OFFICIAL HISTORY OF NEW ZEALAND IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR
CRETE
D. M. DAVIN
WAR HISTORY BRANCH, DEPT. OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS
1953
First edition.
A comprehensive, campaign-level volume from the Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War 1939-45. Details the 2nd New Zealand Division's part in the defence of the island in May 1941, covering tactical operations, command decisions, and the eventual evacuation.
ON the morning of 20 May 1941 the British forces in Crete and their Greek allies stood by their arms to meet the German invasion, expected since the fall of Greece and now at length about to begin. Thirteen days later, on 1 June, the evacuation of these forces was as complete as the heroism of rearguards and of the Royal Navy could make it; while the capitulation or dispersal of those who had had to be left behind ended organised resistance. Between the two dates took place one of the bitterest battles of the war, one notable on many counts and not least because it marked the first and, for good reasons, the last time that the enemy used parachute and airborne troops on the largest scale. It was a battle in which the New Zealand Division played a conspicuous part; and of that part this book attempts the history.
Daniel Marcus Davin CBE (1 September 1913 – 28 September 1990), was born educated in New Zealand, after winning a Rhodes Scholarship in 1935 he spent most of the rest of his career in Oxford.
He was in the British Army (1939–40) then in the 2nd NZEF (1940–45), serving as an intelligence officer in the New Zealand Division in the Middle East, being evacuated from Greece and wounded on Crete. He was mentioned in despatches three times, and in December 1945 he was appointed an additional Member of the Military Division of the Order of the British Empire, in recognition of gallant and distinguished service.
He spent 6 years researching and writing this important account of the Battle of Crete.
24 x 15 cm. xvii + 547pp b/w photo plates + 11 folding colour maps.
Good + condition. Ex-library in a modern library binding. Front free endpaper stamped “Military Collection” and with scarring from the removal of a return slip. Stamped on the colophon page and the plates but otherwise clean and tidy. A couple of the maps have fraying to the fore-edge due to misfolding. All plates and maps present, binding firm.
