Kippenberger Howard Karl Canterbury Nz 1942 1948

edmondsallan - Hello -He developed his full potential as a military leader while commanding 5th New Zealand Infantry Brigade in the desert campaigns of 1942 and 1943, and earned a bar to his DSO in February 1942. He began rather shakily with successive disasters at Minqâr Qaim, Ruweisat Ridge and El Mreir. But from August 1942 success followed success: Alam Halfa, El Alamein (where Kippenberger’s brigade was one of only two in the Eighth Army to take all its objectives), Medenine (the most successful defensive battle in North Africa), and the left hooks of El Agheila, Tripoli and Tebaga Gap. However, at the end of the campaigns in North Africa, a worn-out Kippenberger committed his greatest tactical blunder of the war. At Takrouna he marched his brigade into a lethal killing ground and the resultant heavy casualties reduced him to tears.

Kippenberger’s abilities confirmed him as the most obvious successor to Bernard Freyberg as commander of the New Zealand Division, which he had led in North Africa for short periods during Freyberg’s absence. In Italy, Freyberg was elevated to a temporary corps command and Kippenberger was appointed to command the division. Unfortunately for him, his first battle was at Cassino, the strongest part of the Germans’ defensive line. Kippenberger’s first attempt to take Cassino was very narrowly defeated, and while planning a second attack he was seriously wounded on 2 March 1944 when he stepped on an anti-personnel mine while descending Mt Trocchio and lost both his feet.

Kippenberger was hospitalised in England and fitted with artificial feet. He received the rank of major general, and in September 1944 was appointed to command the unit responsible for the smooth relocation of prisoners of war to New Zealand. The appointment was made at the specific request of the New Zealand War Cabinet. He held this post until 1946. It was an administrative task in which he was largely a figurehead and signing authority, the demanding paperwork being carried out by a dedicated staff who came to revere their new commanding officer. Kippenberger insisted on personally seeing off each departing draft of ex-POWs and speaking to every man in it.

On his return to New Zealand in 1946 Kippenberger was appointed editor in chief of the War History Branch of the Department of Internal Affairs. It proved an inspired choice. John Pascoe, the illustrations editor of the project, believed that Kippenberger was ‘the only man in this country who combined all the qualities of soldier, scholar and administrator necessary for editing an ambitious series of war histories’. He led a team of writers, editors and researchers, and the high quality of the 23 volumes produced under his editorship owes much to the vision and leadership ability of the project’s founding editor. Kippenberger held it together for its first difficult decade, during which there was a threat of its being disestablished and attempts to block the publication of three of the volumes. He firmly but tactfully turned such threats aside.

In 1949 Kippenberger’s own account of the war, Infantry Brigadier , was published to wide acclaim. The book is a detailed and well-written account of his part in the Second World War, and shows much of its author’s modesty, reflectiveness, soundness of judgement, humane concern for his men, and dry sense of humour. It has been translated into seven languages, and is still used as a textbook of infantry tactics.

In 1948 Kippenberger was elected president of the New Zealand Returned Services’ Association, a position he held for the next seven years. Till we meet again - Regards - edmondsallan