Cyril Alfred “Dorny” Dornbush

Gunner · NZ #29533 · T2 Patrol · MM

What this roll records

His Military Medal was announced on 24 February 1942. The recommendation survives at The National Archives, Kew, in series WO 373 (War Office, Military Secretary’s Department: Recommendations for Honours and Awards for Gallantry), reference WO 373/19/293 — but note that the file is catalogued under the forename “CHARLES” rather than Cyril Alfred, so it should be confirmed by service number before being relied on. Source: Auckland War Memorial Museum Online Cenotaph.

Confirmed.

March 1942 roll (courtesy Tarek el Mahdy): Driver

Captured in North Africa: T2 Patrol, 22 Dec 1942, Sedada, SW Gheddahia. Source: "Names of LRDG NZ personnel captured in North African campaign" (per Brendan O’Carroll).

Prisoner-of-war camp: Stalag VIII-A (code 8A), POW No. 33182. Source: Germany & German-Occupied Territories Imperial POW Alphabetical List, Section 4 (N.Z.), 2NZEF. Transcription via Zenodo (DOI 10.5281/zenodo.3632116, CC BY 4.0).

North Africa — 22 Dec 1942, Sedada: prisoner of war. Captured when T2 was attacked by three German armoured cars ~80km west of Buerat Hsun. Source: TRACKS magazine (LRDG Association), Ian Chard, 'Not all were lucky — LRDG missing in North Africa', June 2023.

Name note: TRACKS (Ian Chard) gives forename as Cyril (master records Charles) — to verify.

Deeper background (2026): appears in The London Gazette (supp. 35465, p.898, 20 Feb 1942) as “Private Charles Dornbush, New Zealand Military Forces” (No. 29533) — consistent with his recorded Military Medal, and confirming the forename “Charles” (over the TRACKS variant “Cyril”). Source: https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/35465/supplement/898

Full name Cyril Alfred Dornbush (recorded elsewhere as “Charles”; same service number 29533). Born 16 June 1917; died 17 May 1990, aged 72, at Kawakawa Hospital (colon cancer). Prisoner of war: captured 22 December 1942 in North Africa; held at Dulag VIII-A, Gorlitz and P.G. 57, Gruppignano (Udine); POW serial 33182. Post-war a civil-engineering contractor. Source: Auckland War Memorial Museum Online Cenotaph.

The Kiwi Scorpions (Brendan O'Carroll): Pte C. A. Dornbush, MM — truck driver, Mangaweka; born NZ, 16 Jun 1917; prisoner of war Dec 1942.

The Kiwi Scorpions (Brendan O'Carroll): T2 Patrol: among the survivors who returned in the sole surviving truck T10 after Stukas destroyed four of the patrol's five vehicles near Karkur Murr, Jan 1942.

At Nofilia (December 1941), when T2 patrol was attacked for six and a half hours by Messerschmitts and Stukas, kept his machine gun in action throughout — though the truck was repeatedly hit and he himself was wounded — and his was the one truck to survive. Awarded the MM. Source: ‘Raids Behind the Enemy Lines’, Episodes & Studies Vol. 1 (NZ official war history).

Among the T2 men cut off when the road-watch camp near Sedada was overrun by German armoured cars, 22 December 1942. Source: ‘The Eighth Army Advance / Reconnaissance in Tunisia’, Episodes & Studies Vol. 1 (NZ official war history).

Truck driver, of Mangaweka; born NZ, 16 Jun 1917. MM; prisoner of war, Dec 1942. Source: Episodes & Studies Vol. 1 (biographical notes).

Truck driver in civilian life. Source: Auckland War Memorial Museum Online Cenotaph.

See him in the full roll →

Where this comes from

• Missing info added from the LRDG Preservation Society’s Troopers roll.
• AKA added from the LRDG Preservation Society’s Troopers roll (missing information).
• Honours & campaign medals from Online Cenotaph: MM, War Medal 1939-45, NZ War Service Medal. Source: Auckland War Memorial Museum Online Cenotaph.
• Additional sources (AWMM Online Cenotaph). Nominal Roll 2NZEF No. 3 (Embarkations 1 Jul 1940–31 Mar 1941), p.128. Unit history: Mason, W.W. (1954). Prisoners of war. External links: London Gazette, 24 February 1942, p.898 (Military Medal): http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/35465/supplements/898; The National Archives, Recommendation for Award (WO 373/19/293): http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/Details?uri=D7358732; Germany imperial POW list, section 4 (Zenodo): https://zenodo.org/records/3955186; Italy imperial POW list, section 4 (Zenodo): https://zenodo.org/records/4560909 Also cited: List of 2NZEF Prisoners of War, 1941–1945, AWMM Library MS 2009/8.

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