RSA Review

AUTUMN 2016

TWEET TAKES ONE FOR THE TEAM Robert (Tweet) Bird (front centre) has earned an award for his role in leading the commemorative re-enactment of the Tauherenikau-Trentham WW1 marches of World War 1. He insists the award was for everyone involved – page 5.

• Photo: Andrew Bonallack, Wairarapa Times-Age PAGE

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Remembering

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Defence matters

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Forces flex muscle in Lasting reminder of massive exercise wartime love story

RSA, Citizens’Club merge at Te Puke

‘Woman of influence’ makes a difference

Nine countries were involved as the NZDF tested its ability to plan and run joint operations involving all three services.

The Te Puke RSA has lowered its flag for the last time and set off down the road to merge with the Citizens’ Club.

Col Karyn Thompson (NZ Army) has won an award for ‘making a difference to the lives of New Zealanders’.

A new memorial seat at Godley Head recalls World War 2 life on Christchurch’s Port Hills and a wartime love story.

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RSA REVIEW • AUTUMN 2016

News The official publication of the Royal New Zealand Returned and Services Association Volume 92 No.1 Autumn 2016 Published March 17, 2016

In this issue 02 News 08 National 13 Defence News 20 Last Post 21 Lost Trails 23 Support 38 What’s On 46 What’s New For RSA Review enquiries and subscriptions, contact: RSA Review Anzac House, 181 Willis Street PO Box 27 248, Wellington 6141 Phone 04 384 7994 Fax 04 385 3325 rsareview@rsa.org.nz www.rsa.org.nz Last Post, What’s On and Lost Trails are placed in RSA Review as a free service.

PUBLISHER: James Lynch Ph (03) 983 5500 james@waterfordpress.co.nz

NZDF GOES GLOBAL ON THE ICE The New Zealand Defence Force’s 50-year contribution to scientific research in Antarctica is being featured in a six-part television series to be broadcast in 171 countries in 45 languages.

The National Geographic Channel will showcase the work of Antarctica New Zealand scientists and support staff through series, which will start in June. The series will be complemented by articles in the National Geographic magazine and multimedia content on National Geographic web platforms over a three-year partnership.

“People are at the heart of the New Zealand Antarctic Programme,” says Antarctica NZ’s general manager communications, Jeanine Begg. “We will be able to tell New Zealand’s story to the world through them.”

Navy, army and air force deployed to support Antarctica NZ will be filmed for the series.

The commander Joint Forces New Zealand, MajGen Tim Gall, says Operation Antarctica is a major mission.

“The first RNZAF air cargo mission to Antarctica was in 1965 and we continue to support Antarctica NZ and the US Antarctic programmes through the joint logistics pool. On a practical level, airlift support flights are crucial because they ensure science and operational personnel working on the continent have the necessary supplies to get through the season.”

A C-130 aircraft marked the 50th year of New Zealand’s airlift support flights to Antarctica by delivering more than 3175 kilograms of freight to the icy continent on November 23 last year. The air-cargo mission was the first of eight planned airlift support flights by a C-130 Hercules over the 2015-16 summer season 2015/16.

The NZDF provides search-and-rescue support, air-transport and terminal operations at the Harewood terminal in Christchurch and at McMurdo Sound, and support for unloading the annual container ship.

Joshua Adams talks to National Geographic.

Up to 220 NZDF staff, including air crew and ground support, passenger and cargo facilitation, logistics, fuel specialists, army engineers and heavy-plant operators, cargo handlers and communications specialists are deployed during the summer season to support Scott Base and McMurdo Station.

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A field of remembrance from last year.

Partners return to WW1 fields The success of their combined efforts last year has inspired the Fields of Remembrance Trust and the Ministry of Education to again support early-learning services in New Zealand’s fouryear World War I commemoration.

Each early-learning service will be sent a World War I commemoration package containing three white crosses to commemorate the men and women who died serving New Zealand in that conflict.

The trust has selected three names to go on the crosses: • Sgt Dick Travis – New Zealand’s most decorated soldier, killed in action in July 1918.

• Staff Nurse Nona Hildyard – died October 23, 1915 on board the SS Marquette after it was hit

by a German torpedo in the Mediterranean Sea..

• 2Lt Thomas Grace – killed in action on August 8, 1915 at Chunuk Bair, Gallipoli.

The commemoration package aims to inform younger generations and stimulate conversation about this part of New Zealand’s history.

The trust and the ministry hope that getting children and tamariki involved in what is a hands-on commemoration will help pass on the importance of remembering the impact of World War I on New Zealand.

Last year around 2500 commemoration packages were delivered to schools and kura for Anzac Day. • Information: Ministry of Education’s dedicated World War I webpages: http://goo.gl/tKkNdj.

Poppy organiser recognised by her community Jan Lawrence reckons she’s got the hang of organising poppy days. And, she jokes, she now has the “diploma” to prove it – in the form of a Howick & Pakuranga Times veterans’ community service award.

Jan got involved with Jan Lawrence Howick RSA activities (right) with Emma nine years ago when Smith (Howick & Pakuranga Times) she joined the women’s section. Five years ago she was nominated for the executive committee and this is her fourth year of co-ordinating Poppy Day. “Mike Cole (the then president) asked me if I would take over the poppies; he said it involved only one day,” says Jan. “It’s a huge six-month job. I never let him forget that he said.”

The project involves around 500 volunteers dealing with close to 50,000 poppies. Work on the coming Poppy Day started last November, and Jan’s whiteboard went up at the RSA clubrooms at the end of February.

Volunteers – including the RSA women’s section, line dancers and mahjong groups – pin the poppies and assemble them in boxes of 500 ready for distribution to stands at retail centres, to schools and small businesses (“there are hundreds of them) and industrial areas (Macleans College students drop off more than 500 poppies through East Tamaki).

Jan Lawrence is also working with the executive committee on the April 5 Anzac Awareness Day when children from local schools are invited to the RSA to talk with special speakers.

“We’re trying to incorporate a few younger speakers this year to make people aware that the RSA is not just a place where the old diggers sit with a pint of beer,” she says.

RSA REVIEW • SUMMER 2015

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RSA REVIEW • AUTUMN 2016

RNZAF air show one of the biggest yet An air show to mark the Royal New Zealand Air Force’s 80 years as an independent armed service will be one of the biggest staged in New Zealand.

The show will be held at the RNZAF Base Ohakea on February 24-26 next year.

The three days will be packed with displays from the RNZAF fixed-wing aircraft and helicopter fleets, the newly named Black Falcons formation aerobatic team, and the Parachute Training Squadron.

Several aircraft from international air force partners are also expected.

The Black Falcons will use the new T-6C Texan II aircraft, while the bigger aircraft range will include the RNZAF’s large Boeing 757, P-3K2 Orion, and C-130 Hercules.

A variety of ground exhibitions will give visitors the opportunity to get up close and personal with their air force.

“Holding an air show gives us the opportunity to showcase our skills and our people,” says the chief of air force, Air Vice Marshall Mike Yardley.

The Black Falcons will also fly in the Texan aircraft for the first time at the Wings over Wairarapa Air Show on February 17-19.

Anzac in action Anzac in Action – a two-day event of war history at Rangitata Island – will take place on April 23-24.

The biennial event, organised by the Geraldine Anzac Commemorations Trust, is a time to enjoy, learn and remember, says trust chairman Max Millar said. ‘‘We want people to have a great time, but it is also a chance for the young to learn about life during that period and for everyone to remember the sacrifices made on our behalf.’’

NZ DENTAL CORPS TURNS 100 New Zealand was the second country (behind Canada) in the then British Empire to recognise the value of a military dental service.

New Zealand’s Royal New Zealand Dental Corps last year celebrated 100 years since the first dentists put on a uniform and were deployed on troop ships as part of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force to World War 1.

The formation of the dental corps was a groundbreaking move for the health and well-being of New Zealand soldiers. In some ways, it changed the face of the New Zealand Army at that time.

The corps’ first director, Lt Col T A Hunter wrote in his 1923 book, The War Effort in New Zealand, of large numbers of otherwise fit recruits being turned away because of dental defects.

The formation of the corps allowed these men to be treated and passed dentally fit.

The numbers were daunting and the number of extractions and fillings to be done was at times jaw-dropping. In one reinforcement, 1900 men had more than 13,500 teeth requiring treatment – an average of nearly seven teeth per man.

It was a mammoth job, but, as Hunter said, the aim was “to send away every member of the Expeditionary Force with an efficient set of teeth”.

The dentists also provided support on the front lines and in medical units.

The New Zealand Defence Force’s current chief dental officer, LtCol Trish Leabourne, says the New Zealand dentists at the time saw the value in making sure the teeth of military personnel were in good shape.

“They were turning people away from joining up because they had bad teeth. Dentists started to treat soldiers here in New Zealand, and were then deployed as part of the Expeditionary Force that went via Eygpt and on to Gallipoli. That’s how the corps began.”

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LtCol Warwick Duncan (left) escorts one of the Royal NZ Dental Corps’ oldest members, Major (rtd) Alan Cull, with centenary parade commander Maj Phil Worthington (right).

Hunter reports two New Zealand dentists landing on Gallipoli in April 1915, with only their forceps. More up-to-date appliances were procured and the scope of work extended. The New Zealanders opened the first dental hospital in British military history above the beach at Cape Helles, on Gallipoli, quite close to Turkish lines.

Material was “begged, borrowed or stolen, and three Turkish prisoners helped build the surgery, which handled 40 patients on opening day.

The Kiwis later had the idea for a mobile hospital to treat frontline troops. In 1918, Capt Malcolm Ross, the official correspondent with the NZEF, wrote of a dental hospital in northern France “established in a couple of dug-outs within easy rifle range of the enemy trenches”.

A display of Dental Corps operations, set up

at Trentham Army Camp as part of the 100-year commemorations, was in a hangar right next door to a new, purpose-built dental facility with the latest equipment. By ducking under nets, past and present corps members were treated to an exhibition that showed field operations through the ages.

Governor general Sir Jerry Mateparae recalled the service New Zealand dentists provided to the British military during World War 1, treatment of internees and prisoners of war during World War 2, and supported local people during operations in areas such as Bamiyan, Afghanistan.

As well as providing services to the NZDF, the corps is active in humanitarian aid, disaster relief, and civic aid, including forensic dental identification.

An Australian red ensign is unfurled on Anzac Day 1916 at the Petone railway station.

Australian red ensign signifies comradeship When the flag is raised at the Petone railway station this Anzac Day, it won’t be the New Zealand flag, whatever the outcome of the referendum, Instead an Australian red ensign will be hauled up the tall kauri and jarrah pole.

Petone Community Board member and history enthusiast Gerald Davidson says it’s a tradition that goes back to the first Anzac Day memorial at Petone in 1916: “It was suggested in 1915 that Australian and New Zealand railwaymen should fly each other’s flags to signify their comradeship at Gallipoli.”

KiwiRail and a group of history and rail enthusiasts will mark the centenary of one of the first Anzac Day services held in New Zealand. A dawn service will begin at 7am at the Petone station, 100 years after the first Anzac service there.

On the first anniversary of the Gallipoli landings – April 25, 1916 – a commemorative flagpole made from kauri and Australian jarrah hardwood (symbolising “the unity of Australian and New Zealand railway men in peace and war”) was unveiled outside the Petone station. A similar event took place in Hornsby, New South Wales, in Australia.

It was said that by this time, up to 2000 New Zealand Railways employees had enlisted in World War I, and at least 37 had died.

Prominent among them was Maj Norman Fredereick Hastings, a 36-year-old fitter and foreman at the Petone workshops who assumed command of the 6th (Manawatu) Squadron of the Wellington Mounted Rifles Regiment during the August offensive at Gallipoli. He died of wounds received on August 9, 1915 during the battle for Chunuk Bair. His death is believed to have been a primary motivation for the erection of the Petone memorial.

The steam locomotive Passchendaele will provide rides between Petone and Taita on Anzac Day. The steam locomotive AB608, built in 1915, has carried the Passchendaele nameplate since 1925, when the then minister of railways, Gordon Coates, approved a plan to remember railwaymen killed in World War 1.

By the time it was withdrawn from service in 1967, AB 608 had steamed more than 2.4 million kilometres. The locomotive has been restored to full working order by Steam Incorporated at Paekakariki.

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RSA REVIEW • AUTUMN 2016

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RIMUTAKA MARCH SPARKED BY PHOTO World War 1 centenary looming, he tried again.

He met the Upper Hutt, Masterton, Carterton and A black and white photograph kick-started Robert South Wairarapa mayors, and his idea took off.

‘Tweet’ Bird’s idea of re-enacting the World War “I don’t muck around,” he says. He immediately 1 soldiers’ march over the Rimutaka Hill. formed a committee and used the Featherston The Featherston resident was in the local Anzac Hall as the base to recruit volunteers. He heritage museum staring at a large photograph recruited 12 enthusiastic supporters, including of soldiers marching over the hill to ships bound representatives from the NZDF and the Upper for the front during World War 1 when something Hutt City Council, and soon the project grow about the sheer number of men struck him. bigger and faster than he had ever expected.

