New Zealand

New Zealand

1. Introduction

Although a small farming country, far from the major battle theatres, New Zealand's contribution to the war was unmatched, proportionately, by any other part of the British Empire. Of its population of 1,630,000 (including 90,000 Maoris) a greater proportion were killed than in any other part of the empire. Its war expenditure by 1943 equalled the UK's as a proportion of national income. Even more important than the provision of military manpower was New Zealand's production of meat, butter, and cheese to feed the UK and, from 1942, US forces in the South Pacific. So great was the strain imposed on this small population by the twin demands of the forces and food production that by January 1944 the prime minister, Peter Fraser, had to inform Churchill that ‘New Zealand has reached the end of its resources of manpower.’

As a self-governing Dominion within the British Empire, New Zealand was not technically a sovereign state in 1939. But shortly before midnight on 3 September 1939 the cabinet made its independent decision to associate New Zealand with the UK's declaration of war upon Germany. Two days later Michael Joseph Savage (1872–1940), then prime minister, affirmed in a broadcast his country's support for the UK: ‘Where she goes, we go, where she stands, we stand.’ Nevertheless, there was a sombre mood in the land. Many families had lost sons in the First World War, and the first Labour government (1935–49) had placed great faith in collective security through the League of Nations. Yet although it was anti-imperialist and anti-militarist in sentiment and enthused by internationalist socialist idealism, it had not neglected defence preparations. Conscious of the country's inability to defend itself it still subscribed to the concept of imperial defence. Its two-cruiser navy was organized as a division of the Royal Navy; the army was based upon providing an expeditionary force of an infantry division and a mounted rifle brigade with a division for home defence; and the air force was based on two long-range bomber squadrons and a scheme of pilot training for the RAF. All three services were trained to operate with British Commonwealth forces. For security in the Pacific reliance was placed on the deterrent power of the British fleet, and New Zealand had contributed £1 million towards the building of the Singapore naval base to facilitate fleet operations in the Pacific when needed.

In 1939 New Zealand was not directly threatened by the war but, because of its economic, cultural, and personal ties, it could not contemplate a world in which the UK lost is pre-eminence both as a market and as a political focus. This involvement sharpened in mid-1940 with the fall of France, Italy's entry into the war, and Churchill's statement that the fleet could not be sent to the Pacific in the foreseeable future. The outbreak of the Pacific war in December 1941 induced New Zealand's most urgent phase of preparedness, peaking in the second half of 1942.

2. Domestic life, economy, and war effort

Economically New Zealand had developed as the UK's outlying farm. Its wealth was based on a narrow range of pastoral products—wool, meat, butter, and cheese—which made up over 80% of the value of its export earnings. Before the war, 97% of its food exports went to the UK, which purchased from New Zealand over half its imports of cheese and a quarter of its butter imports. Within two weeks of the outbreak of war the British government contracted for the bulk purchase of all New Zealand's exportable surplus of meat, dairy produce, and wool. In 1942 a second large customer appeared. The US Joint Purchasing Board took a quarter of the export surplus of meat (especially beef ) for American forces in the South Pacific. Because of this rising overseas demand for food, domestic rationing of butter began in 1943 followed by meat in 1944. Food production had also to compete for manpower with the armed services. For the 1941–2 harvest season 10,000 troops were assigned to work on farms; in 1943 the Home Defence Forces had to give up 16,000 men, and in 1944 over 9,000 men were released from the army's 3rd Division for civil work, half of whom went to farms. Increases in farm production were achieved through growing mechanization. The number of tractors in the country rose from 9,600 in 1939 to 18,900 by 1946, 11,000 of which had been supplied by the USA under Lend-Lease. Soon after the end of the war the air force began experiments with aerial top dressing.

