New Zealand declares war on Germany

Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933 determined to throw off the Treaty of Versailles, the 1919 peace settlement. New Zealand's Labour government had criticised Britain's appeasement of the dictatorships, and at the 1937 Imperial Conference Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage questioned whether Britain's Singapore base and Pacific fleet could defend New Zealand against a Japanese attack. The country still depended on Britain. In the late 1930s, 80% of its exports went to British ports, and its defence against Japan was believed to rest on Britain's ability to send a battle fleet to Singapore. Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, and two days later Britain and France declared war. In 1914 New Zealand had been committed to war by the King's declaration, as Australia still was in 1939. This time New Zealand declared war in its own right.

New Zealand's declaration took effect from the same moment as Britain's, at 9.30 p.m. New Zealand time (11 a.m. in Britain) on 3 September 1939, when Britain's ultimatum to Germany expired. Ministers waited for formal word that the ultimatum had run out, which arrived shortly before midnight. The acting prime minister, Peter Fraser, then announced that the country was at war, calling it 'a dark day in the history of the world'. At 1.55 a.m. on 4 September the governor-general, Viscount Galway, cabled London that 'the existence of a state of war with Germany has accordingly been proclaimed in New Zealand'. Savage, recovering from an operation for colon cancer, broadcast from his sickbed on 5 September: 'Both with gratitude for the past and confidence in the future, we range ourselves without fear beside Britain. Where she goes, we go. Where she stands, we stand.' NZHistory's short profile of Savage places the words beside the 3 September declaration, but its page on the broadcast and Te Ara both date the broadcast to 5 September. Only one political party, the small Communist Party, opposed New Zealand's participation in the war.

Enlistment for the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force (2NZEF) began on 12 September, Major-General Bernard Freyberg was appointed to command it on 23 November, and the First Echelon left for Egypt on 5 January 1940. In December 1939 the cruiser HMS Achilles helped destroy the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee off the River Plate in the South Atlantic. Conscription followed in July 1940, after the fall of France. In 1941 the 2nd New Zealand Division fought in Greece, where 291 of its men were killed, and on Crete, where 691 New Zealanders died. From 1941 to 1943 it fought in North Africa, where 2989 died, and from October 1943 in Italy, ending the war in Trieste in May 1945. After Japan entered the war in December 1941 and took Singapore on 15 February 1942, New Zealanders found themselves directly threatened for the first time. The 3rd New Zealand Division fought in the Solomon Islands, and about 1700 of the 6000 New Zealanders who flew with the RAF's Bomber Command were killed.

At home, the government gained sweeping powers over daily life. Strict censorship was imposed, 'enemy aliens' were interned, and more than 800 conscientious objectors were sent to detention camps. Under 'manpower' regulations from 1942, workers could be sent wherever they were needed; by 1944 all women aged 18 to 40 could be directed, and by the end of the war 38,000 women had been sent to work where the government directed. They were invariably paid less than men. Mobilisation peaked in July 1942 with 154,549 men and women under arms and another 100,000 in the Home Guard. About 30% of national income went on the war, rising to 50% in 1942–44. American troops began arriving in June 1942 (see American troops arrive); NZHistory says there were between 15,000 and 45,000 in camp at any one time until mid-1944, and Te Ara says 150,000 were stationed in or visited New Zealand.

Germany capitulated on 8 May 1945 and Japan on 15 August, signing the formal surrender on 2 September. About 140,000 New Zealanders served overseas, from a population of about 1.6 million. NZHistory, using Commonwealth War Graves Commission figures, gives 11,928 deaths, while Te Ara gives 11,625; both say this was the highest proportion of the population killed of any Commonwealth country. The fall of Singapore had shaken New Zealanders' faith that Britain could guarantee their security. New Zealand opened a legation in Washington in 1942, its first diplomatic relations with a country outside the Commonwealth, and the government later sought a security commitment from the United States, achieved with the ANZUS alliance in 1951 (see The ANZUS treaty is signed). Te Ara says New Zealand 'came of age as a state during the war', and that after 1945 functional memorials, such as halls and swimming pools rather than monuments, began to appear.