“It was the enormity of it,” he says. “Of around “Basically I tapped the people I needed on 100,000 men who the shoulder, the served in World likes of Featherston War 1 from New Community Board Zealand, more than members, the local 30,000 marched this sergeant of the crossing as part of police force for their final exercise transport arrangeafter training at ments, a lady I Featherston Military knew was good at Camp. raising funds.

“We honour our “People said heroes, but it’s often that because of the unsung heroes, my enthusiasm such as these men, and passion for the s o m e o f w h o m Robert Tweet Bird (front right) at the head of the troops project, others got never returned, who on the re-enactment of the Rimutaka Hill march. enthusiastic about we forget about.” it as well.”

Tweet Bird has now been recognised for his The march took around 18 months to organise leading role in the project with a University and resulted in a lasting tribute to the soldiers College of Learning Council honours award. in the form of a memorial on the peak of the The award recognises inspirational role models Rimutaka hill. for UCOL students and people who reflect the Local stonemason Mike Dunn and sculptor Niko Palmerston North-based educational organisa- Thomsen crafted the memorial, which includes tion’s community connections. silhouettes of soldiers marching. Other committee Bird says he was “blown away” to win the members included Adrienne Staples, Solitaire award, and quickly acknowledges it really Robinson, Tim Crum, Mike Ryan, Chris Campbell, belongs to the team.

Mark Bateman, Katie Farman, Karen Barbour, “I wasn’t expecting anything. I was just a guy Willie Simonsen, Zac Davies and Dee O’Connor. doing a job. But it wasn’t about me. We worked as “It was a great achievement to acknowledge a team and if it weren’t for everybody coming on and honour these men,” says Tweet, “and it board, this would never have happened. So I was was a neat feeling unveiling that memorial. It happy to accept the award on behalf of the team.” was a very emotional moment.

Although the project itself is completed, “But the main thing I think we’ve achieved information collected, such as the database of is that a lot more people now understand our descendants of soldiers who trained in the region, military history better and have also learned will be stored in the Wairarapa Archive as a lasting about their own family history and involvement.” tribute. And, of course, the memorial will always sit atop the Rimutaka Hill, a reminder of the men from New Zealand who served in World War 1.

Although Tweet – who hails from the United Kingdom, served with New Zealand’s Victor 5 Seven returned servicemen from Bluff have been Company in Vietnam, and is a past-president honoured in a special ceremony at the local and committee member of the Masterton RSA RSA clubrooms. Veteran affairs minister Craig – had no personal family connection to World Foss welcomed friends and family to the event, War 1, he knew he wanted to do something to saying this was a small way in which “we can honour the men he had seen in the photograph. reflect and acknowledge those who’ve served He visited the RSA and New Zealand Defence and allowed us to live the way we do today”.

Badges and certificates of appreciation were Force headquarters with his idea of re-enacting the crossing, but says it wasn’t met with enthusiasm. presented to honour veterans of various conflicts, “I don’t think they realised the history involved.” including World War 2, Korea and Vietnam.

But he didn’t give up. Two years ago with the The certificates carried the signatures of prime Karen Phelps

The Golden Bay RSA and the Tasman District Council have opened a new war memorial park on the site of the former war memorial library, which was destroyed by fire five years ago.

‘Conflict pillars’ commemorate conflict A new war memorial park has been opened and dedicated in Takaka. It is on the site of the former war memorial library, which was destroyed by fire five years ago.

Golden Bay RSA vice-president Noel Baigent says the idea for a new memorial arose when RSA executive discovered the Tasman District Council was poised to “take” the land for commercial purposes.

The RSA made a presentation to the Golden Bay Community Board in 2012 and, after public consultation, the council agreed to work with the RSA to create a new park.

An invitation to the local iwi, Manawhenua ki Mohua, to participate resulted in a waharoa (gateway) being erected at the park’s entrance.

The memorial’s “conflict pillars” commemorate not only wars overseas, but also the New Zealand Wars – one pillar is dedicated to “our former foes”.

Funding for the project was sourced from the Lottery Grants Board, the Tasman council, local businesses and other sponsors.

Before work started on the park, a Mauri stone was buried and blessed at the main entrance.

The park was created using local contractors, local marble, local handmade outdoor seating, local native trees, shrubs and grasses (apart from some native Australian greenery to bring in the Anzac spirit).

The main features of the park are: • The conflict pillars commemorate all conflicts in which New Zealanders have been involved

– Nga Pakanga Whenua O Mua New Zealand Wars 1843–72, the South African (Boer) War 1899–1902, World War 1 1914–18, World War 2 1939– 45, Malaya and Borneo 1949–66, Korea 1950–53, Vietnam 1964–72, peacekeeping and other operations, Our Former Foes.

• The waharoa depicts war articles on the left side and post-war (peace) activities on the right side.

• A memorial has a roll of honour at its centre and a weeping wall (tears of sorrow) either side.

• A pounamu (greenstone) touchstone mounted on Takaka marble to bring spiritual peace and tranquility to those who visit the new Memorial.

The opening began with a pre-dawn unveiling and blessing of the waharoa.

A formal opening ceremony was hosted by the Golden Bay RSA with New Zealand Defence Force guests including the chief of air force (Air Vice Marshall Mike Yardley), WO Mark Harwood (air force), WO Steven Bourke (navy), RSM 2/4 Battalion RNZIR (Wayne Nepia), an honour guard from RNZAF Base Woodbourne, and a catafalque guard from the NZ Army.

It is thought that this was the first time since the end of World War 2 that all three services have been together in Golden Bay. The official opening was conducted by West Coast-Tasman MP Damien O’Connor; other guests included the Tasman district mayor (Richard Kempthorne), the Golden Bay Community Board chairperson (Carolyn McLellan), and the RSA national president (BJ Clark).

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minister John Key and Foss, and expressed the thanks of the Government and people of New Zealand for the service given.

The Bluff RSA has strong community support, 250 members, its own museum and is in the midst of renovations.

“The place is humming along,” says secretary Hamesh Wyatt “We’re in good financial heart.

The Bluff RSA has got a nice community feel and it’s well supported, with up to 60 people here every Friday night.”

Veterans’ affairs minister Craig Foss with the seven returned servicemen at the Bluff RSA clubrooms.

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RSA REVIEW • AUTUMN 2016

NAVY ISSUES INVITATION: COME CELEBRATE WITH US The Royal New Zealand Navy is showing itself off this year as it celebrates its 75th anniversary.

The navy is out to showcase its past, present and future, to commemorate the service of all who have served, and to thank those who have supported the people in uniform.

During the year navy ships will visit as many ports as possible around the country, allowing people to visit and be part of the celebrations.

“Our people are drawn from all parts of New Zealand, and this is an opportunity to say a heartfelt ‘thank you’ for the support we get from the community,” says the chief of navy, RAdm John Martin. “We’re inviting all Kiwis to take part in the commemorations and celebrate this wonderful occasion with us.”

The anniversary programme started in January with a special event at the Devonport Naval

Base for navy veterans and their families. Public celebrations began in February, with a formation entry into Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour.

Activities will include: a live theatre tour to many centres with a children’s pantomime and evening performances for older audiences; specially commissioned exhibitions at the Torpedo Bay Navy Museum; a television documentary following HMNZS Te Kaha and HMNZS Wellington during their 2015 deployments; ships’ home port visits where people can find out more about the navy; and special events to mark the 30th anniversary of women being posted to sea.

Martin says the events are designed to showcase the modern navy to the community, while valuing the historical contribution of those who have gone before.

The collective title for the 75th anniversary

programme — Operation Neptune – honours the greatest single loss sustained by the New Zealand Navy. Neptune was being prepared for transfer to the RNZN when it hit a minefield and sank in the Mediterranean on December 18, 1941; all but one man were lost, 150 of them New Zealanders.

The celebrations will culminate with the International Naval Review in mid-November, when vessels from international navies visit Auckland for five days. Events along the waterfront will include an exhibition at The Cloud telling the story of the New Zealand Navy, its history, its values and how it serves New Zealand.

Major events to come: • April 25: Television documentary on TV One, following Te Kaha and Wellington’s deployments in 2015.

• May 16: Commemoration for HMS Puriri, a minesweeper sunk by a mine off Whangarei Heads with the loss of five sailors in 1941. The Puriri was the only New Zealand naval vessel lost through enemy action in New Zealand territory during the World War 2.

• June 23-24: Navy presentation (conference and events) of 30 Years: Women at Sea in Auckland.

• September/October:Navy Players’ live nationwide theatre tour produced by LtCdr Mark Hadlow.

• November 17-21: International Naval Review, including exhibition at The Cloud, sports tournament, cultural performances, street march, ships’ open day, Auckland.

• December 18: Memorial service for those lost on HMS Neptune, National War Memorial, Wellington.

VET RECALLS A COUPLE OF NEAR MISSES Kim Newth Operation Neptune, the name of this year’s programme of events to mark the 75th anniversary of the Royal New Zealand Navy, has special resonance for Christchurch naval veteran Noel Smith. The now 94-year-old very nearly joined HMS Neptune on her final journey that ended with the vessel being lost after striking an enemy minefield off the coast of Libya on December 19, 1941.

The intention had been for Neptune to sail for New Zealand, but instead she was diverted to help intercept an Italian supply convoy moving down the Italian coast with supplies for the Italian-German army in North Africa. Of the 757 men who lost their lives when the Neptune was sunk, 150 were New Zealanders.

This year’s naval commemorations, Operation Neptune, highlight the greatest single loss sustained by our Navy.

Noel Smith received his draft chit for Neptune at the end of April 1941 and joined the cruiser when it was still in dry dock. He saw Neptune through her sea trials and like the other New Zealanders aboard had been eagerly anticipating the journey home.

The night before departure, a call went out for volunteers to join soon-to-be-completed minesweepers that were also New Zealandbound. Noel volunteered because he preferred the idea of serving aboard a smaller vessel. The next morning he packed his kit, left ship and resumed depot duties.

On hearing of the Neptune’s loss, he remembers feeling “pretty lucky”. A spur-of-the-moment decision had saved his life, but he had lost many good friends.

“When I decided to leave the Neptune and go for the minesweepers being built, I came back and told one of my best mates on board and he said, ‘What the hell are you doing that for? We’re on our way home’. The next thing we heard was the Neptune had been lost. So, they didn’t get home. When you hear something like that, you think ‘how can it have happened’?”

Names of the New Zealanders who died on the Neptune are recorded in a memorial display at HMNZS Pegasus, the Christchurch Naval Reserve

HMS Neptune during her sea trials (top) and naval veteran Noel Smith, who joined Neptune in 1941.

unit. An honours board also has the names of Canterbury division RNVR men who lost their lives that day.

“We parade every Anzac Day at Pegasus and read the names off the honours board,” says Noel. “I will be there again this year.”

Rededication services are also traditionally held every year at a naval memorial drinking fountain – designed by Noel’s son, architect David Smith – at Christchurch’s Bridge of Remembrance to mark the anniversary of the sinking. (Earthquake damage to the bridge has seen the rededication switch to Pegasus in recent years).

“The Neptune was a major casualty list.

Sometimes I think the public are not that aware of our navy and what it has done. It is very important to remember those people who died

When I decided to leave the Neptune and go for the minesweepers being built, I came back and told one of my best mates on board and he said, ‘What the hell are you doing that for? We’re on our way home’. on the Neptune.” Noel joined the New Zealand division of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) in mid-1939 and left with the second echelon, arriving in England in June 1940.

Before Neptune, he was on small minesweeping and patrol craft.

Ironically, he never did get transferred to the minesweepers that he left the Neptune for.

Instead, he ended up on Russian-convoy duty aboard HMS Trinidad. Arctic convoy work was extremely dangerous and uncomfortable. It involved tracking through icy waters under threat of attack from air and sea.

In March 1942, Trinidad was badly damaged in an engagement with German destroyers and only just managed to reach dry dock at Murmansk. It transpired that Trinidad had torpedoed herself,

owing to the effect of intense cold on the torpedo’s motor and gyroscope.

“There were 60 casualties,” Noel recalls.

It had been another near miss for him, and Trinidad’s trials were not yet over. Following patch-up repairs, it was attacked again on the way out of dry dock, this time by German dive bombers. The decision was made to abandon ship, and Noel and his crewmates were picked up by a destroyer escorts before returning to Greenock for leave.

By October, he had received his next draft chit – to HMS Broke, a 1920s-era destroyer. This was another dangerous assignment. He was aboard the ship when it entered Algiers with American rangers on board. Their job was to secure the port after Broke had rammed through the boom defences. During this engagement, Noel was shot in his right foot by sniper fire and was then lucky to survive when a shell went through the wardroom where he had been receiving medical attention. He was later found to have been wounded in both legs and his left hand.

“When the water started coming into the wardroom, I said, ‘Doc, it’s time to go.’ That was a close thing.”

He was transferred to an American evacuation hospital and eventually returned to a naval hospital outside Bristol.

Looking back, he sees little glamour in his experiences: “I learnt a lot about discipline and how to look after myself. At the time, you do as you’re told and get on with it.”

