20th Battalion (New Zealand)
The 20th Battalion was a formation of the New Zealand Military Forces which served, initially as an infantry battalion and then as an armoured regiment, during the Second World War as part of the 2nd New Zealand Division.
Infantry of the 20th Battalion in Baggush, Egypt, September 1941
A crashed German glider on Crete
Lieutenant Colonel Howard Karl Kippenberger (left), who was the commanding officer of the 20th Battalion from its formation until late 1941, with Lieutenant Charles Hazlitt Upham, Egypt, October/November 1941
An ambulance damaged by a shell during the breakout at Minqar Qaim
The 2nd New Zealand Division, initially the New Zealand Division, was an infantry division of the New Zealand Military Forces during the Second World War. The division was commanded for most of its existence by Lieutenant-General Bernard C. Freyberg. It fought in Greece, Crete, the Western Desert and Italy. In the Western Desert Campaign, the division played a prominent role in the defeat of German and Italian forces in the Second Battle of El Alamein and the British Eighth Army's advance to Tunisia.
Bernard Freyberg (pictured) would command the 2nd New Zealand Division for most of its existence
New Zealand Infantry linking up with the Tobruk garrison
New Zealand Soldier with a captured German 88mm anti-tank gun near El Alamein
New Zealand Gunners of 6th Field Regiment in action at the Sangro River