There was also a rise in manufacturing, notably shipbuilding. More than 500 vessels were produced, including 13 minesweepers and 12 anti-submarine patrol boats for the navy, 27 fuelling barges and launches for the air force, and more than 300 tug boats, barges, and minor craft for US forces. A surplus of war supplies, including Bren gun carriers, 2-in. mortars and mortar bombs, hand grenades and small arms ammunition, were exported, chiefly to Eastern Group Supply Council, in India.

Apart from having mines laid off some of its ports by auxiliary cruisers, New Zealand never came under attack, but the war placed major strains on its people as the demands of military mobilization and food production increased. By mid-1942 there were 20,000 US marines in the North Island, preparing for the Guadalcanal campaign. The presence of the well-paid, friendly, and courteous newcomers was a source of delight to local girls who, by the end of the war, had provided 1,396 GI brides. Less happily, there were occasional brawls between marines and Maoris.

The Labour government had always said it would conscript wealth before people. Nine days after war was declared voluntary enlistment began for an infantry division which was offered to the UK on 21 November 1939 for service in a vital theatre. But in June 1940 the government took emergency powers to conscript men and over the next five years 306,000 were called up. At the peak of mobilization in September 1942 there were 157,000 in the armed services (of whom 50,000 were serving overseas). This represented half of all males in the 18 to 45 age group and 30% of the normal male work force (see Table 1). At the request of Maori leaders an infantry battalion of Maoris was raised, which fought with distinction with Freyberg's New Zealand division in the Balkan campaign, on Crete, and in the Western Desert, North African, and Italian campaigns. The Maori War Effort Organization, which worked through tribal committees to secure recruits, also took part in valuable social welfare work. Civilian jobs were filled, at first, from a pool of 19,000 unemployed, a legacy of the depression, but by 1942 unemployment was down to only 2,000 and as the demands for military manpower grew the government had to designate certain essential occupations. Direction of labour was introduced and by the end of the war 176,000 has been ‘manpowered’ into essential work with surprisingly little friction. As the danger declined in the Pacific in the second half of 1942, men were gradually released from military service to work on production. In 1944 the army's 3rd Division, which fought briefly in the Pacific, was disbanded for the same reason.

New Zealand, Table 1: New Zealanders serving in the armed forces, 1939-46

Date	Total men	Estimated per cent of workforce	Total including women	Total serving overseas
Source: Baker, J. V. T., The New Zealand People at War: War Economy (Wellington, 1965), pp. 589-90.
1939
Sep	2,570	0.5	2,570	463
Nov	4,081	1	4,081	609
1940
Feb	12,339	2	12,339	7,649
Aug	43,253	8	43,253	15,392
1941
Feb	70,704	14	70,705	33,583
Aug	75,168	15	75,755	43,274
1942
Feb	123,910	24	125,391	48,846
Sep	153,587	30	157,000	50,000
			(peak)
1943
Feb	140,730	27	146,953	60,523
Nov	127,879	25	136,067	70,291
				(peak)
1944
Feb	118,033	23	126,102	69,246
Aug	103,372	20	110,578	55,710
1945
Feb	91,131	18	97,047	55,500
Aug	84,238	16	89,320	51,889
1946
Feb	24,294	5	26,499	8,052

Apart from those who served in the armed forces (see below), there was an upsurge in the employment of women in 1942–3, including 35,000 in war manufacturing. Thousands of women also worked in voluntary organizations co-ordinated by the Women's War Service Auxiliary. The numbers peaked at 75,000 in 1942, mainly in canteens, hospitals, and transport, and there was also a Women's Land Service for farm work. These new opportunities for female employment ended with the war.

