A Job to Do: New Zealand Soldiers of ‘The Div’ Write About by John Gordon

What was once it relatively like for the warriors of two New Zealand department in international struggle ? How did they spend their time and the way did they see their lives as servicemen, from education at domestic and crusing off to conflict, to developing camp, enjoyable off -duty, battling in opposed environments and doubtless being taken prisoner? This anthology is a private number of fabric describing the stories of those males, just about all written from inside of its ranks. Colloquially identified to its participants as ‘The Div’, it used to be by way of some distance the foremost a part of New Zealand’s moment Expeditionary strength, making it our major contribution to the battle. evidently it had a fairly New Zealand personality, and regardless of being stuck in different tough occasions in its early years – and never unavoidably of its personal doing – it received a global recognition for braveness, reliability and achievement.

In this booklet John Gordon offers a full of life and illuminating choice of the printed phrases of contributors of ‘The Div’ or people with shut institutions. the selected extracts are drawn from memoirs, fiction, verse, information stories and journal articles penned via squaddies of all ranks. the result's a compilation of the written perspectives and studies of over eighty insiders, developing an intimate glimpse of existence and battle inside of ‘The Div’, supported through a bunch of pictures and cartoons from the interval. From the statement of warfare to the go back domestic, it is a pattern of the reviews of good over 100,000 New Zealand males who served within the department: how they coped with self-discipline and catastrophe, sacrifice and good fortune. They write with an identical frankness, humour, wry cynicism and understatement that they used to deal with the demanding situations in their war.

John Gordon has been thinking about sensible agriculture and journalism so much of his operating lifestyles. he's top referred to as the commentator of the tv sequence, A Dog’s Show, which he additionally fronted for its 17-year run, and he has written and directed many documentaries for tv, together with episodes of Country Calendar. His curiosity in 2 New Zealand department has its origins in his father’s warfare provider – from which he didn't go back – and the post-war international he grew up in. John Gordon has released rural anthologies, Out of Town and Fresh Fields, and written 4 works of non-fiction. He lives in Southland.

CONTENTS:
Acknowledgements
Military phrases and Abbreviations
Soldier Lingo
Introduction
1 Peace to War
2 Greece
3 Crete
4 Cairo and Maadi
5 The Western Desert
6 El Alamein
7 The Diamond music to Tripoli
8 Tunisia
9 Going Home
10 the bleak Digs
11 The Officers
12 Early Italy
13 Cassino
14 past Rome
15 The Rivers North
16 Endings
Contributors and Sources
Illustrations