Alex Protheroe

Embracing Italy Alex Protheroe

Monte Cassino... Arezzo...the Gothic Line... Senio River, and Trieste were all places where Alex Protheroe served as a gunner, or artilleryman, in the Italian campaign. Before volunteering in 1940, Alex was a reporter for the Christchurch daily, The Press, so that by early 1944, after landing in Taranto with the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force, keeping a diary and writing home regularly came naturally to him. It was how he kept track both his military experiences, and more importantly, his time away from the front when he embraced wholeheartedly in the manner of the Grand Tour, Italian art, history and the Italian language, which he took the time to learn. He used this newly-aquired skill to meet the Italian people. After the war, as one in a team of returnees, he put this knowledge to good use in writing the multi-volume official history of New Zealand's war effort.