NZ troops accused of WW2 massacre

A new semi-official German history of the Second World War claims New Zealand soldiers massacred 80 German doctors and patients at a North African medical post.

Germany and the Second World War, Volume IV, the Global War, by Horst Boog, Werner Rahn, Reinhard Stumpf, and Bernd Wegner, alleges the incident occurred in June 1942 during the 2 (NZ) Division's breakout at Minqar Qaim in Egypt.

The book claims New Zealanders overran a German position and medical station, bayoneting to death the 80 occupants.

The authors imply that while Germany's wartime crimes were vast, Germany's enemies were not without moral blemish.

The incident is mentioned in New Zealander John McLeod's book Myth and Reality - the New Zealand Soldier in World War 2.

One soldier involved in the breakout, which involved 10,000 New Zealanders, said bayonets were "stuck in everybody, dead or alive, and it was hard to distinguish between friend or foe".

McLeod wrote: "It was of little consequence whether the enemy were resisting, surrendering, or fleeing. One member of 19 Battalion saw two Germans shot while attempting to surrender. Another saw wounded Germans picked up and tossed into burning trucks."

McLeod includes an excerpt from the Afrika Korps War Diary complaining that the New Zealanders violated the rules of war.

"An advanced dressing station had been overrun, and wounded lying in slit trenches had been killed.

"The next day New Zealanders taken prisoner received, at the headquarters of 21 Panzer Division, a hostile dissertation on their 'disgraceful behaviour'.

"They were stripped of their personal belongings and rank and were made to stand in the sun for several hours under threat of being shot."

But McLeod said: "No criticism should be levelled at the New Zealanders for taking no prisoners and for killing or bayoneting anyone who obstructed their path."

Most veterans he interviewed agreed that there had "to be a sense of reality about observing rules of warfare in some situations".

A review of the German book, on the Arts and Letters Daily website, suggests the authors' view might by coloured by "just a smidgen of German national sentiment".

NZ Defence Force historian John Crawford said the incident occurred during a "desperate bayonet attack and there was a lot of confusion. It was a very confused action at night. Something might have happened but I don't know about it".

- NZPA