The demand for goods and services, as well as severe shortages of imported materials provoked real fears of inflation. One major economic achievement of the war was the government's stabilization policy. After the Court of Arbitration awarded a 5% wage increase in 1940, an Economic Stabilization Conference was called to find ways of fixing costs, wages, and prices so that the war would not allow any one group to benefit at the cost of any other. In August 1941 the prices of 38 essential items—food, clothing, power, and tram fares—were stabilized and on 15 December 1942 a comprehensive scheme was announced. Prices of 110 items, all wages and salaries, and transport rates were pegged at the 15 December 1942 level. Rents were stabilized at the 1 September 1942 level. Increases in incomes were to be tied to a Wartime Prices Index. No increase was permissible until the index went up 2.5%. It did not rise above 1% until 1947, but prices were only held during the war by a variety of interventions such as subsidies, standardization, simplification, and cross-subsidy from non-listed items. By 1945–6 subsidies were equivalent to 2.5% of national income.

War finance proved another wartime economic success. Having been given hard terms by British bankers during the depression, the Labour government determined to finance the war from taxes and internal borrowing. A War Expenses Account was established to isolate war costs. Out of a total war expenditure of £699 million, £476 went on the armed forces (see Table 2). At the peak of the war effort in 1942–4 it cost the equivalent of two-fifths of the country's output. Defence expenditure increased more than 50 times between 1939 and 1944. In 1943 it took 53% of national income. Of war revenues totalling £681 million, £295 million came from loans in New Zealand, £225 million from taxes, and £104 million from Lend-Lease. The country incurred no outstanding overseas debt as a result of the war. Indeed, total indebtedness declined by £45 million over the six years. From a purely bookkeeping point of view, the war achievement has been rated ‘admirable, a bargain’ (see Taylor [below], p. 1287).

3. Government

Politically, New Zealand was a parliamentary democracy, owing allegiance to the British Crown (represented by a governor-general), but wholly self-governing. Although the Dominion did not become, constitutionally, a sovereign state until the adoption of the Statute of Westminster in 1947, the Crown was advised in all executive matters by a ministry, responsible to the General Assembly made up of the governor-general, the nominated upper house (the Legislative Council) and the lower house (the House of Representatives) elected by all adults aged 21 and over. Elections were normally held triennially and a ministry could only retain power if it had a majority in the house. Party politics were not suspended during the war and there was never an effective all-party coalition as in the UK. The election due in 1941 was, however, postponed until 1943. Throughout the war the first Labour government retained office, led by Michael Joseph Savage until his death in 1940 and thereafter by Peter Fraser, who is still regarded as one of New Zealand's greatest statesmen.

New Zealand, Table 2: New Zealander's war finances, 1939-46

	£000s
Source: Baker, War Economy, pp. 254-5.
Expenditure
Navy	37,086
Army	294,334
Air Force	145,218
Civil (chiefly subsidies)	34,130
Other (including reverse Lend-Lease)	158,756
total	669,524
Revenue
Loans	295,402
War Taxes	225,014
Transfers from Consolidated Fund	26,586
Disposal of assets	14,749
Lend-Lease	104,569
Canadian mutual aid	6,103
Miscellaneous	7,609
Rehabilitation receipts	521
Aeroplane fund	163
Fijian Government	169
Profits from Marketing Pool	377
total	681,262

A war cabinet was formed on 16 July 1940, consisting of the prime minister, the minister of finance ( Walter Nash), the minister of defence ( Fred Jones), the minister of supply and munitions ( Dan Sullivan), and two members of the opposition National Party, its leader Adam Hamilton (as minister in charge of war expenditure) and a former prime minister, Gordon Coates (as minister for armed forces and war co-ordination). During the most critical phase of the Pacific war, in June 1942, a coalition arrangement was finally attempted. A war administration was created, consisting of seven government and six opposition members. The war cabinet became its executive arm and included the new leader of the opposition, Sidney Holland, as deputy chairman. The arrangement lasted only three months: when opposition members disapproved of the prime minister's handling of a coal miners' strike they withdrew from the war administration. However, Hamilton and Coates put country before party and remained in the war cabinet. In the general election on 25 September 1943 the government lost a few seats but retained a comfortable majority in parliament.

