NOTED SOLDIER DIES

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28269, 6 May 1957, Page 8

NOTED SOLDIER DIES

General Sir Howard x Kippenberger '

Major-General Sir Howard Karl Kippenberger, New Zealand’s most distinguished citizen soldier, died in Wellington yesterday at the age of 60. A former .solicitor in Rangiora, he commanded the sth Infantry Brigade ami later the 2nd New Zealand Division in World War 11, was colonel of his old territorial regiment, Canterbury, after the war and at the time of his death held an appointment as editor-in-chief of the War Histories Branch of the Department of Internal Affairs.

General Kippenberger’s health had not been good over a long period, but in the last year had improved. He collapsed at his home in Wellington on Saturday morning, and was taken to Wellington Public Hospital, where he died at 4 a.m. yesterday. General Kippenberger fought in the two world wars, and was severely wounded in both. He held the Distinguished Service Order (1941) with bar (1943). He was made a Commander of the Order of the Batih in 1944, and a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1945. In 1948 he was created Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

General Kippenberger used to remark modestly that his many decorations were “gongs for being one of the nimblest shell-dodgers in the Allied armies”; but a month after succeeding Sir Bernard Freyberg, V.C., as New Zealand divisional commander, he stepped on a box-mine. One foot was blown off; the other was so seriously injured it was amputated. General Kippenberger used sticks to assist his walking, and did not let his injuries hinder him.

Born at Ladbrooks in 1897, General Kippenberger was educated at Christchurch Boys’ High School and Canterbury University College.

Enlisted as Private ‘ When the First World War broke out in 1914 he was only 17. One of his brothers went overseas, but General Kippenberger had to wait two years. He enlisted as a private in the Canterbury Regiment, and the day he reached the trenches with the 12th Reinforcement in France his brother was killed. This was in 1916.

A year later General Kippenberger was severely wounded himself and invalided home. “He returned to New Zealand convinced that the struggle was not over, and felt sick inside when he saw us throwing away our rifles and uniforms,’’ says Oliver Duff in his Centennial book, “New Zealand Now.’’

General Kippenberger joined the territorial force “and endured in silence the taunts of the ignorant and the defection of the careless. No-one was so ridiculous in those days, so derided and so despised, as the man who ventured out in uniform.

“At last the strength of the battalion in Canterbury was about half the normal strength of a company. Nothing was possible but shadow drill, carried out by skeleton units. But he did not give up. “He held on to the few men who still paraded, and Countered his own depression by reading and hard study. They would be wanted some day, all of them, and if the call came suddenly and there was no foundation to build on there would be a catastrophe." wrote Duff.

After the war he practised as a solicitor at Rangiora and stayed there until 1939. He was a member of the Rangiora Borough Council for eight years. “■* Commissioned in 1920

In 1920 he was granted a commission in the territorials and was soon in command of the Rangiora platoon of the Ist Battalion, Canterbury Regiment. In 1929 he was promoted to the rank of captain, became major five years later and in 1936 was appointed lieutenant-colonel in command of the battalion. “I might have been thought too old,” records General Kippenberger in his book, “Infantry Brigadier,” when he was 42. and World War II broke out and he wished to serve his country in the field once more. General Kippenberger was chosen to command the 20th (Can-terbury-Otago) Battalion when the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force’s first draft of troops entered camp. He led the unit through the campaign in Greece and, when the tragic evacuation began, he was responsible for the demolitions and rearguard actions

which were to delay the enemy advance. In Crete he commanded the composite 10th Infantry Brigade of Greek and New Zealand troops between Galatos and Maleme, meeting determined German attacks with quick appreciation, cool courage and a complete personal disregard for danger.

“He was almost entirely responsible for checking the enemy advance and establishing a new line in the rear,” read the citation for the Distinguished Service Order which was later awarded him for this work.

Daring and Skill Repeated acts of daring and skilful methodical planning marked his continued command of New Zealand units in the Western Desert campaigns. On one occasion, when wounded in the thigh, he led a daring escape from a German-captured dressing station, returning to the New Zealand lines to confound the pessimists who had posted him missing. Later as a brigadier he commanded the sth Brigade in ac-

tions such as those at Ruweisat Ridge and Miteiriya, introducing some shrewd tactical moves to avert or checkmate dangerous

situations. In these operations his popularity and his knowledge of men inspired an almost electrifying morale. He was affectionately referred to by everyone as “Kip.” After assuming temporary command of the New Zealand division for a month in 1943, he led the first furlough draft to the Dominion. He rejoined the force in Italy and was promoted major-general and again appointed divisional commander when Sir Bernard Freyberg ; took command of a corps. In March, 1944, he lost both feet after stepping on a German Box-mine. He was fitted with

artificial feet in Britain and then took charge of the reception centres entablished for New Zealand servicemen repatriated from German prison camps. War History Work General Kippenberger was the ideal man for the appointment of editor-in-chief of war histories, a post he took up soon after his return to New Zealand in 1946.

A keen student of military matters all his life, he had what was probably the most comprehensive military library in the Dominion housed at his home in Rangiora. Long before Munich he was an authority on all the campaigns that have changed the world since Napoleon, and was more familiar with Alexander, Caesar, Hannibal, and Scipio Africanus than most readers of w_ar books are with Foch, Haig and Joffre. Under General Kippenberger’s direction 23 of the 48 volumes in the publishing programme to record New Zealand’s part in the Second World War had been published at the time of his death. Four more are awaiting publication in the next few months.

His organisation of the programme and authors has put New Zealand ahead of any other British Commonwealth country and the United States with the publication of World War II histories. Many of the other' Dominion books to be published are under way, so the major part of the programme has been completed in a little more than 10 years. General Kippenberger was Dominion president of the Returned Services’ Association from 1948 until 1955. —• A brother of General Ilippenberger is Air Commodore Rex L Kippenberger. Air Commodore Kippenberger is the deputy of Air Marshal Sir Andrew McKee, officer commanding-in-chief of Royal Air Force Transport Command, who is visiting Christchurch.

General Kippenberger is survived by his wife—the former Ruth Isobel Flynn, of Lyttelton, whom he married in 1922; two sons—John (Canada), and Jeremy (Auckland); and a daughter Mary.