From his perspective, the best thing to come out of the war was meeting his wife, Iris, while on leave in London.

After the war, he had a successful career in hardware-store management, but never forgot his eventful war years. He was a member of the RNVR Veterans Association for many years, later the Naval Associations Combined Committee (NACC).

In January, Noel attended the RNZN Veterans’ Day, as part of the Navy’s 75-year celebrations.

More than 500 navy veterans attended the special day at the Devonport Naval Base.

“The navy thanked veterans for the assistance they gave in the war and we were also there to see the change of command at Philomel. It was very impressive.”

War essay competition targets budding young historians

Stella Cattle, Daniel Newman and Angela Dalton ...organisers of the school essay competition.

Teenage history buffs are being given the chance to enter an essay competition on the subject of war. The Manurewa RSA's World War I commemoration committee and the Manurewa Local Board are combining to run the contest, which is open to local secondary school students.

The competition is open to students who live in Manurewa or attend Alfriston College, James Cook High School, Manurewa High School or Te Wharekura o Manurewa.

All entries must be the author’s original work and no longer than 1200 words.

Organising committee member Daniel Newman says the RSA wants to support events and activities honouring the service of Kiwi military veterans.

"We're also keen to provide scholarship opportunities for budding historians who harbour a curiosity about New Zealand's social history;" he says.

Competition prizes will be in the form of commemoration scholarships to support the recipients’ future studies.

The winner will receive a $2500 scholarship, each of the two runner-up will get $1200 scholarships, and a $400 scholarship will go to each of two “honourable mentions”.

• Information: stelted@hotmail.com. Entries close on March 18.

7

RSA REVIEW • AUTUMN 2016

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8

RSA REVIEW • AUTUMN 2016

National Office

SPIRIT OF ANZAC : IT’S ALIVE AND WELL IN NEW EALAND BJ Clark, RSA national president It’s a very busy time for RSAs all over the country.

This is our peak season – all eyes are on us, and the voices that make up our unique and enduring movement can be heard the clearest.

First, the Poppy Appeal, when we remember and honour those servicemen and women who have gone by supporting those still with us.

The street appeal is being supplemented with

a number of other initiatives, all proceeds of which go to the Poppy Trust or to improving support services.

Then, Anzac Day – the real show of strength of the RSA movement, as well as depth of the feelings of New Zealanders in supporting remembrance and the meaning of this unique national day.

City of Dunedin Army cadet unit member Jethro Brandish (left) and RSA choir second tenor Ken Clark take to the street on Poppy Day.

This is an early, but appropriate time to recognise and congratulate the efforts of the movement in organising for Anzac Day commemorations.

With 180 events confirmed across the country, and attracting more and more people every year, April 25 holds a special place in the New Zealand calendar.

At time of writing, we’re also calling for nominations for the Governor General/RSA Anzac of the Year Award.

The award recognises the efforts and achievements of an outstanding New Zealander (or New Zealanders), who have given service in a positive, selfless and compassionate manner.

The five previous winners have come from all over New Zealand and from different age groups, but are united by one factor: when they were tested, they rose to and overcame whatever challenges they were faced with.

We regard this as the spirit of Anzac, and this is our way of showing it is alive in our country today.

And, as I write this, the ANZ RSA Cyril Bassett

VC Speech Competition regional finals have just taken place, with talented and dedicated young people from all over New Zealand speaking about ‘New Zealanders in World War 1’.

We’ve so far heard a whole range of speeches – from profiles of servicemen or women from the past, a living veteran, and specific aspects relating to World War 1 commemoration.

The eight year-12 and 13 regional finalists will compete at the national final in Wellington on March 23, with the overall winner travelling with the New Zealand Defence Force to Gallipoli for 2016 Anzac Day commemorations.

The competition is named after Cyril Bassett, VC (1892-1983), the only New Zealander at Gallipoli to be awarded the Victoria Cross, and one who worked his entire (non-wartime) career with the ANZ Bank.

The spirit of Anzac is alive and well, as we remember the actions of those who have gone before us by supporting and advancing the movement into the future.

We will remember them.

POPPY APPEAL 2016: REMEMBER TO CARE David Moger, RSA chief executive As we build up to another Anzac Day, and another year of the RSA Poppy Appeal, we have been reflecting on how best to support all our servicemen and women.

The RSA Movement is as relevant and needed today as in 1916 when Capt Simpson and the men he had fought beside in the Gallipoli trenches established a plan to look after their wounded mates.

However, as the mode of warfare our military personnel engage in changes, so do the types of wounds our servicemen and women incur.

Psychological wounding has become the most prevalent injury service men or women are likely to receive – the numbers affected by this, and its wider consequences not entirely clear.

To help in this area, the RSA has been working to develop and connect networks of current and former servicemen and women, and their dependents.

In the last six months, we can say we’ve seen some significant successes. However, more than anything, these have served as indicators of how much this support is needed, and how much more work we have to do.

New Zealand has 31,000 veterans of overseas deployments, and tens of thousands of men and women who have served honourably within New Zealand. Of these, 11,000 are from the World War 2–Vietnam period and 20,000 have served in overseas campaigns post-Vietnam.

Today, many New Zealanders have no real

understanding of what this means, what this service entails, and the ongoing effects some experience. As well as supporting our older veterans, the RSA is expanding the work it does with those serving in recent years. Some of those we help are people in their late teens and 20s, who have been physically and psychologically wounded.

The Poppy Appeal has been the main source of funds for our charitable work for many years and to help fund these new expanded services, this Poppy Day, we’re launching a number of initiatives.

In Z service stations across New Zealand, drivers can buy flexible silicon car poppies they can attach with cable ties or suction cups.

Money raised from this will go towards the RSA’s development and provision of very necessary support. I’d like to see every car on the road wearing a poppy just as much as I’d like to see every person wearing one Following a successful introduction last year, we’re also selling truck poppies direct to the public, through our on-line shop. These sold out last year, and we’re hoping they will again in 2016.

We’re almost ready to launch a number of other exciting developments – watch for the poppy. We’re doing all we can to encourage the people of New Zealand to “remember to care”, to help provide the funds we need to support our servicemen and women.

We’ve also got exciting developments planned in some of New Zealand’s top locations, taking the RSA to places it has never gone before. We’re a part of Kiwi life, which gives us unique and huge opportunities. The development of the Fox Hole concept is based on several ideas: • A different type of offering will attract a different type of customer.

• We noticed a definite lack of family-friendly options across New Zealand.

• Leading a perception change, while building on the rich history of RSA hospitality (hearts and minds – via stomachs and tastebuds).

We’re working long and hard to make this new chapter in the history of RSA hospitality something that stands beside the last century of good times, honest food and community focus.

Above all else, we’re excited about where we can go with this, and how we can serve the people of New Zealand.

RSA PRESENTS: THE FOX HOLE – A NEW TYPE OF FAMILY RESTAURANT

Grant Marris, RSA business development manager I’ve been working with several RSAs to develop fresh, new business opportunities. It should come as no surprise to anyone operating an establishment providing food, drinks and hospitality that customer needs are changing.

Customers are being offered more choice than ever before in terms of what and where they eat.

The hospitality sector is booming.

Between this background, a significant amount of market research, and a number of conversations

with those involved in the industry, we’ve developed the Fox Hole restaurant concept.

In the last few weeks, we have launched Fox Hole family restaurants in Mount Maunganui and Sumner, with a number more planned this year.

We’re also launching Fox Hole Mini – a modular coffee machine-and-supply package, which can sit on the end of the bar of an RSA – for those unwilling to commit to a full refit just yet but who still want to broaden their offering.

9

RSA REVIEW • AUTUMN 2016

Your say RSA WITH A VIEW: Alistair Kerr

CORE VALUES REMAIN THE BACKBONE Core values? Adapt or die? How are these concepts connected where our RSA is concerned? In this, our centennial year, they need to be kept in mind by every member – returned, service, associate or family. “Why?” you may ask.

Let’s look at core values – courage, compassion, camaraderie and commitment.

Courage reminds us of the bravery of those who put their lives on the line for the defence of our country.

Compassion reminds us of one of our essential functions – caring for these people and their families.

Camaraderie reminds us that we survive by providing social venues in which members can enjoy interaction in an atmosphere that calls to mind the first two values.

Commitment tells us we have a mission to continue to provide the “national conscience” that ensures the first two values are never forgotten.

In some ways, those values have changed over the last 100 years. Our association was founded on the need to safeguard the welfare of returned men from World War 1, and from later conflicts.

As the numbers of those members decrease, we now look wider to show compassion to support those of our whole membership who are in need.

In the light of this change, the values of compassion and camaraderie become more important.

While the concept of providing a desirable social venue that will attract the general public

Perhaps you know of a veteran who is not an RSA member. I believe there is still a great number of them who have joined our ranks. Encourage them, involved them, and invite them. Perhaps they don’t know what they are missing. to use its amenities may seem, in the light of courage and compassion, to be a little trivial, it is not. If we are to survive to protect those memories of sacrifice, our only option is to do so by running our clubs as financially viable, socially attractive businesses to promote the idea.

And what about commitment? Well, that means every member should make every effort to support his or her club. How? First, by being as active in the club as your circumstances allow, by enjoying its facilities, and by encouraging family and friends to do likewise.

Second, by encouraging your associate members to be totally involved in all aspects of the club - as a member of the executive committee, in the various sports and activity sections, in all club activities. Associate membership is the future lifeblood of the New Zealand RSA.

With numbers in other membership categories diminishing, associate members already comprise the majority of total membership - and they will carry the association into the future.

Third, perhaps you know of a veteran who is not an RSA member. I believe there is still a great number of them – from Korea, Vietnam, Malaya, East Timor and the Middle East - who have not joined our ranks. Encourage them, involve them and invite them. Perhaps they don’t know what they are missing, especially in terms of possible welfare support And what about my other concept – adapt or die? (Yes, I know I have written on this theme before, but it is so important ).

As the whole RSA goes through a period in which the demographic of membership and, more importantly, leadership, gradually moves from people with military-service experience

to associate members, we have to adapt to survive. This not only involves all the aspects I’ve mentioned, but also presenting a new image of the RSA to the general public.

Over the past few years our national executive committee has done a splendid job in this field, changing the image of the RSA from an exclusive institution to one that is more family-based and community-oriented.

Sadly, too many RSA clubs have had to close or merge. Many factors have been involved, but I’m sure a failure to recognise the need to change will have been a factor in many of these cases.

But there is a ray of hope when we hear of clubs that have had difficulties and have done some lateral thinking to survive.

Only recently we have heard about the Tauranga RSA including a motel business in its portfolio, the Rotorua RSA being revived through a range of community associations, and the Palmerston North RSA’s potential “resurrection”.

I commend, too, our chief executive officer’s advice that any club with survival concerns should seek the support of a business advisory group. Don’t give up. Remember commitment.

As we enter this centennial year, the RSA is in good heart. With continuing great leadership, governance and management, it will, I am sure, endure to fulfil its role as the leading influence in New Zealand’s remembrance of the ransom paid in the past for our freedom today.

MEDAL MATTERS: Service-file requests soar to ‘unprecedented’ level This is the first in a regular column advising RSA members and their families on what is happening in the medals world of the New Zealand Defence Force Personnel Archives and Medals.

Requests for medals and copies of service personnel files With the W100 publicity in full roar, 2015 delivered an unprecedented number of requests for copies of service files.

Even with additional staff for the anticipated workload, New Zealand Defence Force Personnel Archives and Medals (NZDF PAM) has been inundated with enquiries, and still has a backlog.

The good news is that staff are catching up fast.

But please be patient. Responses are being made in date order of receipt, as that is seen as the fairest way to clear the backlog.

World War 1 service files have now all been scanned and are available on line at: www. archway.archives.govt.nz. To find an individual’s file, enter the service number or full name into the ‘simple search’ section of Archway. Enquirers can then download the file as a .pdf for free and print it at home.

ANZAC Day 2016 and service file copy and medal requests Requests for copies of service files and for the issue of medals are being processed within about three months.

NZDF PAM will do its best to action enquiries for living ex-service persons over the age of 70 as a priority so that they can wear their medals

on Anzac Day 2016. But requests should be sent in as soon as possible.

Replacing World War 1 medals The NZDF replaces medals only during the lifetime of the former serviceperson. It cannot replace issued World War 1 medals and does not sell replica (copy) medals.

Duplicate or replica medals (and miniature medals) can be bought from various medal dealers in New Zealand; contact details can be found via a Google search (for example, search for ‘replica medals nz’) or in the Yellow Pages (searching for ‘medals’).