The war induced the opening of New Zealand's first diplomatic relations with foreign powers. Previously, the sole political representative overseas was the high commissioner in London, who had doubled as representative to the League of Nations, and there were consular offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Los Angeles, and New York. After Churchill's statement on 13 June 1940, that the UK could not contemplate sending the fleet to Singapore and that, if Japan took advantage of the European war to strike in the Pacific, the Dominions would have to look to the USA for protection, New Zealand sought diplomatic representation in Washington. A legation was established in 1942 and Walter Nash, minister of finance, became the first incumbent. High commissioners were appointed to Ottawa in 1942 and Canberra in 1943. The first post in a non-English-speaking country was the legation opened in Moscow in 1944. Ever since the late 19th century New Zealand had enjoyed a voice in empire and, thereby, world affairs. From 1941 the main task of diplomacy was to achieve a voice in Washington, where the Combined Chiefs of Staff became the centre of strategic planning.

4. Armed forces

Although New Zealand turned to the USA as its main protector from 1941, its military co-operation with the UK was not diminished. The largest part of the armed forces continued to serve with British formations, but from 1943 elements of all three services also served under American command in the South Pacific. Balancing contributions to the European and Pacific theatres provided the war's most taxing dilemma.

(a) Army

The army expeditionary force (2nd NZEF) always presented the most formidable demand for manpower. The New Zealand Division (designated 2nd Division from June 1942) represented, as a proportion of the Dominion's population, the equivalent of 25 British divisions. Commanded by Major-General Freyberg, who had been brought up in New Zealand but had served in the British Army, it had the status of a national force by the terms of the general's letter of instructions of 1940. Freyberg was instructed to act under the orders of the theatre C-in-C ‘subject only to the requirements of His Majesty's government in New Zealand’. It took eighteen months for 2nd Division to become fully formed. The first echelon (4th Brigade) reached Egypt on 12 February 1940, followed by 6th Brigade on 27 October.

Divisional Signals, the New Zealand Engineers' railway and water supply companies, and the service corps transport units all took part in O'Connor's Western Desert campaign in December 1940 and January 1941. The second echelon (5th Brigade) was diverted to the UK, where it became part of the covering force in the defence of South-East England facing an anticipated German invasion in the second half of 1940 (see SEALION). After this period of scattered deployment the division finally came together and the next eighteen months, from March 1941 to September 1942, were a time of costly fighting to create the battle-hardened division, which then became part of the spearhead of Montgomery's Eighth Army. In the disasters in Greece (see Balkan campaign) and Crete and the attempted relief of Tobruk the division incurred more than 10,000 casualties. During the fighting in the Western Desert in mid-1942 the division's strength was reduced from 20,000 to 13,000 in a month. But from the second battle of El Alamein in October 1942 to the capture of Tunis seven months later, 2nd Division took part in a series of decisive operations. Thereafter New Zealand's increasing role in the Pacific cast doubts on 2nd Division's future employment in the battle for the Mediterranean. During 1941 the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps was formed and by July 1943 its numbers totalled 4,600.

New Zealand had taken over certain British responsibilities in the Pacific Islands. An infantry company had been sent to Fanning Island (the cable station halfway between Hawaii and the Cook Islands) in 1939. A brigade group, known as B Force, went to garrison Fiji in 1940 and at the outbreak of the Pacific war this force was augmented with a second brigade. With a divisional headquarters it became the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force in the Pacific and was designated 3rd Division from May 1942. With these growing responsibilities close to home, Fraser warned Freyberg early in 1942 that New Zealand might have to follow the Australian example and withdraw from the Mediterranean to concentrate on the South Pacific. But a decision was delayed when the USA took responsibility for Fanning, Fiji, and Tonga and 3rd Division was brought home to New Zealand for training in amphibious warfare. In June 1942 the American C-in-C South Pacific Area, Admiral Halsey, set up his headquarters in Auckland and the 1st US Marine Division arrived in New Zealand. For two years there were 20,000 American troops stationed in New Zealand, while 50,000 New Zealanders served overseas. When the American forces began to wrest the Solomon Islands from Japan, beginning with their assault on Guadalcanal in August 1942, Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) squadrons were sent in support and 3rd Division became the garrison for New Caledonia. Garrisons were also provided for Norfolk Island and Tonga.

