Hopeful Hope Gibbons

In memoriam

Service Number ~ 11781 Unit ~ New Zealand Army Service Corps Occupation on Enlistment ~ Mechanical engineer Enlistment Address ~ 112 Queens Drive, Lyall Bay, Wellington, New Zealand Next Of Kin ~ Mrs I.A. Hope-Gibbons (wife), 1 Forest Street, Collingwood, Melbourne, Australia Campaign ~ 1941 Crete Last Rank ~ Second Lieutenant, New Zealand Army Service Corps, Reserve Mechanical Transport Company Son of Hopeful Barnes Gibbons and Daisie Gibbons, of Eastbourne, Wellington, New Zealand; husband of Thelma Gibbons. Referred to as Lt H. Hope Gibbons in the Official history of the 4th and 6th Reserve Mechanical Companies, 2 NZEF by Jim Henderson. The history notes brief biographical information, mentions he commanded a platoon and gives details of his death as an officer from the RMT in the Oakes force, later named the Composite Battalion, which was given a ridge by the coast (Crete) to defend. On the 25th May, 1941 the Germans began the assault on Ruin Hill. Under heavy bombardment, strafing and signs of a German advance, indicating that the enemy had passed the RMT left flank, was coming across Red and Signal Hills cutting off the RMT except for a narrow strip by the coast. With the unit facing encirclement and capture the orders were given to RMT to fall back from their now scattered positions on Ruin Ridge via the coast to the turnoff. Second-Lieutenant Hope Gibbons sent his men to the turnoff and went forward to collect some battalion maps left behind. Determined that these maps would not fall into enemy hands Hope Gibbons and his runner, Driver Arthur Reginald Cooke went to their deaths. Source: AWMM Online Cenotaph

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