Miniatures of World War 1 medals can also be bought on line directly from Eng Leong Medallic (ELM) – http://elm.com.sg New Zealand Defence Service Medal (NZDSM) More than 70,000 of these medals have now

been issued. Individuals are entitled if they completed the following service after September 3, 1945: a. Three years of Regular Force service, or completion of an originally full-time engagement (Regular clasp). b. Three ‘efficient’ years of Territorial service - this does not have to be continuous to qualify (Territorial clasp). c. A combination of three years or more Regular Force and ‘efficient’ Territorial service. d. The NZDSM with clasp National Service or CMT is awarded to all members of those cohorts who have ‘met their commitments under the relevant act.’ This means that those who were still serving at the end of each scheme are likely to qualify as the Government of the day cleared their continuing commitment. e. If an individual was required to resign for reasons now viewed as discrimination – for example, in the 1950s and ‘60s many women were

required to resign from their service immediately if they became pregnant, regardless of whether they were married or not.

If there is a mixture of Regular and Territorial service, recipients will receive the clasp that reflects the majority of their service. In some cases, they may receive both clasps.

In all cases, individuals are encouraged to look at the NZDF Medals website – http://medals.nzdf. mil.nz. The front page of this website has a link for individuals to apply ‘on line’ for themselves.

If someone is applying on behalf of a deceased service person or raising a special case, download the form 2 application, get the statement witnessed by a justice of the peace (JP), and mail it in.

• Enquiries on medals: nzdf.pam@nzdf.mil.nz or write to: NZDF PAM, Trentham Camp, Private Bag 905, Upper Hutt 5140.

‘Routine request’ turned into something out of the ordinary A recent request to New Zealand Defence Force Personnel Archives and Medals (PAM) initially appeared to be routine. But the request for World War 2 medals turned up something unexpected – an entitlement to a Battle of Britain Clasp to the 1939-1945 Star. This meant that the serviceperson concerned, Sgt Sumpter, flew against the Luftwaffe in 1940 during the great air battle where the Axis powers were attempting to gain air superiority as a prelude to possible invasion of Britain.

The general view of the battle is of one-man fighters – the remarkable Super-marine Spitfire and the hard working Hawker Hurricane versus one-man fighters and massed flights of bombers of the Axis forces. While this is mostly true, a

few other types of fighters saw daytime combat.

One was the Boulton Paul Defiant – for all intents and purposes, a Hurricane with a fourmachine gun turret right behind the cockpit.

It was in this aircraft that Sgt Sumpter flew in as an air gunner.

The Defiant was not a happy aircraft. It had the same engine as a Spitfire or a Hurricane, but as it carried a heavy turret and an extra crew member to operate it, it was slower than other planes. It had some early successes, but once the Axis forces worked out how to deal with it, Allied losses mounted.

It was during this dark period for the fighter, at the very height of the battle, that the clasp was earned. Sgt Sumpter was a member of 264

Squadron which suffered heavy casualties; it was withdrawn and placed on night-fighter duties, but was pulled back to the day role when the battle was at its most intense. 264Sqn again suffered losses and reverted again to nightfighter duties, for which the Boulton aircraft was much better suited.

Sgt Sumpter joins just 70 New Zealanders who are known to have been entitled to a Battle of Britain Clasp to the 1939–1945 Star. Although he died about 10 years ago, his family will now know more of his service.

• To obtain copies of a relative’s service file or to enquire about a possible medal entitlement: e-mail ‘nzdfpam@nzdf.mil.nz’; website www. nzdf.mil.nz

10

RSA REVIEW • AUTUMN 2016

RSA REVIEW • AUTUMN 2016

11

12 News

WAR HORSE TAKES SHAPE Sue Russell

Those who saw Steven Speilberg’s movie, War Horse, which graphically depicted the often barbaric conditions horses were subjected to during World War 1, came away more appreciative of the gallantry of these four-legged soldiers.

In all, more than 10,000 horses were acquired by the army off New Zealand farms, and were sent to the battlefields over vast tracts of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Just four – Bess, Doll, Beauty and Nigger – returned to resume post-war life in New Zealand. A stone cairn (for Bess) outside Bulls is thought to be New Zealand’s the only standing memorial to war horses.

Track forward to 2013. A group of equestrians connected with the Waikato Combined Equestrian Centre (WEC) and supported by Toti Charitable Trust is working hard for a permanent bronze sculpture memorial to the war horse.

The War Horse Commemorative Memorial Board was formed to spearhead the project with the target of unveiling it in Hamilton’s Memorial Park no later than Armistice Day 2018. The city council has approved the site, just south of Memorial Park’s Ypres Gardens within a stone’s throw of the Cenotaph in central Hamilton, a sculptor has been commissioned, fundraising is on target, and applications have been made for further grants.

Board spokesperson Noeline Jeffries, who is also the WEC patron, says the planned life-size war horse sculpture, to be made by former New Zealand Army and New Zealand Defence Force official artist Matt Gauldie, will be a fitting and timely tribute.

“When we researched and found out that the Bess memorial was the only one specifically commemorating a war horse in New Zealand, we were inspired to try to do something about this,” says Noeline Jeffries. “It seemed especially appropriate given the Waikato’s deep and longstanding history as the centre of this country’s horse-breeding industry.”

However, the path towards a war horse memorial in Hamilton remains somewhat ill defined.

Painter/sculptor Matt Gauldie has produced this statuette of his war horse memorial design for Hamilton.

Another group, the Warhorse Charitable Trust, is promoting and raising funds for a contemporary-style work by an Italian sculptor, Mimmo Paladino. The city council has approved a site in the Hamilton Gardens. This group told RSA Review it had nothing more to report at this time.

Noeline Jeffries says the two groups were initially connected, but her board felt a memorial should be more traditional. The two have gone their separate ways.

Initial funding for the board’s project came three years ago through a substantial donation by Rodney Martin, who contacted equestrian circles frustrated that no other organisation seemed interested in a lasting memorial to war horses.

“We invited several artists to interpret in drawing what they felt to be the sentiment, feel and gesture of a life-size horse that would be worthy of the brave war horses of WW1.

Everyone felt Matt had perfectly depicted just what the relationship between a soldier and his horse would have been like.”

The painter/sculptor produced two marquettes depicting possible sculpture options, and the board chose the riderless, fully kitted horse,

Everyone felt Matt had perfectly depicted just what the relationship between a soldier and his horse would have been like...This gesture of the horse sniffing the hat was very true to life.

with head bent down as if to retrieve a soldier’s hat on the battlefield.

“We were drawn to this image because it told a story straight off,” says Jeffries. “Something had happened to the soldier, and this gesture of the horse sniffing the hat was very true to life.”

She remains enthralled by Matt Gauldie’s ability to capture the look and feel of a horse in battle conditions. These weren’t thoroughbreds, but stock horses that were used up and down the country as working, farm-labour units.

“Stocky station-bred horses were what the army of the day wanted as they were good doers,” she says. “You can imagine the impact it would have had for farmers to have lost their work-horses and to try to continue farming all those years ago. While the horses were paid for, in no way was the real loss compensated.”

Fundraising is tracking towards the target of $245,000, she says. Grants have been sought from WEL Trust, Trust Waikato and the Lotteries Board.

Many personal donations have been received.

The WEC group approached the Toti Charitable Trust (which focuses on collaborative community projects that bring together art, culture and the environment) last June about taking over the project management. Margaret Evans, a former Hamilton mayor who is on the trust board, has taken on this role and has steered the project through council processes for resource consent.

“This is a massive project,” says Jeffries. “It is not only the sheer amount of bronze that will be poured to create the horse, but the geotechnical and transporting challenges. We expect to receive good news within the next couple of months from our application for a grant through Lotteries World War 1 fund.”

Kiwis soldiers back from ‘complex exercises’ in Korea New Zealand troops have just completed three weeks as the third head of a large-scale “twin dragons” training exercise with American and Republic of Korea soldiers in South Korea.

Around 60 New Zealand Defence Force personnel were in South Korea for the 16th annual Exercise Ssang Yong, which means twin dragons, from February 24 to March 12.

Gunners from the New Zealand Army’s 16 Field Regiment participated in complex exercises that included mortar firing and a beach landing in Pohang on South Korea’s east coast.

This was the first time New Zealand troops have taken part in the military exercises that, in previous years, have involved upwards of 10,000 soldiers along with amphibious ships and air support.

South Korea’s northern neighbour, the politically-isolated Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, is largely critical of the exercises, dubbing “invasion rehearsals”.

The drills trigger a surge in military tensions between the two Koreas, with North Korea firing seven surface-to-air missiles along with six shortrange missiles into the sea in protest last year.

United Nations resolutions have banned any ballistic missile tests by North Korea.

MajGen Tim Gall: ‘Exercises such as SY16 enable the New Zealand Army to maintain its ability to operate alongside other militaries and improve its effectiveness in all types of terrain and environment.

According to the commander of Joint Forces New Zealand, MajGen Tim Gall, the Ssang Yong exercise was part of 16 Field Regiment’s ongoing co-operation with the United States Marine Corps 5th Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company, designed to develop the New Zealand Army’s capability in specialised military skills.

“Opportunities to train and engage with other militaries are invaluable,” he says. “Exercises

such as SY16 also enable the New Zealand Army to maintain its ability to operate alongside other militaries and improve its effectiveness in all types of terrain and environment.”

New Zealand is set to host South Korean troops for exercises in mid-August as part of the scheme where each unit holds a training event during the year. American forces will not be participating in the August exercises.

RSA REVIEW • AUTUMN 2016

More planting on the way in memorial forest New Zealand soldiers killed in the battles of Passchendaele and the Somme will be the next to receive formal commemoration in the Coromandel’s developing World War I Memorial Forest.

The Coromandel District Council has given the go-ahead for stage two of the Forest project, which will involve adding 5017 trees to the 3000 native trees already on six current sites. Planting will resume around Anzac Day. Each site represents a specific battle or pays tribute to the men who died from a specific part of the Coromandel. One tree is planted for each soldier killed in each battle.

A $122,205 Lotteries grant has provided the impetus for the second stage of planting.

A further 1279 trees will complete the Gallipoli site above Cathedral Cove, with a total of 2779 trees. Another 1500 trees will be planted in the Passchendaele Memorial Forest site at the new Mercury Bay cemetery, bringing the total to 2000 trees. And 2300 trees will be planted to form the Somme Memorial Forest site the Stella Evered Memorial Park, a private reserve by the Purangi Estuary administered as a public site via a deed of trust by Perpetual Guardian.

Other plantings in the forest include: 122 trees at Whangamata (Battle of Le Quesnoy); 1000 trees at Coromandel Town (acknowledging all those who were killed in the war), plus 39 to commemorate those from area who were killed); 200 trees at Pauanui (Sinai-Palestine Campaign), with 440 to come; 247 trees at Thames (Thames war dead); 48 tress at Tairua (Tairua-Hikuai war dead).

• Individuals can contribute by donating the cost of a tree ($25), which they can dedicate to a New Zealander killed in World War 1. The tree’s GPS location will be recorded; the donor receives a memorial certificate bearing the soldier’s name and the tree’s location.

Search on for photos of Maori servicemen Images of World War 1 Maori servicemen are wanted for inclusion in a book due for publication in 2017. Whitiki: Mãori in the First World War is one in a series on New Zealand and the World War 1 being jointly produced by the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, Massey University, the New Zealand Defence Force and the RSA. Monty Soutar, who wrote Nga Tama Toa: C Company, 28th Mãori Battalion, is in his third year of research for the new book.

“When I began, I didn’t think there would be much material available after 100 years,” he says. “I was surprised and thrilled to find some families still hold diaries, letters and photographs of loved ones.

“The history of the unit known as the Mãori Contingent, later morphing into the New Zealand Pioneer Battalion and finally the NZ Mãori Pioneer Battalion, has never had the detailed attention it’s getting now, and probably will not for another 100 years.

“My grandfather was in the Pioneers, but I knew nothing about what his unit did overseas, so it has been a fascinating journey for me. The book is shaping up to be quite a tãonga – when people read it, they will learn many things about the Mãori contribution to the war effort.”

He says 2500 Mãori and Pacific Island people served overseas, and he wants to include as many of their images as possible.

• Photos should be scanned (minimum 300 dots per inch) and details provided (including where the serviceman was from). Send scan and the information to 28th Mãori Battalion website (www.28maoribattalion.org.nz), which now has a First World War section with the battalion roll included, or to monty.soutar@mch.govt.nz.

Defence Matters 13

RSA REVIEW • AUTUMN 2016

MILITARY FLEXES MUSCLE IN EXERCISE Rebecca Quilliam, editor, Air Force News The towns of Westport, Murchison, Havelock, and the remote Titirangi Bay and Okiwi Bay in the Marlborough Sounds hosted about 2500 New Zealand Defence Force and international military personnel for Exercise Southern Katipo in October/November.

Locals were treated to dramatic air displays from giants of the air such as the USAF’s C-17 and the NZDF’s C-130 Hercules planes. The sound of NH90 helicopters could be heard echoing around the surrounding mountains and HMNZS Canterbury cast a vast shadow over the peaceful waters of the Sounds.

SK15 is the NZDF’s major military exercise and occurs every two years. Personnel from New Zealand and eight other countries – Australia, Canada, Fiji, France, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, the United Kingdom, and the United States participated.

The exercise aimed to test and evaluate the NZDF’s ability to plan and conduct joint operations involving naval, land and air assets from various nations.

