Reginald Miles

Miles served throughout the Greece campaign and played a key role in the organisation of the withdrawal of the division as it retreated ahead of the advancing Germans.[1] His artillery allowed the New Zealand infantry to defend against attacks in daylight and then withdraw at night.[10] The artillery was particularly vital in covering the undefended high ground on the flanks of 6th Infantry Brigade as it manned a holding position at Thermopylae.[11] Miles was mentioned in despatches for his work during this period.[1] and was also awarded the Greek Cross of Valour.[6] He briefly took command of all New Zealand forces on Crete, to where the bulk of the division had been evacuated from Greece,[12] but after a few days went on to Egypt and missed the subsequent Battle of Crete. Some of his artillery units had also left Crete, albeit without much of their equipment, prior to the fighting.[13]

After convalescing, Miles re-joined the 2nd New Zealand Division in North Africa, where it was reforming after the losses incurred in Greece and on Crete. He then participated in Operation Crusader.[4] During this campaign, aimed at lifting the besieged port of Tobruk, the 2nd New Zealand Division was involved in heavy fighting around Sidi Rezegh, where Miles deployed artillery in support of the 6th Infantry Brigade.[14] Having established a corridor to Tobruk, the commander of the division, Major General Bernard Freyberg, was becoming concerned that they would be unable to hold it open. On 30 November, he entrusted Miles with getting permission from Lieutenant General Alfred Godwin-Austen, the corps commander, to withdraw into or alongside Tobruk. Tentative permission was granted but only if Sidi Rezegh could not be held.[15] However, the same day the 6th Brigade was overrun by elements of the 15th Panzer Division.[14]

General Sir John Dill, British Chief of the Imperial General Staff, visits Maadi Camp, Egypt. From left to right: Brigadiers R. Miles and E. Puttick, Major General Freyberg and General Dill, Brigadiers J. Hargest and H. E. Barrowclough.

Miles advised Freyberg, still unaware of the fate of 6th Brigade due to poor communications, of Godwin-Austen's instructions on his return to the 2nd New Zealand Division's headquarters early on 1 December. Later that day, the 6th Field Regiment was overrun by German forces advancing to Belhamed. Miles, concerned about his artillery given the uncertainty surrounding the status of the 6th Brigade, was present on an inspection of the battle zone[16] and he moved about, rifle in hand, encouraging his men, and directing them to fire their guns over open sights.[17] Eventually, he was wounded and taken prisoner. This action was the most costly day of the war for the divisional artillery, with 275 casualties, including 96 prisoners of war, Miles among them.[18]

Together with Brigadier James Hargest, the commander of the New Zealand 5th Infantry Brigade and captured around the same time,[4] Miles arrived in the Italian prisoner-of-war camp Vincigliata PG 12 in 1942. The camp was a medieval castle near Florence, where he found himself amongst other captured high-ranking personnel such as Lieutenant General Sir Philip Neame, General Sir Richard O'Connor and Air Marshal Owen Tudor Boyd. Miles settled into camp routine and became a gardener,[19] and was actively involved in escape attempts. Together with Hargest, he escaped through a tunnel that he helped to build[20] and made his way to Switzerland in April 1943.[4] Neame received a coded letter announcing their success a fortnight later.[21]

Miles was one of only three men (Hargest was one of the others) known to British Military Intelligence to have escaped from an Italian prisoner-of-war camp and make their way to another country prior to the armistice with Italy.[22] In Switzerland, Miles and Hargest split up and travelled independently. As Hargest wrote in his book Farewell Campo 12, "I was over in Lucerne when Miles rang up to say he was off, and to suggest I should follow him later".[23] Having travelled as far as the Spanish frontier on 20 October 1943, exhausted and depressed, Miles shot himself. He was buried with military honours, and escorted to his final resting place in the Figueras Municipal Cemetery by members of the British Consulate and a party of Spanish officers.[24] Shortly before his death, his appointment as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire was confirmed.[25]

Miles was posthumously awarded a bar to his DSO for his efforts in escaping from Italy.[4] The citation for the bar, published in the New Zealand Gazette on 21 September 1944, read:[6]

"Escape from Camp 12, P.M. 3200, Italy (General's Camp). This camp was extremely well guarded and in consequence it was decided that the only possible method of escape would be by way of a tunnel. On the 18th September, 1942, tunnelling began. All officers and other ranks worked, with the exception of one officer who was awaiting repatriation. The entrance to the tunnel was through a sealed up chapel which all soil was placed. The work, which consisted of a 3 foot by 3 foot tunnel, 40 feet long with a 10 foot shaft at the entrance and a 7 foot shaft at the exit, was completed by the end of February 1943. At 2100 hours on the 29th March, 1943, Brigadiers Miles and Hargest, in company with four other officers, escaped through the tunnel. The four other officers were subsequently recaptured. Brigadiers Miles and Hargest dressed as workmen and having walked to Florence station, caught a train to Milan where they went to the North station. They caught a train to Como and walked towards Chiasso. 2 kilometres from Chiasso they left the main road and proceeded across country until they reached a knoll south of Chiasso where the frontier lay along the opposite slope of a valley below them. The frontier consisted of heavy cyclone netting 12 foot high interlaced with brambles and with small bells near the top. They cut the wire with pliers at ground level without making much noise and came on to Swiss territory at 220 hours on the 30th March, 1943. They gave themselves up to the police at Mendrisio and were released in Berne on the 2nd April, 1943.

— The New Zealand Gazette, 21 September 1944

Miles' medals were held by the family, who had managed to collect them after some had been lost. On 13 August 2009, they were donated to the National Army Museum at Waiouru, New Zealand, in a presentation ceremony attended by the New Zealand Chief of Army, Major General Rhys Jones.[26]