Nicholas Perry Nick “Nick” Wilder

Captain · NZ #21988 · T1 Patrol · DSO

What this roll records

HIS DISTINGUISHED SERVICE ORDER NOW HAS A SOURCE, AND UNTIL TODAY IT HAD NONE. This card carried the DSO on the strength of the unit histories alone. The award notice is London Gazette, Supplement 35799, page 5141 — supplement to the Gazette of Tuesday 24 November 1942, published Thursday 26 November 1942, the notice headed “War Office, 26th November, 1942”. Under “The Distinguished Service Order” it reads: “Lieutenant (temporary Captain) Nicholas Perry Wilder (21988), New Zealand Military Forces.” The service number is exact. HOW IT WAS FOUND IS WORTH RECORDING: nobody was looking for it. The page was opened to date Easonsmith’s DSO, and Wilder is the line immediately below him — the two patrol commanders of the Barce raid decorated in the same breath, with Roy Duncalfe’s Military Medal on the next page. Read from the scanned page image and transcribed by eye. CREDIT WHERE IT IS DUE: this page was reached only because Wikipedia and TracesOfWar.com both cite it for Easonsmith’s D.S.O. Wilder’s own award is cited by neither — it was simply the next line down, and nobody had looked. Sources: The London Gazette, Supplement 35799, page 5141, 26 November 1942 — page located via Wikipedia and TracesOfWar.com while checking another man; this entry read from the Gazette itself.

Patrol T1: "Capt. N.P. Wilder ... members of his T1 Patrol". Patrol from Brendan O'Carroll, "The Long Range Desert Group in North Africa".

PATROL COMMANDER of T1/T2 per W.B. Kennedy Shaw, "Long Range Desert Group", Appendix 4 Patrol Commanders.

March 1942 roll (courtesy Tarek el Mahdy): CO T2 Patrol and T1 Patrol

Barce Raid, Sept 1942 (courtesy Tarek el Mahdy): CO — WIA / T6

Commanded T1 Patrol at the Barce raid (Operation Caravan, Sep 1942). Italian figures recorded 16 aircraft destroyed and 7 damaged on the airfield (Wilder's own report claimed up to 32); T1 took no casualties on the field but lost men in the fighting withdrawal through Barce town. Awarded the DSO. Source: Wikipedia 'Operation Caravan'.

The Kiwi Scorpions (Brendan O'Carroll): Lt-Col N. P. Wilder, DSO — farmer, Waipukurau; born NZ, 29 Mar 1914; patrol commander LRDG; CO 2 NZ Div Cav 1944; wounded 14 Sep 1942.

Patrol commander: commanded T1 Patrol and T2 Patrol. Kiwi Scorpions (Appendix II — Commanders of NZ Patrols).

Commanded T2 patrol raiding the Tripoli–Benghazi road between Agedabia and Benghazi (1942), then led T1 and T2 in the Magrun ambushes (June 1942). At Sidi Haneish (July 1942) his T1 patrol accompanied the SAS jeep raid that claimed twenty-five or more aircraft. Source: ‘Raids Behind the Enemy Lines’, Episodes & Studies Vol. 1 (NZ official war history).

Led T1 patrol on to Barce airfield (13 September 1942), firing incendiary rounds into the parked aircraft. Fighting out of the town he drove the leading truck full-tilt into a tank to clear the way, was knocked unconscious when the jeep later overturned, and was wounded again in the air attacks during the withdrawal. Awarded the DSO. Source: ‘The Barce Raid’, Episodes & Studies Vol. 1 (NZ official war history).

In the Fezzan (early 1943) led T1 patrol, with Y2 and an Indian patrol, mining roads and destroying transport to block the enemy’s retreat before General Leclerc’s Free French. On 12 January 1943 T1 were the first Eighth Army troops into Tunisia, finding the pass that became known as ‘Wilder’s Gap’ on the New Zealand Corps’ route around the Mareth Line. Source: ‘The Eighth Army Advance / Reconnaissance in Tunisia’, Episodes & Studies Vol. 1 (NZ official war history).

Farmer, of Waipukurau; born NZ, 29 Mar 1914. DSO. CO 2 NZ Div Cav 1944; wounded 14 Sep 1942. Source: Episodes & Studies Vol. 1 (biographical notes).

Took part in the Barce Raid with T1 Patrol, 13/14 September 1942. The patrol was largely captured; he was taken prisoner of war. Source: Brendan O’Carroll, ‘The Kiwi Scorpions’ (Appendix VIII, T1 Patrol members who took part in the Barce Raid, September 1942).

Note on the spelling of his name: the Auckland War Memorial Museum Online Cenotaph gives him as Nicholas PERY Wilder against service number 21988, where this roll has Perry. Flagged, not changed. Source: Auckland War Memorial Museum Online Cenotaph.

Embarkation detail from his Cenotaph record: he embarked as SECOND LIEUTENANT, 2nd N.Z. Divisional Cavalry Regiment, 2NZEF Nominal Roll 2 p. 200, Second Echelon. (Of Wallingford, Waipukurau - the same place as Andrew Russell Wilder Ormond, MC and bar, whose middle name is Wilder. The two families are connected.). The rank held on this card, Captain, is his LRDG rank; promotion after embarkation was the rule rather than the exception, so the two are not in conflict. Source: Auckland War Memorial Museum Online Cenotaph, record 117002.

Cenotaph record linked. Source: Auckland War Memorial Museum Online Cenotaph.

The prefix NZ has been added to his service number, on the authority of the Auckland War Memorial Museum Online Cenotaph record already linked on this card — the Museum holds him as a New Zealand service person. The digits are unchanged. This roll formerly left the number unmarked, which made it look like a British number to anyone reading the field rather than the card.

HE DIED ON 24 JUNE 1970, AGED 56, and his obituary has been on this site since August without the date being taken off it. The Press printed it on 25 June and opens “Mr Nicholas Percy Wilder, a Waipukurau sheepfarmer WHO DIED YESTERDAY at the age of 56” — and 56 in June 1970 agrees exactly with the birth date already on this card, 29 March 1914. HE WAS A SHEEPFARMER AT WAIPUKURAU. He went to Christ’s College from 1928 to 1932, played in the First XI and the First XV and was prominent in athletics; he joined the Army early in the war and was commissioned in the Divisional Cavalry before his secondment to the Group. The obituary puts his D.S.O. squarely on Barce — 1,155 miles of desert crossed, the Italians taken by surprise, about 35 aircraft destroyed on the ground and NOT A CASUALTY. HE COMMANDED THE NEW ZEALAND DIVISIONAL CAVALRY FROM APRIL 1944 TO JANUARY 1945. He was survived by his wife, two sons and two daughters. ONE SPELLING: the paper sets his second name PERCY where this roll holds Perry. The roll’s form is kept and the newspaper’s is recorded. Source: the Press, 25 June 1970, page 10, via Papers Past (National Library of New Zealand). The cutting is on this card and on this site’s Newspapers page.

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Where this comes from

• AKA added from the LRDG Preservation Society’s Troopers roll (missing information).

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