“Unlike previous iterations of this exercise, we treated SK15 as one of several operations that we managed and supervised,” says the commander joint forces New Zealand, MajGen Tim Gall.

“This approach was more realistic because if an emergency arose in the South-West Pacific now, that is exactly how things would play out.”

The exercise involved a scenario that required the NZDF to deploy a military contingent to lead a multinational Combined Joint Task Force to restore law and order in a fictional South-West Pacific country (Becara).

To page 14

A Royal Australian Air Force Boeing C17 Globemaster lands at Christchurch with supplies.

EXERCISE SOUTHERN KATIPO FACT FILE Exercise Southern Katipo 15 (SK15) is the New Zealand Defence Force’s major military exercise.

It is held every two years in various areas of New Zealand.

• The joint exercise involves naval, land and air, and more than 2000 personnel from New Zealand and eight other countries – Australia, Canada, Fiji, France, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, the United Kingdom and the United States.

• SK15 ran from October 19 to November 27, mainly in the Buller, Tasman and Marlborough districts of the South Island.

• The exercise aimed to test and evaluate

the NZDF’s ability to plan and conduct joint operations involving naval, land and air, and offered the NZDF an opportunity to work with its international defence partners, particularly those in the Pacific region.

• Aircraft involved in the exercise included three NH90 helicopters, two A109 helicopters, one King Air twin-turboprop aircraft, six C-130 airlift aircraft, and two C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft.

• HMNZS Te Kaha, Canterbury, Wellington, Manawanui and Hawea, and French frigate Prairial, took part

• Military vehicles included seven light armoured vehicles, 41 Unimog multi-purpose four-wheel drive medium trucks, 75 medium and heavy operational vehicles, and 119 Pinzgauer high-mobility, all-terrain vehicles.

• The New Zealand Customs Service, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the New Zealand Police, the Ministry of Primary Industries, the New Zealand Transport Authority, Immigration New Zealand, the Ministry of Health, district health boards, and St John New Zealand supported the exercise.

14 Defence Matters

RSA REVIEW • AUTUMN 2016

NAVY STAFF INTERCEPT DRUGS Three Royal New Zealand Navy personnel spent time on the Royal Australian Navy frigate HMNZSM Melbourne patrolling the Middle East region as part of Operation Manitou, the Australian contribution to the multi-national combined maritime Forces in the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Gulf.

SubLt Sophie Going and combat specialists LS Jack Walters and Jordan McHugh were contributing to the effort to intercept narcotics used to help fund international terrorism.

SLt Going’s role as an officer of the watch was an extension to her 12-month posting to Australia for phase IV training, allowing her to gain operational experience.

“Phase IV is the last stage of training for an officer of the watch. It includes a month of studying warfare theory followed by five months training in the bridge simulator at HMAS Watson before the final assessment.”

She joined the RNZN in 2012 and has been to Australia on a previous posting to work on Armidale class patrol boats. After more training in New Zealand on other ships, including the multi-role HMNZS Canterbury, she has returned to Australia.

“The mission we are conducting on Melbourne is extremely important,” she says. “We are helping to stop the trafficking of illegal drugs.

The first boardings and searches of suspected vessels were a highlight and it’s exciting to be doing what we have trained to do.”

During the ships first patrol of 2015, the crew intercepted, boarded and searched a fishing dhow suspected of illegal activity in the Arabian Sea on October 1. During the search, 427kilograms of heroin was seized and brought on board for identification and disposal. Its value was close to $NZ135 million.

The main role for LS Walters and LS McHugh is to drive the sea boats used by the boarding parties. Their qualifications are equivalent to Royal Australian Navy boatswains.

This is LS Walters’ first operational tour in the Middle East since joining the RNZN in 2008 straight out of high school. LS McHugh, a former civilian diving instructor with a love of the sea, joined the RNZN in 2006 in the survey ship HMNZS Resolution. He then transferred to the tanker HMNZS Endeavour for a Pacific Rim trip, visiting Singapore, South Korea, Canada, the United States, and Tahiti. He also worked on patrol boats before transferring to HMNZS Otago for fisheries patrols on two deployments to Antarctica.

Schoolgirls get first-hand look at service life Over the last two years, the Defence Recruiting Organisation has hosted school students as part of a week-long defence careers experience. For many. this has been the decider in whether or not they choose the New Zealand Defence Force as a career.

Last year 120 schoolgirls spent six days at the Royal New Zealand Navy’s Tamaki Leadership Centre participating in a Women in Defence Experience, an area Defence Recruiting has focused on recently. The New Zealand Defence Force has committed to more women within its ranks.

During the week, these girls revealed their many opinions, perceptions, myths and understanding of what the NZDF is about. The aim was to clarify, inform and provide an experience that set realistic expectations of what the three services are about, and how they come together as one.

The girls were given uniforms, expected to keep their kit and living area in a respectable order, ate their meals in the mess environment, learnt basic drill, and participated in leadership and teamwork activities. Each day they visited a different service and learned about the trades available to them.

The course included a visit to the Whenuapai Air Force Base where the students interacted with the Parachute Training Support Unit, Ground Support Equipment Maintenance Flight, Safety and Surface Flight, Aeronautical Engineering Support Flight and Communication Information Systems.

The girls were given uniforms, expected to keep their kit and living area in a respectable order, ate their meals in the mess environment, learnt basic drill, and participated in leadership and teamwork activities.

LS Jordan McHugh drives a rigid-hull inflatable during a boarding party operation in the Arabian Sea.

Katipo commanders deal with ‘real-world operational challenges’ From page 13 The multinational task force conducted stability, support and humanitarian operations, including the evacuation of internally displaced people during the exercise.

“In SK15, we dealt with challenges that commanders would have to grapple with in real-world operations, such as exercising command and control over units that are operating in remote areas,” says Gall.

During the exercise Capt Steffan Wuts was in charge of monitoring the operations, from his base in Westport, as – from the troops arriving, to battles against rogue highland militia, to the eventual stability of the nation and handover to the Becaran police.

He described it as a success, with the missions completed. These included patrols and security with the Becaran police on land and in patrol vessels, maritime liaison with HMNZS Canterbury and the amphibious taskforce, as well as interaction between the military, civilians and non-governmental organisations.

“Cohesion developed between the different services – whether they were air force, army or navy and their foreign counterparts working at HQ CJTF headquarters level.”

In SK15, we dealt with challenges that commanders would have to grapple with in realworld operations, such as exercising command and control over units that are operating in remote areas...This apporach was more realistics because if an emergency arose in the South-West Paficic, this is exactly how things would play out.

Landing craft deliver troops and transport carriers onto a beach during operation Southern Katipo 15

16 Defence Matters

RSA REVIEW • AUTUMN 2016

NEW CHIEF –`I HAVE THE NAVY’ Hundreds of navy officers and ratings formed in divisions at the Devonport Naval Base on November 30 to farewell RAdm Jack Steer as chief of navy and welcome his successor, RAdm John Martin.

The ceremony was a mix of bands marching and playing, flags flying, an honour guard, a 17-gun salute to the outgoing officer, and a Seasprite flyover.

After Steer had addressed the navy for last time as its chief, the tradition of the regular handover of command on a ship took over. Martin came forward to report for duty and said: “I have the navy.” Steer replied: “You have the navy.”

Martin’s flag was then broken on the flagpole.

Steer’s korowai—the cloak that is the symbol of command—was removed and put on Martin.

Martin presented Steer with his personal car flag.

The Navy Pipes and Drums Band marched on to the parade ground and played a new tune, Rear Admiral Steer, composed by the band for the occasion. As they played, two Navy Seasprite helicopters flew low overhead from north to south.

The Navy Maori Cultural Group arrived and began a farewell haka for Steer, with many of the officers and ratings joining in. Steer and his family were wiping away tears as the haka proceeded and finished.

New navy chief RAdm John Martin accepts the challenge at the Devonport Naval Base.

Steer, escorted by Martin, was then piped off the parade, made his final farewells, and was driven away as the cultural group sung Haere Ra. As Martin returned, the group laid down

the challenge to him, placing the wero on the ground. Martin accepted it, and was welcomed with a rousing Haere Mai, and then addressed the navy.

JOHN MARTIN FILE Before taking over as chief of navy on November 20, RAdm John Martin led capability development for the New Zealand Defence Force. The role involved helping shape and design NZDF capabilities to meet the needs of the Government.

He had previously been commander the Royal New Zealand Navy fleet (March 2011 to September 2013) where he was responsible for its readiness and specialist staff. This included capability-generation, training, evaluation, and operational activities.

Born in Dunedin and educated in Wellington, Martin joined the RNZN in 1979 as a radar plotter. He has served in many navy ships as bridge watch keeper, maritime air traffic controller instructor, frigate navigator, warfare officer and commander. He has held a number of operational staff appointments and was involved in the preparation and deployment of naval units to the Arabian Gulf and Mururoa Atoll.

During his time (2001-03) in command of HMNZS Te Kaha, the ship undertook a number of deployments to Australia, South-east Asia, China, Korea, and Japan. Following a mission to the Gulf of Oman for maritime interception operations, he was made an offficer of the New Zealand Order of Merit.He is a graduate and fellow of the Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies, Canberra, and has a Master of Arts (strategic studies) and a post-graduate Diploma in Business and Administration.

Antarctica remains one of the NZDF ‘major missions’

A RNZAF Hercules on the ice at McMurdo Base.

A Royal New Zealand Air Force C-130 Hercules aircraft heads south on one of eight airlift-support missions to Antarctica over the summer season.

“Operation Antarctica is one of our major missions,” says the commander Joint Forces New Zealand, MajGen Tim Gall.

“Our support recognises the importance of the scientific research being conducted in Antarctica.

Want to be able to see or hear the action on your telly?

“On a practical level, the flights are crucial because they ensure that the science and operational personnel working on the continent have the necessary supplies to get through the season,” he says.

The first RNZAF air-cargo mission to Antarctica took place in 1965. The New Zealand Defence Force continues to support the New Zealand and United States Antarctic programmes through:

Captions and audio description are available for you, all for free.

Visit www.able.co.nz

Captions are a transcript of the programme’s audio, including sound effects, and are designed for the Deaf and hard of hearing, plus for use in noisy environments.

Audio description is a voice narrative of the on-screen action that plays in the gaps of the programme audio and is designed for the blind and vision-impared.

Email: hello@able.co.nz

Call: 09 950 5172

Fax: 09 973 2941

Facebook: AbleNZ

• the Joint Logistics Pool search-and-rescue support, air transport, terminal operations at Harewood, Christchurch and McMurdo Base; • support for unloading the annual container ship; • deployment of up to 220 personnel (including engineers, heavy plant operators, cargo handlers and communications specialists) to support Scott Base over summer.

See our website for more information: www.able.co.nz

RSA REVIEW • AUTUMN 2016

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RSA REVIEW • AUTUMN 2016

Remembering OBITUARIES

WAR HERO LIVED FOR ADVENTURE Bob Cotton

World War 2 bomber and fighter pilot Keith “Jimmy” Thiele, who has died in Australia, was a war hero and ocean yacht sailor who lived for adventure and laughed at danger.

Christchurch-born and educated, Keith Thiele was one of New Zealand’s most decorated wartime pilots whose exploits earned him a Distinguished Service Order, the Distinguished Flying Cross and two Bars, and two Mentions in Despatches.

A pre-World War 2 cadet reporter at Christchurch’s Star-Sun newspaper (the forerunner of today’s Star), he was always a battler.

Jimmy survived the bombing war and post-D Day fighter bomber campaign over Europe in which he was involved in multiple aircraft crashes; made a daring escape from a German prisoner-of-war camp; and cheated death in near disasters while ocean sailing post-war.

In fact, when I interviewed Jimmy Thiele at the “Star” in the late 1990s, he was over from Australia, where he lived much of his life after the war, for another battle. This one was with New Zealand authorities over the status of his war pension.

But in January this year, this fighter lost his last battle when he died, aged 94, in Sydney.

Born on February 25, 1921, in the suburb of Avonside and brought up in Sydenham, he was educated at Waltham Primary and Christchurch Boys’ High schools. After war broke out, he joined the RNZAF and was seconded to the Royal Air Force in the United Kingdom in 1941.

Posted first to a Canadian squadron, No 405, and then an Australian squadron, No 467, he flew, successively, Wellington, Halifax and Lancaster bombers on more than 50 missions in two tours against the Germans.

Set out in the London Gazette, the citations to his bag of awards speak of his skill, determination, courage and leadership.

The DSO, DFC and first Bar were awarded for pressing home bombing attacks against Germany’s most fiercely defended cities, including Berlin, during deadly periods of the air war for the RAF. He drove home one attack even after he and his crew had to deal with an engine fire early on the outward journey. Another was carried out with his rear gunner unconscious from lack of oxygen, a condition that required the attention of other crew members and for Jimmy to fly at very low altitude on the return flight.

Christchurch born and educated Keith ‘Jimmy’ Thiele was one of New Zealand’s most decorated pilots.

On another occasion his machine was hit by flak, dazing him and leaving his Lancaster with two engines out on one side and no hydraulics.

