Howard Kippenberger known as "Kip", was an officer of the New Zealand Military Forces who served in the First and Second World Wars.
Background
Howard Kippenberger was born on 28 January 1897 in Ladbrooks, in the Canterbury Region of New Zealand, to Karl and Annie Kippenberger. His unusual surname came from his paternal great-grandparents, who emigrated to New Zealand from Germany in 1862.
Education
The oldest of five children, he received his early education at local schools in Ladbrooks and nearby Prebbleton (Kippenberger's father was the headmaster at Prebbleton School). When he was 14, his father became a farmer and moved the family to Oxford. Kippenberger continued his schooling at Christchurch Boys' High School as a boarder. Intellectually advanced for his age, he was not academically challenged at school and misbehaved in class. This, together with a low attendance rate, led to the school authorities asking him to leave high school. Returning home to Oxford, he worked on the family farm.
Always interested in military history, Kippenberger joined the local unit of the New Zealand Cadet Corps and found that he enjoyed soldiering. His father did not approve of his interest but regardless, Kippenberger enlisted in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) in late 1915 at the age of 18. Because only men between the ages of 19 and 45 were required to register for service, he falsified his age to ensure that he would be eligible for duty overseas.
Career
After the war Kippenberger turned to the law for a career and practised as a barrister in Rangiora during the 1920s and 1930s. During these years he was active in the Territorial Force and intensively studied past military campaigns in order to master the theory of warfare. In 1939, when war was declared on Germany, Kippenberger was given command of the 20th Canterbury–Otago Battalion, and he again sailed for war. Kippenberger commanded his Battalion through the ill-fated Greek campaign with great coolness and determination. He emerged from the battle for Crete with his reputation enhanced, having earned a DSO for his decisive battlefield commanding. However, he developed his full potential as a military leader while commanding 5th New Zealand Infantry Brigade in the North African desert campaigns of 1942 and 1943, where he added a bar to his DSO. Eventually, Kippenberger succeeded Bernard Freyberg as commander of the entire New Zealand Division, only to be forced to retire from this role after losing both his feet to a German anti-personnel mine at Cassino in March 1944.
Kippenberger was New Zealand’s most popular military commander, and perhaps its most talented. On his return to New Zealand in 1946 Kippenberger was appointed editor in chief of the War History Branch of the Department of Internal Affairs. In recognition of his war service Kippenberger was made a CBE in 1944, and in 1945 he was appointed a CB and made an officer of the US Legion of Merit. Knighted in 1948, Kippenberger symbolised New Zealand’s achievement, as well as the pain and the cost of New Zealand’s participation in the war.