Desert Duel: New Zealand's North African War 1940-43.

• Author: McGibbon, Ian
• Position: Author: Matthew Wright - Book Review

Author: Matthew Wright

Published by: Reed Books, Auckland, 2002, 194pp, $29.95.

Sixty years ago New Zealand troops were present at the surrender, on 13 May 1943, of the German-Italian forces in North Africa--the final act in a nearly three year campaign that had see-sawed across Libya. Commanded by Lieutenant-General Sir Bernard Freyberg, 2 New Zealand Division had played a major part in the Commonwealth effort in the latter half of the struggle. In a series of battles, it had adjusted to the needs of desert warfare and fought with increasing confidence and proficiency. German commander Erwin Rommel regarded it as an elite division among those he faced.

The New Zealanders' experience was occasionally dramatic, sometimes disastrous, and usually uncomfortable (if only because of the trials imposed by temperature extremes, sand, flies, and inadequate food and water). They fought with great determination in dangerous situations in the approaches to Tobruk, escaped by the skin of their teeth from the noose drawn round them at Minqar Qaim, helped halt Rommel's drive on Egypt, played a key role in the climactic battle at El Alamein, and became renowned for the left hooks that they delivered as the 8th Army drove Rommel's force westward towards Tunisia.

In Desert Duel, Matthew Wright provides a brief, lively account of the division's performance. He describes its main battles, and some of the leading personalities that helped shape its fortunes. He brings out well the trials and tribulations the New Zealanders suffered in the period leading up to General Montgomery's assumption of command of 8th Army.

The book suffers, however, from its narrow focus. Nowhere does the author give the reader any indication that New Zealand's contribution to the desert triumph was not confined to the division. Many hundreds of New Zealanders helped create the conditions for victory while attached to the Royal Navy and RAF. The stranglehold these British services put on Rommel's supplies contributed greatly to his defeat. It is startling, moreover, to find no mention of Air Vice Marshal Sir Arthur Coningham, whose Desert Air Force played such an important role in...