8th Brigade (New Zealand)

8th Brigade
Brigadier Leonard Goss awards US Staff Sergeant Harry Stickel an Air Medal on Stirling Island, 2 March 1944.
Active1940–44[Note 1]
Country New Zealand
BranchNew Zealand Military Forces
TypeInfantry
Size~3,000 – 3,500 personnel
Part of3rd Division
EngagementsSecond World War
Commanders
Notable
commanders
William Cunningham
Leonard Goss
Robert Row

The 8th Brigade was a formation of the New Zealand Military Forces, which served during the Second World War as part of the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force. Eventually forming part of the 3rd Division, the brigade served in the Pacific Ocean theatre of the war. Raised in late 1940, initially the brigade was employed on garrison duties on Fiji before returning to New Zealand in mid-1942. In December 1942, it was sent to New Caledonia where they remained until early September 1943, when they moved to Guadalcanal to prepare for operations in the Solomon Islands. The brigade's only combat operation of the war came in October–November 1943, when it captured the Treasury Islands. It was disbanded in late 1944 due to manpower shortages in the New Zealand economy.

  1. ^ Mills, T.F. "Index of New Zealand Army Formations". Land Forces of Britain, The Empire and Commonwealth. Regiments.org. Archived from the original on 25 January 2008. Retrieved 28 May 2011.
  2. ^ Gillespie 1952, p. 197.


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