22nd Battalion 2NZEF

"Vrai et Fort"

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Rollcall: The Men of the 22^nd Battalion

The men who made up the 22^nd Battalion

Nobody kept a record of the men who served with the 22^nd Battalion. Not even the Army, renowned for its records and lists.

Well... that's not strictly correct.

I have recently found a book that lists many of the men who joined the battalion, their next of kin, religion, the reinforcement number and the company (HQ, A, B, C etc) that they were posted to. To my surprise that book survives and I have now added over 350 names from this book to the Roll.

The 22^nd Battalion Association kept a roll of its members. Its last "Keeper of the Roll" was John Bowker. He did an excellent job and had the foresight to lodge a copy of his last roll with the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington. It has been useful as a reference.

Sources of Information

The over 4,000 names in this roll have come from many sources: the War Diary of the Battalion held at the National Archives in Wellington; the list of the casualties suffered by the Battalion in North Africa and Italy; the list of subscribers to the Official History; the indexed volume of hand written names kept by the Battalion Headquarters in the field; the J-Force Embarkation Roll when the Battalion moved from Italy to Japan in early 1946; the Roll of the 22^ndBattalion Association. To this I have added many other names gleaned from sources such as newspapers and obituaries.

The Men of J-Force

Following the German surrender in May 1945 and Japan in August of that year the lists of names in the War Diary and the Routine Orders dried up. By mid-1945 the Army had sent most of the older men back to New Zealand on the various "drafts", being replaced by freshly trained recruits. The men of the 22^nd Battalion who spearheaded the liberation of Trieste were sent to winter quarters in the old aircraft factory near Florence, from where more were sent home. The Battalion was brought up to strength by many new faces, some from other units in Italy and some freshly arrived from New Zealand. In February 1946 the Battalion sailed for Japan as the core of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force. Recently a full roll has been made available of all the men (and women) who went from Italy to Japan and these names have been added here. I have noted "also J-Force ex Italy" for those already in the Battalion and "Joined J-Force ex Italy" for those from other units and those newly arrived.

You can download the full J-Force Italy Roll here and also the pages just for the 22nd Battalion here.

There is some debate whether the men of J-Force was strictly part of the Battalion, as they did not see active service during the war. Some men of J-Force felt they were treated as "lesser" members. But in fact the first 22^nd Battalion Association set up in New Plymouth in late 1944 changed their membership rules in 1946 to include the men of J-Force. Brass memorial plaques funded by Veteran's Affairs in more recent years have included the battalion name and many of the men in J-Force are also shown as "22 Battalion".

Is the list complete?

After 10 years of additions and refinements I am confident I have recorded 99.99% of the Battalion. The New Plymouth Association rules stated membership was open to any man who had been a member of the Battalion for at least 24 hours, so it is possible I have missed a few who came and went overnight. I have cross-checked every name against the record in the published Embarkation Rolls, but even this list has many errors. Copies of the Embarkation Rolls are held in various local libraries and can be accessed on line at www.ancestry.com (if you have a subscripton but many local libraries have free access). The Auckland War Memorial Museum now has an excellent resource in their Online Cenotaph where you can also add further information about a person.

The Roll of the 22nd Battalion

You can search the entire list for any string of three or more characters by typing them into the search box. You can then sort by surname, number etc by clicking in the header for that field. Click a second time to sort in reverse order. Return to the full roll by deleting your typing in the search box. You cannot use wildcards (? * etc), only letters or numbers.

There are now 4177 names in this roll. This list was last updated: 4 June 2024.

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Last updated: 17 June 2024