The formation of the 4th NZ Armored Brigade in 1942 finally gave General Bernard Freyberg what he had desired since 1940, an Armored unit that was integral with the 2nd NZ Division. Back then his desire had been a more modest one; the armored brigade he envisaged was only supposed to consist of one full armored regiment, while the other units proposed for it were a reconnaissance regiment, the 27th Machine Gun Battalion and an infantry battalion with its own motorized transport. Now, of course, he had three full armored regiments and a motor battalion. As a result of this reorganization the division had become a mixed division, consisting of two infantry brigades in addition to the new armored unit, the form it had fought in throughout the final stages of the campaign in North Africa, though with a British Armored brigade under its command. This was an experimental unit within the British army and while it had been employed with some success during the latter stages of the desert campaign it was to prove less suitable for the conditions encountered in Italy. There, as the Allies were to discover, the country did not favor the employment of tanks in a mobile role and they soon found themselves in need of more infantry. Ultimately Freyberg reached the same conclusion and came about with his own unique solution. Because the New Zealand Division was, in itself, a miniature corps, with many additional support units, it was able to sort out some of its manpower problems by disbanding some of these, along with its anti-aircraft component. This enabled it to create a third infantry brigade by removing the 22nd Motor Battalion from 4th Armored Brigade and converting its reconnaissance unit, the Divisional Cavalry Regiment, and the 27th Machine Gun Battalion to infantry. Despite some talk of cutting down the number of tanks in each armored regiment the Division was able to keep these at their original establishment. In this form the Division took part in the assault across the Senio river and the final drive through northern Italy, that ultimately took it to Trieste...