Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War 1939–45

[3] To lead the War History Branch, Major General Howard Kippenberger was approached in April 1945.

Kippenberger, a keen student of military history, was working in England on the repatriation of former prisoners of war to New Zealand when the position was first offered.

[4] The principle of the official histories was to tell the story of New Zealand at war, which involved a multifaceted approach covering the armed services, the battles in which they fought as well as the civilians contributing on the home front.

[5] The plan for the official histories, based on a proposal by McCormick, was to encompass three main series, plus three volumes of documents.

[4] The series was on the New Zealand People at War, which covered politics, diplomacy, economy, the home front, medical, navy and air force operations.

[1] Using documentation archived to date and material solicited from the public, professional historians at the War History Branch prepared brief narratives.

Kippenberger had informally started the recruitment process for writers while he was based in England, sounding out Dan Davin and Geoffrey Cox as potential authors.

[8] Kippenberger set a high standard for the official histories; as well as disavowing any censorship, he diligently read every draft of every volume produced under his editorship, providing extensive feedback to the authors.

[11] Other problems arose when authors were unable to complete their contracted volumes due to other commitments, poor health or one case, death.

[1] The size of New Zealand's military contribution was such that it favoured the production of battalion and in some cases, company level unit histories.

[16] Since 1993, some volumes have been reissued by Willson Scott Publishing and The Battery Press, with the co-operation of the Department of Internal Affairs.