282 Trieste Street Linton Military Camp Palmerston North, aerial view 2018
Reason for the name
This street was named as a tribute to those involved in the battle for Trieste, New Zealand’s final action of the campaign in Italy in World War 2. Most streets within NZDF Camps and Bases are named in honour of prominent people, battles, campaigns, ships, aircraft and places creating a rich history of our military service.
In April 1945, the division, still as part of British V Corps with 8th Indian Division, was performing assault crossings of first the Senio stream and then the river Santerno, marking the start of the Allied spring 1945 offensive in Italy (Operation Grapeshot). The division was subsequently transferred to XIII Corps and the closing days of the Second World War saw the 2nd New Zealand Division race to Trieste in northern Italy to confront Josip Broz Tito's partisans, and prevent that city's forced absorption into greater Yugoslavia.
Author: The Poppy Places Trust and Cherrie Lawson
From the Senio to Trieste
For the NZ Division's last campaign another brigade, the 9th, was formed from the Divisional Cavalry, and machine-gun battalion reorganised as infantry units, and reinforced with anti-tank gunners and others no longer needed in their normal roles. The third battalion was 22 Motor Battalion from 4 Armoured Brigade. An assault squadron of engineers was ready to build bridges under fire. Flame-throwing “Crocodiles” and “Wasps” and troop-carrying armoured “Kangaroos” were to help the infantry across the stopbanks.
In the line north of Faenza, the Division gained full control of the southern stopbank of the Senio early in April 1945. A heavy bombardment by 17 artillery regiments and bombing by heavy and medium bombers and fighter-bombers (all dropping light fragmentation bombs so as not to crater the ground) preceded a night attack on the 9th under “artificial moonlight” created by searchlights. The flamethrowers hosed the opposite stopbank, infantry crossed by boat or kapok bridge, led off behind a barrage, and won their objectives.
Crossings of the Santerno followed on the 11th and 12th, and, on the 15th–16th, 9 Brigade crossed the Sillaro with 6 Brigade. A bloody crossing of the Gaiana Canal by 9 Brigade and a Ghurkha brigade finally broke the defence. Dead German paratroops lay everywhere as 5 and 6 Brigades passed through. And so on to the Idice, daringly crossed on the 20th, then 20 miles to the Reno and, on the 24th, to the southern bank of the Po. A few bold spirits paddled across at once; but the main crossing, largely unopposed, took place on Anzac Day 25 April 1945.
Beyond this 250-yard-wide barrier, the Division raced through turbulent countryside to Padua and Mestre, sent a detachment into Venice, skirmished by the Piave River on the 30th, and pushed on rapidly towards Trieste. At 3 p.m. on 2 May, tanks of 20 Armoured Brigade drove into the city, and in the evening 22 Battalion took the surrender of the garrison of the castle.
The German forces in Italy officially surrendered that day; but in Trieste and its environs many Germans refused to give themselves up to Yugoslav partisans. Some 12,000 non-supporters of General Tito caused trouble and the Tito partisans in the city were truculent. But on 11 June the Yugoslav troops began to withdraw from Trieste and the Division was able to relax. Its long campaign in Italy had at last ended. The last phase cost 436 dead and 1,159 wounded.