But he still managed to fly it back from Duisburg and crash land at an English airfield.

Returning from another mission, he had permission to land but collided with another bomber attempting to land from the other direction. A Court of Inquiry cleared him of blame.

Jimmy Thiele survived five crashes in all during his bomber missions over Europe. He joked in the interview that he should have been awarded the Iron Cross, Second Class, by the Germans for destroying that number of RAF bombers as it made him an “ace”.

While he proved himself as a bomber pilot, he had been brought up reading of the exploits of World War 1 aces like Mannock and Ball, and fell in love with Spitfires the first time he set eyes on one. He became so determined to eventually fly fighters that he declined an offer by the Ruhr Dams Raid leader Guy Gibson VC to join the elite No 617 Squadron.

He finally got his wish to convert to fighters and was posted successively to Nos 41, 486 (NZ) and 3 squadrons (commanding 3Sqn). With these he flew about 150 sorties in Spitfires and Tempests from England and with the Second Tactical Air Force in Europe.

Flying Tempest fighter bombers over Europe after D Day, he carried out many attacks on enemy road, rail and river-borne traffic, and received the second Bar to his DFC. The citation also took note of his two completed bombing tours.

How did he survive all these missions? The award citations contain the formal reasons. But he also indicated in our interview that when his commonsense told him orders did not make sense, he did not stick slavishly to them.

For example, he said that in the bombing raids, Allied aircraft were all instructed to return at specific high altitudes, which made them easy targets for enemy fighters. But at times, he flew very low, thus avoiding the fighters.

Again when flying fighter-bombers in Europe, he said his squadron was initially handicapped in aerial combat by being ordered not to jettison external auxiliary fuel tanks under any circumstances because they were in short supply.

However, he did, accepting the rocket from his commanding officer, but nevertheless downing two Messerschmitt 109s.

Eventually he was shot down. While he was train-busting, his Tempest was hit by flak and fire broke out in the cockpit. He baled out around 600 metres, was taken prisoner and finished up in a POW camp.

However, as Allied forces approached, he

noticed most of the guards had disappeared.

Jimmy and a mate took off, stole a motorcycle from a nearby village and made it back to Allied lines. In later life he laughed at suggestions his escape from the POW camp was remarkably similar to Steve McQueen’s characterisation in the film The Great Escape.

With this outstanding combat career behind him, some might query why did he not finish the war with higher rank than squadron leader? But his thirst for adventure and adrenaline-pumping danger meant that when the authorities moved him to a training unit after his first bomber tour, he agitated to get back to operational flying.

He succeeded, but had to take a drop in rank to flight lieutenant.

He regaining his squadron-leader rank during his second tour, and after it was over, was posted to Transatlantic Ferry Command. Again, he accepted a drop in rank to get back on to operations and achieve his burning ambition to fly fighters.

Adventure for Jimmy did not end with the war.

He joined a British-based charter company flying Haltons (civilian version of the Halifax) around the world. When that folded, he became an airline pilot flying DC3s, Lancastrians, Skymasters, Lockheed Constellations and eventually Boeing 707 jetliners.

He was involved in a hair-raising episode when he and an American pilot were delivering a 707 from the US to Australia.

“Didya know these things can do a barrel roll?” asked the American pilot at the controls as they approached Sydney. “Can they?” a dubious Jimmy responded. “Yeah watch this,” said the pilot who then proceeded to execute the barrel roll – involving a broad circumference roll around the centre line of flight, a manoeuvre most often used by fighter pilots in combat.

They then flew sedately on to Sydney airport.

Eventually he gave up flying the big planes but continued to fly light aircraft on delivery flights and operate his own P51D Mustang fighter named “Parker Pen”.

For many years he also sailed yachts around the Pacific, two of his own and others on delivery assignments.

He also made 11 trans-Tasman crossings, three of them solo. Twice on these crossings, his yachts were severely damaged, but each time he and his crewmen were able to make it safely home.

Jimmy eventually retired to Bundaberg, in Queensland, Australia.

Napier identity, decorated bomber-squadron member, evergreen entertainer A decorated RAF World War 2 bomber-squadron member and Hawke’s Bay entertainer has been farewelled just five weeks short of his 96th birthday.

Vic Viggers flew 29 missions over Europe as a radio operator with 101 Squadron, and spent 60 years drumming and tromboning, playing the tenor horn, singing and joking his way across Hawke’s Bay stages, usually at faster than a gag a minute.

He was decorated in both spheres.

On the military front, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross after 19 sorties as a wireless operator and air gunner in the Battle of Berlin/ And in the world of entertainment, he was granted a string of life memberships, a scroll of honour from the Variety Artists’ Club of

Vic Viggers: born March 15, 1920, died February 8, 2016.

New Zealand, and a 2010 New Year Honours Queen’s Service Medal for his contribution to the profession.

As part of The Dixielanders jazz ensemble for more than 40 years, he performed with Napier Frivolity Minstrels – at the Cossie Club, at the RSA, at restaurants and public venues, at events, and welcoming cruise-line passengers to Napier. The group received an Art Deco Supreme Award in 2000.

The walls of the now long-gone Victoria Hotel, which was run by Napier hospitality and liquor-trade stalwart Basil Diack, were lined with photos of Vic and the Dixelanders.

The pub was commonly known as the The Vic, although probably not named after the man who performed so regularly within its walls.

The Dixielanders made it onto TV – in Griffins advertisements filmed on a local beach and in two of the Telethon 24-hour fundraisers.

Vic Viggers also teamed up with the town-hall

quiz and variety shows of the late Jack Maybury, whose son, John Maybury, 87, wrote a message that was read at Vic’s funeral.

Most of those at his funeral recalled the quickness of his one-liners, and how his wife, Betty (nee Fearn) – the Puketapu girl he married while on war leave in 1941 – was so often the subject of these quips during their 73 years of married life. Betty died last year.

Born in Wales, Vic Viggers came to New Zealand with his parents when he was seven.

He loved Napier and established a car painting business there; he also had a penchant for teaching the trade at a workshop.

Vic is survived by his sons, Philip and Paul, and his daughter, Sue (all of them still living in the Hawke’s Bay region), four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Remembering

RSA REVIEW • AUTUMN 2016

THE LAST POST WE WILL REMEMBER THEM

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JELLEY CH RNZVR 29/09/2015 Waikanae

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CARTER J 70713 RNZAF 14/10/2015 Auckland CHARLES AI 4215118 RNZAF, WWII 23/10/2015 CLARK RD 4211662 RNZAF, WWII 28/12/2015 Waikanae CLIFT JC 77256 RNZAF 19/07/2015 Otaki CLOTWORTHY DC 203776 NZ Army, WWII, KForce 19/11/2015 Whangarei COFFEY M 615537 NZ Army, WWII 15/01/2016 Christchurch COLINA HG 631840 NZ Army, RNZN, WWII 08/02/2016 Gore COLLINS JA 41974 1st RNZIR, Vietnam 03/11/2015 Putaruru CONNOR BT 209766 1st Auckland Regt 16/11/2015 Avondale CORNS H 22161511 NZ Army 06/01/2016 Manurewa CRAIG PE 712141 NZ Army 11/07/2015 Otaki CRICK, J G JG 39755 RNZN, WWII 14/09/2015 Auckland CURRIE KJ 827846 RNZAF 08/11/2015 Papatoetoe

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HALL PP R557155 MN, WWII 01/12/2015 Red Beach HAMBLY VC 23984834/W764471 TF, British & NZ Army 20/12/2015 Nelson HANSEN OW 456568 38th Fd, WWII 04/11/2015 Hastings HARDY CD 822574 NZ Army Nurse, WWII 13/08/2015 Dunedin HARGREAVES AEE NZ9315 RNZN, WWII 30/01/2016 Tauranga HARPER FA 4212578 RNZAF, WWII 05/12/2015 Tauranga HART LH 616655 NZ Army 02/11/2015 Papatoetoe HAY A 1418771 British, NZ Army, WIWII 07/11/2015 Nelson HAYWARD R 6988 Air Force South Africa 12/12/2015 Hamilton HENLEY HF 4313497 RNZAF, WWII Orewa HILL WE 33609/6345288 RNZASC, WWII 04/11/2015 Orewa HOLDER WH 46537 NZ Army, 14th Sqd, WWII 04/11/2015 Te Kuiti HONNAN P 22934298 BR Forces, WWII 29/09/2015 Howick HOOLIHAN F D/MX106970 Royal Navy, WWII 19/08/2015 Orewa HUTCHBY JW 1813350 RNZAF and RAF, WWII 03/01/2016 Blenheim J

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NEAL AA Home Guard, WWII 01/12/2015 Geraldine NUESTROSKI NJ 624984 TF 13/10/2015 Tauranga NEWMAN M W255157 WWII 25/11/2015 Orewa NICHOLLS NW 627091 NZ Army, WWII 24/01/2016 Papatoetoe NICOL JM 5033084 RAF, Middle East 12/10/2015 Howick

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O’CONNELL GA L1356 Fd Force/Special Squad, Malaya 09/02/2016 Christchurch OMBLER HD 441219 RNZAF 22/01/2016 Dunedin OSBORNE G NZ4311172 RNZAF, WWII 13/11/2015 Tauranga OSBORNE GL 70746 RNZAF, WWII 16/11/2014 Waikanae OTWAY ECL 10363 RNZN 20/11/2015 Tauranga

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TAKARANGI TT 211026 16th Fd Regt, KForce 03/12/2015 Whanganui TARR B NZ125539 RNZN, KForce Thames THOMAS AD 431140 RNZAF, WWII 01/12/2015 Whanganui THOMAS R C78018 Germany 06/12/2015 Stanmore Bay THOMPSON AF 47015 14 Fighter Sqn, WWII 07/01/2016 Mosgiel THOMPSON ME 435783 23 Bn, WWII 18/12/2015 Nelson THORBURN GD 71031 NZ Army, WWII 07/07/2015 Auckland TITCOMB CR 559418 MN 23/12/2015 Loburn TROTTER LW K630485 NZ Army RNZCT 24/11/2015 Wellington TUTTY EJ 45053 29th Bn, WWII 24/10/2015 Greenmeadows

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Remembering 21

RSA REVIEW • AUTUMN 2016

Lost Trails Oldest surviving nurse

Paul Anthony Mulvaney is compiling a video/ story for Anzac Day (something he does each year) and wants to know who is the oldest surviving nurse from World War 2. He knows of one who will soon be 102.

Contact: Paul Mulvaney – paulmulvaney@ clear.net.nz.

Robinson 415786 DFC RNZAF. He was born Christchurch on December 16, 1917 and enlisted for service in World War 2 at Levin on October 19, 1941. He trained as a bomber pilot and flew with 158 Sqn RAF. He was killed in action on June 21, 1943 on a raid to Krefeld, and is buried at Bergen-op-Zoom, in the Netherlands.

Contact: Glyn – glynjeffrey@gmail.com.

Alexander Lefeure or Peter John Voss Sgt William Brims, 4th Field Regt, 2NZEF Two requests for service records and information on F/S Alexander Lefeure Voss 412821, who served in World War 2. He was a radio mechanic stationed in Brighton, England in 1945. He was born on October 25, 1922, and died in 2003. His original home address in New Zealand was Kawautahi Rd, Owhango, in the King Country.

His father, Theodore William Voss, was a farmer.

Peter Mangan is interested in information on any of Alexander Voss’s life experience with friends or family, and relatives. Tina Cerqua (who lives in Windsor in Ontario, Canada) says her aunt was married to Alexander Voss briefly, and the couple had a child, Peter John Voss. The aunt died recently and Tina is trying to locate Peter John Voss or his next of kin.

Information sought on Sgt William Brims, who served with 4th Field Regiment, 2NZEF during World War 2. It is understood he arrived in the Middle East just before the battle of El Alamein, participated in the final stages of the Desert War, and then went to Italy. His war service ended when he was wounded near Florence in 1944. He died in Palmerston North in 1988.

He used to share stories of the places he had visited during the war, making it sound like an overseas holiday. Any information about his time in 4 Field Regt or any other related information gratefully received.

Contact: Peter – petermangan3@me.com and/ or Tina Cerqua – Cawcerqua@gmail.com; 001 519 7356945; 3063 Robinet Rd Suburb, Windsor, Ontario, Canada N8R 1P7.

The New Zealand Wireless Troop consisted mainly of Post and Telegraph radio operators and telegraphists, and served in Mesopotamia (Iraq) from 1916 to 1917-18. The unit was eventually shifted to England and France, and absorbed into the New Zealand Signals. Information, particularly photographs, wanted of Lt William Robinson Henry Clarke and Sapper James Henry

Colin Harben Robinson

158 Sqn Association in the United Kingdom is looking for relatives of PltOff Colin Harben

Contact: Ewan – hydefamily@xtra.co.nz.

NZ Wireless Troop WW1

Hampton. Lt Clarke was the troop commander; he died of jaundice, aged 28, in 1916 and is buried in the Commomwealth War Cemetery at Basra. Sapper Hampton, from Southbridge, in Canterbury, also fell ill and was evacuated to India. He survived the war and returned to New Zealand; he died in Wellington in 1962 and was cremated at Karori.