Following the second battle of El Alamein and the Allied landings in North Africa (TORCH) Fraser asked in November 1942 for the return of 2nd Division but was persuaded by Churchill and Roosevelt that this would be disruptive to shipping. In April 1943 when the British sought to train the division for the proposed Sicilian campaign Fraser withheld consent and took the question of future deployment to a secret session of parliament in May. Here it was agreed that 2nd Division would remain in the Mediterranean, but that 6,000 long-service troops would have home leave and no reinforcements would be made available for the rest of the year, and that 3rd Division (reduced in size) would stay in the Pacific. Thus 2nd Division fought in the Italian campaign from October 1943 until it was involved in the occupation of Trieste in May 1945. Meanwhile, in the Pacific, 3rd Division (reduced to two brigades) joined the Americans in the Solomon Islands and its units were used separately in three operations: 14th Brigade relieved US units on Vella Lavella in September 1943 and cleared the Japanese from that island; 8th Brigade landed in the Treasury Islands in October 1943; and 14th Brigade captured Nissan, in the Green Islands, in February 1944, the last two operations being commanded by Maj-General H. E. Barraclough, the divisional commander. At this point, New Zealand's severe manpower problem forced a review of priorities. The matter was put to the Combined Chiefs of Staff in Washington, and after the Quebec conference in September 1944 (see OCTAGON) it was decided to leave a reduced 2nd Division in Italy, disband 3rd Division, and use its men for reinforcements and for domestic production.

(b) Navy

The New Zealand Division of the RN (consisting of the light cruisers Leander and Achilles, two British escort vessels, and one mine-sweeping trawler) came under Admiralty control on the outbreak of war. Achilles played a notable part in the action with the Admiral Graf Spee in the battle of the River Plate in December 1939, Leander sank the Italian auxiliary cruiser, Ramb I in the Indian Ocean in February 1941 and for several months joined the British Mediterranean Fleet. In September 1941 the Division became the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN), which also contained a New Zealand section of the Women's Royal Naval Service whose numbers, by October 1944, totalled 500. The RNZN retained its two 6 in. (15 cm.) cruisers throughout the war but was augmented in strength by 2 corvettes, 16 mine sweepers, 12 anti-submarine patrol boats, and more than 100 harbour defence launches and other minor craft. In naval engagements off the Solomon Islands in 1943 both cruisers were badly damaged, one minesweeper was sunk, and another dented by ramming a Japanese submarine. The cruisers Achilles and Gambia and the corvette Arbutus joined the British Pacific Fleet (see Task Force 57) in operations off Japan in 1945. See also Anzac area.

(c) Air Force

Even more widespread than the army and naval contributions were those of the RNZAF. Apart from manning two reconnaissance squadrons in New Zealand and two in Fiji, the air force's main contribution in the early years of the war was to provide trained air crew for the RAF (see British Empire Air Training Scheme). More than 500 New Zealanders were serving in the RAF in 1939 and crews which were in the UK taking delivery of Wellington bombers formed the nucleus of 75th Squadron, the first Dominion squadron. By the end of the war more than 10,000 New Zealanders were serving in the RAF, either scattered throughout British units or concentrated in seven specifically New Zealand squadrons, six stationed in the UK and one in West Africa. For the defence of Malaya in 1941, the RNZAF sent an airfield construction unit and the pilots for an RAF fighter squadron. But it was in the Pacific that the air force reached its greatest strength. New Zealand squadrons covered operations in the Solomons, staying on after the withdrawal of 3rd Division in 1944 and seven air squadrons and a squadron of radar units operated in the garrison area around Guadalcanal, the New Hebrides, and Fiji. A five-squadron task force operated in the battles for the northern Solomons and early in 1945 there was a ring of four New Zealand air bases surrounding the Japanese base of Rabaul. Of the RNZAF's total wartime strength of 45,000, one-third served in the Pacific. On the carriers of the British Pacific fleet a quarter of the pilots were New Zealanders. The air force was the first to recruit women into its ranks when the Women's Auxiliary Air Force was formed in January 1941, and by August 1943 this had reached a peak of 4,000.

