New Zealand Expeditionary Force

Upon the outbreak of war, New Zealand immediately offered to provide two brigades—one of infantry and one of mounted troops—with a total of 8,500 men.

The NZEF and AIF convoy was originally bound for Britain but diverted en route to Egypt because of the state of the training camps in England.

Disembarking the troops traveled by train for Cairo, bivouacking in tent camps within sight of the Pyramids.

[1] Major General George Napier Johnston CB CMG DSO (1867–1947) served with New Zealand forces during World War I as director of ordnance and commander of permanent artillery in the New Zealand Defence Force from the outset of World War I during 1914–1918.

Conscription was introduced on 1 August 1916 and by the end of the war 124,000 men—nearly half the eligible male population of 250,000—had served with the NZEF.

The second echelon, also a Brigade Group, was diverted to Britain on Italy's entry into the war and did not reach Egypt until March 1941.

The third echelon arrived in Egypt in September 1940 and concentration of the division was completed just before it was deployed to northern Greece in March 1941.

[6] Under the command of Major-General William Stevens, the 2NZEF began demobilising in late 1945, a process that was largely completed by mid-1946.

[7] Following the entry of the Japanese Empire into the war, in early 1942, the 2NZEF contingent in Fiji was expanded to two brigades, and formally designated Pacific Section, 2NZEF.

[8] Under the command of Major General Owen Mead, the Pacific Section was withdrawn from Fiji back to New Zealand when the United States 37th Division took over defence responsibility.

In order to cope with this crisis the New Zealand Government saw no option other than to disband one of the country's two infantry divisions.