Contact: Alex Glennie – a.glennie@xtra.co.nz; 03 2130492.

Laurence M Barrett diary found

World War 2 diary for return to relatives of S/Sgt Laurence Michael Barrett, 2158, 8th Field Co, NZ Engineers, 2NZEF. He enlisted in Christchurch, was captured in the Western Desert in December 1941, and spent the rest of the war as a prisoner of war. He kept a diary and family photos through the war, but left it behind in Germany in 1945. The dairy and photos have recently been returned to New Zealand.

Contact: Tony – tsprowse@xtra.co.nz; 04 2973232.

Bathurst minesweepers

Tales wanted from those who served in Bathurst minesweepers.

Contact: Gerry Wright – gerrywright@xtra.co.nz; 8 Rowan Rd, Epsom, Auckland 1023.

Plt Off R W Byers and Wellington bomber Bryan Blay and others have been researching the crash of a Wellington bomber (Z1613), which was shot down on August 27, 1942. They have

found the crash site where all the crew were killed. One of them was PltOff R W Byers, from Dunedin. The researchers would like to see a memorial on the site and want to trace any family of the crew to share their findings and express the gratitude of the Dutch people to those who gave their lives.

Contact: Bryan Blay – bryan52blay@gmail.com.

Medals Reunited

Ian Martyn – a 37-year New Zealand military veteran – has founded Medals Reunited New Zealand©, which is dedicated to reuniting lost/ found war and service medals (and associated ephemera) with families. MPNZ researches the medals to find the appropriate family or descendant to whom the items should be returned. MRNZ started work in 2014. The service is voluntary and free for those wishing to return or search for medals. MRNZ is sustained by donations of medals that are found or in the possession of members of the public, collectors, and public agencies (police, law firms – deceased estates, service clubs, op shops etc). His work is supported by the NZDF medals policy adviser and medals section staff. He routinely follows up “found” medal cases published in Lost Trails.

He says that successfully reuniting medals and ephemera with veterans; families or descendants is his sole aim and reward.

Contact: Ian Martyn, Medals Reunited New Zealand – medalsreunitednz@gmail.com; medalsreunitednz.co.nz; 03 5467728; 027 9404495; P O Box 8034, Nelson Mail Centre, Nelson 7042.

22 Remembering

RSA REVIEW • AUTUMN 2016

OBITUARIES

`Lucky Jack’ a military man with a strong sense of duty Jack Knowles was a military man through and through. During his 30-year career serving in the New Zealand Army and with the United Nations, he rose from the rank of private to major.

He was born in Timaru in 1920. His father, an accountant, was a World War I veteran. He attended Timaru Boys’ High School where he was an accomplished athlete, particularly in middle distance running. He had been advised

by Jack Lovelock, an old boy of the school who had returned after winning Olympic gold, that this was his forte.

In 1937, the 17-ear-old, strapping, 6ft 2in lad joined the Territorial Force. He had tried and failed to join earlier by falsifying his age. He was turned down for service overseas when World War 2 started, but his desire to do his bit

was strong and in 1941 he was able to sign up.

He served in Fiji before being posted to Italy where he was eventually appointed as a platoon commander with the 27th Machine Gun Battalion.

As the 2nd NZ Division moved north, Jack was involved in a number of actions, including the battle at Monte Cassino in 1944, where more than 18,000 New Zealand troops endured four months of heavy bombing and fierce fighting as they tried to gain control of the German stronghold during a bitter winter.

He was not injured during the war and earned the nickname “Lucky Jack” because of the number of men who survived under his command. He ended the war in Trieste where he recalled taking the surrender of one of the many high-ranking German officers, in this case a general.

Jack Knowles’ love for Italy spanned his long life, and his war service in Italy did nothing to dispel it. This attachment to art, opera, food and wine. Visitors to his home were likely to be served a chianti or a Peroni.

He returned to Italy several times, in some cases as an official tour guide for groups of New Zealanders. He also attended commemorative events at Monte Cassino, making his last visit in 2014 at the age of 93. In 2004, at 83, he was one of five veterans from the Wellington region who travelled on an RNZAF plane to Italy for 60th anniversary commemorations in Monte Cassino.

At that time, he told a newspaper that, as a trained soldier, he did not allow himself to grieve too much during the war for colleagues who were killed.

Jack Knowles, born Timaru, October 20, 1920; died Wellington, January 26, 2016, aged 95.

“It’s a funny thing that you are able to cope, and the longer you are in that sort of situation, the more you can accept it. I get quite emotional now, where I couldn’t before.”

At the end of World War 2, he returned to New Zealand via Cairo where he met his first wife, Sheila, a South African nurse. She followed him to New Zealand in 1946 and they were married in Timaru where they settled. They had two children, Gail and Denise.

In 1949, he re-enlisted in the New Zealand Army and, after a number of internal postings, was posted to the Middle East in 1957 as a military observer for the United Nations Truce Supervision Organisation. He spent a year living in Damascus and Tel Aviv while his family remained in New Zealand.

In 1963 he was posted back to the Middle East, this time with his family, in the same role with the same organisation.

His luck ran out during this posting when a United Nations jeep he was in came under fire as they drove in the Golan Heights – a rocky plateau in south-western Syria, which Israel later seized from Syria during the 1967 six-day war. He was thrown from the jeep and received a back injury that would niggle at him for the rest of his life.

After retiring as a major in 1968 after a 30-year military career, he returned to Wellington where he was in the Department of Tourism briefly before moving to the Office of the Prime Minister.

He was a press secretary during the terms of four New Zealand prime ministers – Keith Holyoake, Jack Marshall, Norman Kirk and Bill Rowling.

Sheila, from whom he had been separated for some years, died in 1999, and Jack married Anne, in January, 2001, at the age of 80.

He is survived by Anne, two children, four grandchildren and seven great grandchildren

23

RSA REVIEW • AUTUMN 2016

Support & Well-Being

DEDICATED SAVINGS SCHEMES POPULAR Sue Russell The New Zealand Defence Force’s launch of a force financial hub and two new savings schemes in October has opened the doors to service people and their families.

The financial hub is a one-stop portal providing the defence community with access to benefits, tools, programmes and services related to their financial well-being.

The NZDF’s chief people officer, Debbie Francis, says the definition of “defence community” is broad. It includes current NZDF members and their families, and former NZDF members (including veterans) and their families.

“We want to look after our own, and we do this by initiatives that leverage off the combined purchasing power of the defence community to provide benefits and services at little or no cost to people”.

The new NZDF KiwiSaver scheme is open to all members including veterans and their families, aged under 65, while the NZDF flexible savings scheme is available to all former members, veterans and their families without no age restriction.

“Until now NZDF savings schemes were limited to serving members only and generally, members were required to cease contributing when they left NZDF,” says Francis.

“That is now changed. A feature of the two new savings schemes is that there is no disruption to retirement savings as members move from employer to employer. They are also able to contribute after retirement.

“Another propelling factor driving the creation of these two new options was rationalising the

current staff, the challenge now is to connect with former members and veterans, and their families, about their entitlement to join and the benefits that will flow, he says.

“We are keen for as many people as possible to join the two new savings schemes and access other benefits through the force financial hub.

We are writing to the RSA executive committee to get a session at the annual conference. And, along with this, we are happy to visit individual RSAs to explain what the schemes are all about.”

The NZDF has set itself the goal of signing up 50 people a week to at least one of the schemes, and Williamson says the response has been very positive. “I have just come back from

Debbie Francis, NZDF’s chief people officer.

investment portfolio through one investment manager, Mercer, and as such create greater leverage to offer savings scheme benefits to the Defence community”.

So far 1259 people have enrolled in either of the two schemes, and have invested $14.7 million.

Mark Williamson, deputy director conditions of service and employment, says just over 4000 NZDF personnel have savings in the old superannuation scheme. With the two new options rolled out, the funds from all three have been merged, creating a massive $350m investment pool.

“Our objective is to grow the fund to $1 billion by 2025 and by a further $500m a decade later.”

While the vast majority of that number are

We want to look after our own, and we do this by initiatives that leverage off the combined purchasing power of the defence community to provide benefits and services at little or no cost to people.

speaking to new recruits at Waiouru Military Camp about KiwiSaver and FlexiSaver. They were really engaged about these initiatives.

You take any young recruit and, with their life expectancy increasing, it is possible they could well be retired for 30 to 40 years. They will need to have the income and assets to sustain a comfortable retirement for that time. Housing and accommodation is also a big thing for our people, and our KiwiSaver scheme offers direct benefits to those wishing to buy a first house.”

NZDF KiwiSaver Scheme funds are generally locked in until a member turns 65. No such restrictions apply to the NZDF FlexiSaver scheme, which is designed to help members save, while retaining access to funds as they determine. Major benefits are its low fee structure and the fact that individual members determine how much and how often they want to contribute.

Contributions can be made via payroll, internet banking or direct debit,” says Williamson.”

The low fee structure for both schemes reflects the fact the scheme has been negotiated by the NZDF to bring benefits rather than to generate a profit.”

A significant benefit now available via the force financial hub is independent financial advice from by Milestone Direct Ltd. Milestone financial advisers can advise on matters relating to members’ financial well-being at discounted rates or at no cost.

• Information: Mercer NZ Ltd – 0800 333787; Milestone Direct Ltd financial advisers – 0508 645378.

RSA strengthens advocacy, support services

Mark Compain, RSA national support services manager

The RSA is working to forge a relationship with a major network of health and care providers focussed on the well-being of currently serving and ex-service people and their dependants.

The RSA has linked formally with Australasian Services Care Network (ASCN), a provider of health and social services for those who have served or are serving.

RSA national support services manager Mark Compain says the relationship is a major step in the RSA’s new strategy to develop its advocacy and support services in New Zealand for all military personnel, not just those with operational service overseas.

“ASCN was established in 2011 by health and care providers who had seen the impact of military service on those they work with,” he says.

“The aim was to develop further knowledge and more effective approaches to care and

treatment. Membership is open to providers of care and accommodation services to the service and ex-service community of Australia and New Zealand, and Canada is due on board this year.”

He says the role of RSA Support Services at a national level is becoming more strategic.

The new relationship will enable engagement with an extensive body of experts, and access to research and knowledge.

Compain, who served 21 years in the regular army, including operational service in Bosnia, East Timor and Afghanistan, says the RSA faces the task of changing public perceptions about who is a “veteran”, and reinforcing that RSA support is for all who have served in the military, not just veterans of overseas deployments.

“A common image is of a war veteran in his/ her late 80s or 90s.

“We work with many elderly veterans and their

dependants, but we need people to recognise that we are also working extensively with and for the post-Vietnam cohorts of service personnel, some of whiom are in their late teens and 20s, who may be physically and/or psychologically wounded.

“For instance, we have people suffering significant illness through environmental exposure – such as former navy personnel who have been exposed to asbestos on older ships or those suffering from the unexplained onset of chronic pain and fatigue from their service in Afghanistan.

“We are also advocating for research that will assist personnel in dealing with health issues that result from routine service.”

New Zealand has 31,000 veterans – 11,000 from the period from World War 2 to Vietnam, and 20,000 post-Vietnam.

24 Remembering

RSA REVIEW • AUTUMN 2016

QUAKES FAIL TO FAZE GODLEY MOVERS AND SHAKERS Since 2002 a small group of enthusiasts has been working to preserve the military heritage of Godley Head and to put this history in front of the public. The major barriers have been a shortage of cash and a surpus of earthquakes. Belinda Carter checks on progress.

A big cloud of brown dust hung over Godley Head on February 14 during the latest earthquake to hit the Canterbury region. But this will not stop the Godley Head Heritage Trust from establishing a heritage centre to tell the story of New Zealand’s coastal defence during World War 2, says the trust’s secretary and historian, Peter Wilkins “There was very little damage done,” he says of the most recent shake. “It was mostly rubble settling after the big earthquakes.

“The battery’s buildings were designed for wartime and to withstand shell fire. They have an extraordinary amount of reinforcing, which makes them pretty solid.”

The quake that did the most damage was in June 2011.

“Up to five metres of the cliff face fell off, weakened by successive quakes, fell off. While this didn’t damage the gun emplacements, it made the cliff itself more precarious. The two searchlight emplacements, at the water’s edge, were almost demolished when the cliff face behind fell on them.”

Access to the site was restricted for some months while the Department of Conservation, which looks after the site, assessed safety.

This meant the trust’s work on turning the quartermaster’s store into a heritage centre was also delayed. Access has been restored, but the gun emplacements and the undamaged tunnel leading to where the searchlights were are still out of bounds to the public.

To mark Godley Head’s pioneering use of radar, the trust has built a replica radar hut as part of the camp complex; this will house one of the earliest radar sets, which the trust owns.

It will not be on the original radar-hut site (that area is prone to vandalism), but is expected to be the first building in the camp area to open for public viewing.

The trust has leased the old quartermaster’s

store from the Department of Conservation to house the heritage centre, but it is still a way off completion – although much of the work, such as painting and creation of alcoves, has been done.

