| Summary/Abstract |
Bernard Freyberg's storied life is a central element in New Zealand's military heritage. The winner of a Victoria Cross in the Battle of the Somme in 1916, commander of the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force in the Second World War, governor-general of New Zealand - he was a man of mythical greatness (Churchill called him the 'salamander of the British Empire',1 a salamander being a legendary creature that flew close to fire). But there is one element of his life that is the product of pure myth - his supposed service in Mexico's civil war before the First World War and his escape to the United Kingdom to secure a commission in the newly formed Royal Naval Division, with which he would fight at Gallipoli and later on the Western Front. In New Zealand military historiography, it is a myth that for durability is on a par with the myth of Colonel William Malone's supposed refusal of an order to attack on Chunuk Bair during the August offensive at Gallipoli in 1915.2 And it seems that Freyberg propagated the myth himself when he reached London in August 1914.
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