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20th Battalion, New Zealand Expeditionary Force
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Want to know more about 20th Battalion, New Zealand Expeditionary Force? There are:-1 items tagged 20th Battalion, New Zealand Expeditionary Force available in our Library
These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Second World War. |
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Pte Robert George Horwell HQ Coy. 20th Battalion My Dad, George Horwell served with HQ Coy 20th Battalion, New Zealand Infantry. I am writing a book about my family which includes my dad's war history. I am attempting to find the name of the troopship he sailed on out of Wellington during late 1939 or early 1940. He left with the 1st Echelon. Can anyone help please?
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Pte Norman James Woods 20th Battalion     Norman Woods was born on the 31st of October 1915
He was apprenticed to an engineering company from July 1930
and enlisted in the NZ Army on the 12th of July 1940
He was assigned to a specialist company of the Signal Platoon, 5th Reinforcement 2nd NZEF and departed from Lyttleton for Egypt on the 6th of April 1941
He celebrated his 26th birthday enroute to Libya from Cairo. Norman fought in the battle of Sidi Resig on the 19th of November 1941
and in the battle for The Blockhouse on the 24th of November 1941.
He was reported wounded and missing in action (presumed dead) by another member of his platoon. He had been captured by Italian and German forces on the 1st of December 1941. The prisoners were packed as deck cargo aboard cargo ship to travel under the cover of darkness from Tripoli and Italy. He was housed in 4 consecutive POW camps until officially reported as a POW on the 22nd of February 1942. He passed from Italian to German hands after Italy capitulated on the 3rd of September 1943. He was transferred from Italy to Austria and then to Germany, where he was held at Gorlitz, in Stalag VIII A (8A) from the 24th of September 1943
Forced to work on German railway system near the River Neisse, Norman participated in an uprising against conditions in Stalag VIIIA during the winter 1943
He was transferred, as a ringleader of the uprising, to Myslowice (Milowitce), Poland to camp E732, and camp E535 (Katowice) until these camps fell into disarray, and on foot aged 31, he was marched through Germany and France together with thousands of others during the spring of 1945.
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Pte. David Lewis Jacobs 20th Battalion My father Dave Jacobs entered Burnham Military Camp, Canterbury New Zealand on the 17th May 1940. As a member of the 20th Battalion he embarked on 13th September 1941 for Egypt. The battalion moved to Syria in April to prepare a defensive position covering the Bekka valley but by July the battalion was back in Africa fighting. During the battle on Ruweisat Ridge Dave was wounded and taken a prisoner of war. He spent some time in Caserta Hospital in Naples before being transferred to Campo 57 in November 1942. It was only then that his family back in New Zealand knew that he was alive. He had been missing presumed dead for several months. His stay in Campo 57 was only for about 6 months as he was then transferred to P.G.106/20, a prison work camp at Arro in the province of Biella. A week after the Armistice was signed on the 3rd September 1943, Dave and a fellow New Zealander Clarry Peagram decided to make their escape from P.G. 106/20. They were fortunate enough to be hidden by a family, meet up with a pro-British Italian who organised guides to help them cross over Monte Rosa into Switzerland on the 19th September 1943. David moved from Zermatt to Adelboden where he spent the next twelve months before being shipped home to NZ via Naples and Melbourne.
In 1989 I had the privilege of accompanying my father back to Switzerland for the first time since he left in 1944. It was an emotional time for both of us. In 2002 after receiving correspondence from the Italian family who had hidden Dave and Clarry in 1943 six members of our family made the visit to Biella to meet the descendants of the family who helped Dave and Clarry escape and thank them for taking that risk. That too was a very emotional time for us all and an experience we will never forget. We are still contact with our Italian family.
To his family our Dad was an extraordinary man who often played down his life experiences and said he was "just lucky."
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Pte. Clarence John Furness C Company 20th Battalion Clarence Furness known as Clarrie, was my mother's first cousin.
Son of George Samuel Furness and Mary Edith Williams known as Edie.
Born in 1920 at Blaketown, Greymouth, New Zealand, he died in 1991 at Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand
Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24464, 13th January 1945, p.6 reported: Private C. J. Furness, No. 14247 C Company, 20th Battalion, Middle East Forces
West Coast Prisoner of War Outstanding on Athletic Field. Private Clarence John Furness, eldest son of Mr and Mrs George Furness. Blake Street, Blaketown, Greymouth, prisoner of war at Stalag 8A, Germany. After serving in Greece, he was wounded in Crete, and subsequently taken prisoner. Last year he participated in a sports meeting held at Stalag 8A, where 20,000 prisoners of war are confined. After a few events had been decided it became apparent that the championship would be between a hut of South Africans and a hut comprising New Zealanders and Australians. “The South Africans,” to quote from a letter from F. H. Fraser-Smith, of Wellington, “got a good lead of points in the field events, but our chaps notched a few points in the sprints. Then in the distance events a sensation was caused by a young chap from the West Coast, a shy lad named Clarrie Furness. He just romped away with the mile and the three miles. Then an Aussie, named McKay, 42 years old, got us up a few points in the jumps — a very good effort in view of his age, and then we came to the final event; 1500 metres relay, two points behind the South Africans. In this race young Clarrie Furness gave us a lead of 200 yards and we won hands down.”
The New Zealand team, who were the winners, were: Parsons, D. Thompson, Private Clarence John Furness of the 20th Infantry Battalion, and A. Cook.
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