of hard fighting, the Germans began to ran out of supplies and pulled back to the Italian Alps in the northern area of Italy. The Americans at Anzio broke through the German defenses and pushed on, and the Allies at Cassino finally, after months of ferocious fighting, advanced towards Rome.

Source :
Courtesy Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand
http://historyinphotos.blogspot.co.id/2015/04/george-frederick-kaye.html

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bg3Rl7YnoL4/

Churchill Crocodile "Calgary" Attacks German Positions Across the Senio River

Image size: 1600 x 1410 pixel. 410 KB
Date: Monday, 9 April 1945
Place: Between Cotignola and Felisio, Romagna, Italy
Photographer: Sergeant Menzies from 2 Army Film & Photos

Churchill Crocodile "Calgary" of 51 Royal Tank Regiment, C Squadron, attached to the 2nd New Zealand Division, sprays flame across the Senio River prior to the Allied crossing on April 9, 1945. The Senio River crossing was preceded by a large aerial bombardment, then 28 Crocodiles and 127 Wasp flamethrower carriers, spaced every 70 yards (64 meters) along a five-mile (8-kilometer) front, burned everything along the line. The 2nd New Zealand suffered no casualties in crossing the Senio. The Crocodile was based on the Mark VII Churchill Tank, and retained a 75mm (3 inch) cannon in the turret with a flamethrower in place of the hull-mounted BESA 7.62mm (.30 caliber) machine gun. Designed by Major-General Sir Percy "Hobo" Hobart (June 14, 1885 - February 19, 1957) famed commander of the 79th Armoured Division, the Crocodile was one of "Hobart's Funnies" designed for specialized operations during the Normandy Campaign. Only in 1945 were the "funnies" made available to the Italian Theatre of Operations. The unique design - a trailer pulled behind the Crocodile held four hundred gallons (1500 liters) of fuel - made the Crocodile marginally safer than previous motorized flamethrowers, which would burn furiously if hit. The Crocodile used pressurized nitrogen to send flame up to 120 yards (110 meters). The appearance of a Crocodile, or a spray of unignited fuel, would be enough to affect a surrender. Used in concert with the Churchill Armored Vehicle Royal Engineers (AVRE) which mounted a 290mm (11.4 inch) spigot mortar. The AVRE would fire on a bunker, then the Crocodile would flame the debris. There are reports that some Crocodile crews, when their tank was "brewed" or knocked out, were executed immediately by the Germans rather than taken prisoner because of the fear and anger over the weapon! A unit of Crocodiles was sent to Korea in 1950. 

Source:

Imperial War Museum (IWM) NA 23837 

http://www.worldwar2database.com/gallery3/index.php/wwii0054