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This volume was produced and published by the War History Branch of the Department of Internal Affairs

the author: Lieutenant-General Sir Edward Puttick, KCB, DSO and bar, Greek Military Cross, United States Legion of Merit, went overseas with the First Echelon, 2 NZEF, in January 1940 as Brigadier commanding 4 Infantry Brigade. After service in Egypt and Greece and in command of the New Zealand Division in Crete, he was promoted Major-General in August 1941 and appointed Chief of the General Staff in New Zealand, vice Major-General Duigan, retired. On Japan's entry into the war and mobilisation of the New Zealand Forces, he held the additional appointment of General Officer Commanding with the rank of Lieutenant-General.

In the 1914–18 War, after initial service in the Waitaki Boys' High School Defence Cadets and as a subaltern in the 15th (North Auckland) and 5th (Wellington) Regiments, he joined the Samoa Expeditionary Force (August 1914) in the rank of captain, and in 1915 the 1st Battalion, New Zealand Rifle Brigade, commanding a company near Mersa Matruh in December 1915–February 1916 against the Senussi. Proceeding to France in April 1916 on the staff of 2nd NZ Infantry Brigade, he returned to the Rifle Brigade as Second-in-Command 4th Battalion in the Battle of the Somme (1916) and commanded the battalion at the battles of Messines and Passchendaele (1917); he later commanded the 3rd Battalion at the 2nd Somme (March 1918), where he was severely wounded. He returned to New Zealand in December 1918 after some months in command of the NZRB Training Depot in England.

Joining the New Zealand Regular Forces in 1919, he commanded in February 1920 a small expedition to Fiji in aid of the civil power there. In 1946 he retired after commanding the New Zealand Contingent in the Victory March in London.

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