New Zealand Division:
Scenario Preview, Part One
by Mike Bennighof, Ph.D.
July 2023

I don’t like to throw things away. I never have, even as a child. And so our Campaign Study Panzer Grenadier: New Zealand Division exists because of my hoarding disorder. We had plenty of New Zealand pieces left over from the old Desert Rats game, which has been out of print for years, and my assistant declared that they had to be used or trashed. So I used them.

New Zealand Division covers the last campaigns of the Kiwis in North Africa, from western Libya (as they chased Rommel after Alamein) to the fall of Tunis and destruction of Axis forces in Africa. The New Zealanders were right in the thick of it, playing a key role in this first major victory of the Western Allies over the Axis.

The New Zealanders are tough, and their Maori friends are even tougher. Let’s have a look at the first chapter’s scenarios:

Scenario One
Nofilia Village
18 December 1942
The New Zealand Divisional Cavalry Regiment had been intended to give the division a capacity for scouting and screening. Instead, it often supplemented British armored units, as it did during the attack on Nofilia. The New Zealand tanks and Bren carriers stormed into the village alongside the handful of British tanks that the 4th Light Armoured Brigade still had in service.

Conclusion
The British and New Zealand tanks overran the village and captured about 250 German prisoners, but then engaged in a firefight with German tanks. That blunted the advance, and under that covering fire the Germans withdrew and resumed their retreat along the coastal highway.

Notes
This is a small scenario, but it’s a tank battle, with just a few tanks involved on just one map. The Germans are trying to get away; the New Zealanders want to smack them around first.

Scenario Two
West of Nofilia
18 December 1942
While the British and New Zealand armor pinned the German forward elements in place, the truck-borne 5 Brigade would outflank them and cut the coastal road behind the German positions. At a small rise called Point 121, the Kiwis found the German flank defended by elements of their panzer divisions’ recon battalions.

Conclusion
The Germans had plenty of time to prepare their defenses, and the Kiwis could not break through them to secure the coastal highway. Thanks to the failure of the attack at Nofilia to keep 15th Panzer Division engaged, the recon troops only had to hold off the attackers long enough to allow the Germans to motor on down the highway. The recon units could then abandon their defenses and leave the Kiwis holding a line of dugouts and sangars in the middle of nowhere.

Notes
A frontal assault by Kiwi infantry (including Maoris) against well-prepared and mobile Germans. The Kiwis should have all the advantages, but the Germans can concentrate pretty much at will.

Scenario Three
Rommel’s Last Battle
6 March 1943
Erwin Rommel’s German-Italian force conducted a skilled retreat through Tripolitania and southern Tunisia, continually offering battle but pulling back when the Allies prepared an attack. Once they reached the French-built Mareth Line fortifications, Rommel suggested an attack to break contact long enough to withdraw from Tunisia to Italy. Adolf Hitler, the self-appointed greatest commander of all time, approved the first part of the plan – the attack.

Conclusion
The arrival of new 17-pounder anti-tank guns gave the Maoris unexpected added firepower, and when the Germans became stuck in a minefield, they faced heavy fire from machine guns and mortars as well. They lost four tanks and fifteen prisoners before breaking off the attack. This would be the last action in Africa overseen by Erwin Rommel.

Notes
We have a German tank-backed assault against Maori positions backed by those awesome 17-pounder anti-tank guns. This is going to be a tough one for the Germans, who need to inflict a lot of damage on the Maoris to win.

Scenario Four
Roman Wall
21 March 1943
The British Operation Supercharge II reverted to Eight Army commander Bernard Montgomery’s favored practice of careful preparation with intense artillery support. While British divisions pinned the German defenders of the Mareth Line, the New Zealanders with added British tanks and French infantry would make a “left hook” around the defenses, through the Tebaga Gap.

Conclusion
New Zealand intelligence knew the Tebaga Gap to be defended by Italians; they didn’t know they were the tough, long-service Sahariane, the camel-riding Italian answer to the Long Range Desert Group, dug in behind a Roman fortification. The Sahariane had lost most of their Libyan camelry during the retreat, but picked up other die-hard Italian soldiers from just about every unit present in North Africa. Gen. Alberto Mannerini had welded them into a cohesive, hard-fighting unit that now dealt the Kiwis an unexpected bloody setback. The New Zealand Official History would proclaim the action “a clear-cut victory,” but this was false bravado: the Kiwis did not break the Italian lines and suffered heavy casualties in the effort.

Notes
This is a night-time set-piece attack with lots of artillery against a well-prepared defense manned by a mixture of low-morale (the stragglers) and high-morale (the Sahariane) Italians. It’s going to be hard going for the Kiwis, but the Italians lack much artillery support of their own and are going to have to hold their line the old-fashioned way.

Scenario Five
Tebaga Gap
26 March 1943
Having been balked by the camel riders, the Kiwis regrouped to try again, this time with much more artillery, air and armor support. Eighth Army command believed that the Germans had committed their reserves to the Mareth front but this was not true. The Maoris of 28th Battalion, supported by the Sherwood Rangers’ mixed lot of cruiser tanks, would assault the strongly-held Point 209.

Conclusion
The Maori advance outstripped that of the Kiwi battalions on either flank, and though they captured their objective this success left them briefly isolated behind German lines. This time the New Zealanders truly had won an clear-cut victory, but unknown to their higher commands the Germans still possessed an operational reserve.

Notes
The Maoris are on the attack again, with tank support and airplanes and artillery – woe betide the Germans. The 164th Light Division isn’t a very good division, but it does hold a very strong position and has artillery backing of its own. The Maoris will need the “great dash” with which Eighth Army credited them.

And that’s all for Chapter One. Next comes Chapter Two.

You can order New Zealand Division right here.

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Mike Bennighof is president of Avalanche Press and holds a doctorate in history from Emory University. A Fulbright Scholar and NASA Journalist in Space finalist, he has published an unknowable number of books, games and articles on historical subjects. He lives in Birmingham, Alabama with his wife, three children and his new puppy. He will never forget his dog, Leopold, Leopold knew the number.

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