New Zealand's total war casualties—killed, wounded, or taken prisoner—amounted to 36,038 (see Table 3). Of these 11,671 were killed, which represented 6,684 per million of the country's population compared with 5,123 for the UK and 3,232 for Australia. The army lost 6,839 killed and the air force 4,149 including those who died in service with the RAF. Of the 573 naval losses, the largest proportion were sailors serving in the RN. Few families in New Zealand were unaffected.

New Zealand, Table 3: New Zealand casualties, 1939-45

	Deaths	Wounded	Prisoners	Interned	Total
Source: Kay, R., (ed.), Chronology: New Zealand in the War, 1939–1946 (Wellington, 1968).
Army	6,839	15,324	7,863		30,026
Navy	573	170	54	3	800
Air Force	4,149	255	552	23	4,979
Merchant Navy	110			123	233
total	11,671	15,749	8,469	149	36,038

5. Culture

The isolation, austerity, and boredom induced by war gave some encouragement to cultural developments, which also received a major fillip from the Centennial in 1940 and the arrival of refugees from Europe. As well as a major exposition celebrating the growth of the country's economy and institutions, a centennial orchestra was created, which toured the country. Many new books were published locally, including government-sponsored centennial volumes. There was a retrospective exhibition of New Zealand art. During the war musical life continued to be centred on choirs and chamber music groups in the four main cities and the National Broadcasting Service's string orchestra. Lunchtime concerts, starting in Auckland, were a success, but brass bands and pipe bands represented the most popular musical expression and both flourished. No fewer than 25 bands accompanied the 2nd NZEF, and the RNZAF Band achieved a high reputation. These developments led to the founding of a national orchestra in 1946.

New Zealand writers had become fascinated by problems of national identity in the 1930s and received encouragement after 1934 from the radical fortnightly Tomorrow until it was suppressed under wartime emergency regulations in 1940. The New Zealand Listener, founded in 1939 to publicize radio programmes, also provided a large readership for poetry and short stories. The Caxton Press, in Christchurch, continued to publish the poetry of Denis Glover, Alan Curnow, and A. R. D. Fairburn. A New Zealand Progressive Publishing Society was formed in 1942 and New Zealand New Writing, edited by Ian Gordon, ran from 1942 to 1945. A government sympathetic to the arts founded the New Zealand Literary Fund in 1946.

Artists trained at the Dunedin and Canterbury schools of art and the Elam School in Auckland received encouragement from ‘The Group’ centred on Christchurch. Rita Angus, Toss Wollaston, and Colin McCahon turned to the New Zealand landscape, which they interpreted in new abstract forms. When the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts had to vacate the National Art Gallery, taken over for war purposes, it continued exhibiting in a department store in central Wellington where it was more accessible and became more popular. Further popular portrayals of New Zealand were forthcoming from the National Film Unit, started in 1941, which produced in ‘Weekly Review’ the first locally made newsreels. A further expression of growing self-confidence was the ending of overseas assessment of university degree examinations—a move accelerated by wartime postal delays and even the loss of papers due to enemy action. As in the matters of farm production and military prowess, the war induced considerable advances in the cultural life of New Zealand.

W. David McIntyre

Bibliography

Baker, J. V. T. , The New Zealand People at War: War Economy (Wellington, 1965).
Taylor, N. , The New Zealand People at War: The Home Front, 2 vols. (Wellington, 1986).
Wood, F. L. W. , The New Zealand People at War: Political and External Affairs (Wellington, 1958).