18th Battalion (New Zealand)
The 18th 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.
Tanks of 18th Armoured Regiment waiting to move up for the crossing at Senio, Italy
For a period in 1940, the 18th Battalion was based at Maadi military camp, seen here in 1941 with Cairo in the background
A depiction of the airborne attack by German forces at Canea, a city on Crete, by the official war artist of the 2NZEF, Peter McIntyre
The King of Greece thanking the men who helped him to escape Crete
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