About $30,000 needs to be raised to build tableau displays depicting battery life, plus cabinets to house things such as uniforms and the many photographs taken at the site, mostly

by WAACs – despite prohibitions against doing so during World War 2.

In one of the bigger rooms, the museum will house a number of large guns, including a 3.7-inch 9.5-ton, anti-aircraft gun capable of shooting up to 28,000 feet, a Swedish-designed Bofor gun and a South African War pompom gun.

The pompom – a war trophy owned by the sea cadets of TS Godley – is stored at Godley Heads, along with materials from the Victorian fort on Ripapa Isl;and in Lyttelton Harbour.

The museum also houses a fortress searchlight believed to have been used at Godley Head.

Peter Wilkins says the Godley Head Heritage Trust is dedicated to saving one of the most intact and extensive of the World War 2 coastal-defence sites and making it accessible to the public through the planned heritage centre.

The area has been recognised as a historic place by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust

• To get to Godley head, drive up the Evans Pass Road from Sumner, turn left at the Summit Rd, and continue to the end of the road where there is a carpark and toilets. The area is popular with photographers and there are a number of tracks for walkers. Information: Godley Head Heritage Trust website: www.godleyhead.org.nz; Facebook page and have a look at the satellite maps on Google as it shows the shorted cliffs. Guided visits for groups can be arranged and open days will be held when the museum opens for viewing.

This 2008 photo shows how close the Godley Head buildings are to the cliff-face. They are even closer now – thanks to the earthquakes that have shaken up the area oveer the last five years.

RADAR ON CUTTING EDGE Godley Head was among the first places in New Zealand to install radar – the latest technology of the day – to detect planes and ships.

Godley Head Heritage Trust secretary and historian Peter Wilkins says Brtain feared it might not do too well in the war, so set about sharing its innovation with senior physicists from Commonwealth countries.

Dr Marsden, a New Zealander, went to Britain, soaked up all the knowledge he could, and returned to promote research and development by the New Zealand Post Office and and the University of Canterbury.

When war broke out this research unit was shifted to the main air force base at Wigram, and the Wellington Post Office began manufacturing

radar units for coastal defence – and one of the earliest units ended up at Godley Head, says Peter Wilkins.

When the Americans came to New Zealand to help fight the war in the Pacific, they were short of radar technicians and ground/air warning sets, which New Zealand could supply. US admiral Bill Halsey organised for New Zealand-produced radar sets and local technicians to be sent to the Pacific islands to provide cover for conflicts such as Guadalcanal.

Radar sets were later manufactured in Australia and replaced the New Zealand-made coastal defence sets. Peter Wilkins these were more readily available because the Auastraklians had greater production capacity.

It was no surprise that Godley Head was part of New Zealand’s coastal defence – the prominent headland had been used for this purpose as early as the 1880s when it was feared the Russians, fighting Britain in Afghanistan at the time, would attack the far-flung colony.

When World War 2 bvroke out, the New Zealand Navy, which was responsible for Lyttelton Harbour, demanded army protection against

enemy naval raiding. The army installed a couple of World War I guns on the nearby Taylor’s battery. The navy complained that these were inadequate and lent the army two six-inch guns, which were also mounted at Taylor’s. By war’s end, there was a three-gun battery with the latest Mark24 six-inch guns at Godley Head.

The 11 Heavy (Coastal) Artillery Regiment guns were designed to protect North Canterbury from

Area had a history as a coasta

Left: Mark Hargraves enjoys hands-on ex[perience during a Canterbury Gunners (Royal New Zealand Artillery) visit to Godley Head.

Right: A surviving guardhouse offers a bird’s-eye view across Lyttelton Harbour.

Remembering

RSA REVIEW • AUTUMN 2016

25

Memorial seat a lasting reminder of wartime love story Dion Crooks Chance brought Gowan Bruce and Bam Banbury together as they hunkered down in a blackout at Godley Head during World War 2. They were among the near-3000 people stationed along the eastern Port Hills, overlooking the entrance to Lyttelton Harbour, which was seen as a prime prospect for a Japanese invasion That was in 1942. They married in 1944, Bam died, aged 76, in 1999 and Gowan at 90 in 2015.

Their ashes were scattered at sea at Lyttelton Heads. And in January this year, their family, with Department of Conservation blessing, erected a seat atop Godley Head in their memory.

In her family memoir, Gowan recalled how she ended up next to a group of sailors in the blackout. She had met one of them before, and he introduced her to Bam. Her family remembers her joking it was just well it was dark and she couldn’t see that Bam was a sailor, otherwise she might not have given him a second glance.

Sccording to the fashionable eligibility pecking order of the day, young women rated the air force

lads the elite, then came the superior types of the army, and the navy blokes were the pits.

After being rejected by the army, Albert Banbury (known as Bam) joined the New Zealand division of the Royal Navy (he was an international yachtsman). He started in HMNZS Philomel (the ship) in March 1941, and left New Zealand on July 22, 1941 to serve in the Eastern Fleet. He was on the cruiser HMS Cornwell for a short time, then was posted to Singapore on the Pingo-Wo, an ex-Hong Kong ferry for patrol duty.

After the fall of Singapore Ping-Wo sailed to Batavia, Jakarta, and towed the Australian destroyer HMAS Vendetta (which had been undergoing a refit in Singapore and her main engines were not operational) to Australia.

He transferred to the merchant ship Islander, which took over the towing for the final leg of the journey from Fremantle to Melbourne. In Melbourne he “hitched” an unofficial lift to New Zealand on the armed merchant cruiser HMNZS Monowai. Back home on May 2, 1942, he discovered he had been reported missing.

As he said, back in Australia, he was probably labelled as a deserter.

Craig (left), Ross (centre) and Bruce Banbury at their parents’ memorial seat at Godley Head. Their sister., Anne, was taking the photo. Another brother, Grant, was absent. They believe this is the only memorial seat on the Port Hills.

He was posted to Godley Head as a signalman, then transferred to Fiji on January 8, 1944.

Gowan worked with the radar, and the day after Bam left for Fiji, she was one of three women on duty inside when the radar shack, which sat on the cliff edge, was blown over just before midnight by a Canterbury nor-wester.

Luckily it fell sideways onto land instead of down to the rocks below.

The three clambered out and sought help from some sailors who were shocked to discover that women were part of the army. In fact, Godley Head was a mix of gunners, naval personnel, WAACs and Home Guard. Gowan’s father was a warrant officer in the southern military district and spent some time at Godley.

But they came up with hot chocolate to calm the trio down. In the meantime, the next shift arrived for duty, found the shack on its side and no sign of anybody, and raised the alarm.

The three WAACs were kept in hospital for a couple of days and a court of enquiry followed but nothing came from it, despite one officer saying he had always maintained that the shack should have been tied down more securely.

There were also alarms when a suspected

Far left: Bam and Gowan on their wedding day in Christchurch in September 1944. Left: Army girl Gowan in uniform as she cleans up after dinner.

al-defence base enemy landings from Lyttelton as far north as the Waimakariri River mouth. Landings further south were not considered feasible because of the steep rocky beaches. The guns were about 400 feet above sea level and capable of reaching the Waimakiri mouth, 19 miles away, in 37 seconds.

The guns were fired regularly in training.

But they were not involved in an accident in 1939 when the examination battery in Lyttelton Harbour sank the fishing boat Dolphin, killing its skipper, Fred Brasell. Although he was an experienced fisherman, he could not read Morse and the warnings not to sail his boat any closer were not understood.

A misdirected warning shot hit the boat. As press censoring had not yet been brought in, Christchurch’s Star-Sun newspaper published the entire proceedings.

In 1942, when the Japanese threat was at its most intense, Godley Head’s task changed from protecting Lyttelton Harbour to defending

submarine in the harbour turned out to be a whale, and when the inter-island ferry Rangitira (with passengers on board) appeared under the cliffs one foggy night. And Gowan mentions free cigarettes, sitting around the campfire at Godley Head at nights, women sewing (someone got a needle through the ear on one occasion), and her small group of radar operators who became lifelong friends.

Camaraderie and a strong sense of community have been mentioned by others stationed at Godley. The recreation room was the heart of this community...a daily gathering place. There were regular dances, concerts and films, and although there was no wet canteen, the camp was by no means dry. Sports teams from Godley took part in local competitions.

Food was reported to be good and plentiful, and regular leave was allowed with transpoort supplied to and from Sumner. However, it didn’t pay to miss the tram from the city to Sumner as this meant missing the leave truck and an expensive taxi ride.

Bam and Gowan became engaged and were married when he returned from Fiji – on September 12, 1944. “We hardly knew each other,” Gowan writes in her memoir. “But that was how things went in those days as we never knew the war would last.”

Gowan left the army in 1944. Bam was discharged from the navy in April 1946.

This gun emplacement remains above the cliffs on Godley Head.

Christchurch and North Canterbury from potential invasion. The Lyttelton Fortress area, which initially covered the area from Mt Pleasant to Godley Head, became a hive of activity.

Territorial and Home Guard forces were called up, and at the height of invasion fear, nearly 3000 troops were in the area, with 450 manning the Godley Battery alone.

A growing ‘manpower’ problem led to the formation of the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corp (WAAC), which took over many of the technical and administrative tasks at Godley Head.

The New Zealand military regarded the beaches of Christchurch and Auckland as the most likely

spots for an invasion. The Lyttelton Fortress area, including Sumner beach, was ringed with wire entanglements, anti-tank ditches, pillboxes and infantry trenches. These defences also spread along the full length of the New Brighton beach as far as the Waimakariri River mouth. Many troops were in Sumner where the army took over several public buildings and sep up camp in the grounds of Van Asch School for the Deaf (where the displaced Redcliffs Primary School is now based).

Construction of the battery began in 1938.

More than a dozen concrete buildings and more than double that number of wooden structures

were erected in the battery area. The two main messes, the quartermaster’s store and all the fighting buildings remain.

The battery used an advanced system of partially automated sighting and calculating, designed to aim the guns at their targets. This electro-mechanical system was the ‘computer’ of its day.

The Japanese never stormed Canterbury beaches, but the Germans did come. German files captured at the end of the war in Europe showed that the small rider auxiliary Adjutant laid 10 magnetic mines in the Lyttelton Heads in June 1940. The mines have never been found.

26 Remembering

RSA REVIEW • AUTUMN 2016

MEMORIAL RECOGNISES 42ND ST CHARGE A memorial to the famous 42nd Street charge is scheduled to be dedicated during the 75th commemorations of the Battle of Crete this May. In 2014 the municipality of Chania donated a 175-square-metre site for the memorial on Tsikalarion St (as 42nd St is now known), near the village of Tsikalaria. The Chania council also supplied a design for the memorial site and donated 10,000 euros towards the main structural elements.

The memorial will include landscaping, interpretative displays and a new stainlesssteel plaque.

A fundraising campaign has been headed by the Australia-based Friends of 42nd Street Trust. The trust president, Glenda Humes, is the daughter of Capt Reg Saunders, who was in the Australian 2/7Bn and was involved at 42nd Street.

In December 2015 Australia’s Department of Veterans’ Affairs - Office of War Graves invited the Friends of 42nd Street Trust to apply for private overseas memorials. Around $10,000 is needed to complete funding.

After the German airborne invasion of Crete on May 20, 1941 and the loss of Maleme airfield two days later, the Allied forces in western Crete – mostly Australian and New Zealand (Anzac) soldiers – were involved in a desperate fighting retreat.

The name ‘42nd Street’ (from the 1936 Hollywood musical , 42nd Street) had been given to a country lane south-east of Chania by a British unit (42nd Field Company Royal Engineers) which set up camp there in 1940.

An impression of the memorial site dedicated to the 42nd St charge will be dedicated during the 75th commemorations of the Battle of Crete in May.

The nickname was familiar to the troops as preparations were made to defend Crete in 1941.

On the night of May 26, Anzac units deployed south of Chania had pulled back to defensive positions along 42nd Street. Hundreds of soldiers – the remnants of seven battalions – two Australian (2/8and 2/7) and five New Zealand (21, 28 Maori, and elements of 19, 22 and 23), were dug in on the eastern side of the road, facing west.

Before daylight on May 27, the Allied commanders met and agreed that if the enemy appeared, they would engage. That morning, the Germans’ 1st Battalion of the 141st Gebirgsjäger

Regiment – an elite division of Austrian mountain troops that had landed at Maleme just days before – began advancing towards 42nd Street.

The order was given by the Allied commanders to fix bayonets. At 11am the Germans appeared in the defenders’ sights. Records have been unable to confirm whether the Australians or the New Zealanders charged first.

But as the fighting began, a Maori soldier, Pte Hemara Aupouri, rose from his position and, with one hand clutching a bren-gun magazine, he began to perform a haka. He was joined by his fellow Kiwis, and the haka rang out through the olive groves. The New Zealanders and Australians

charged as one. Between 2/7 Battalion and the Maoris was NZ 21Bn. The Anzac thrust continued for almost 1500 metres, pausing briefly at a dry river bed west of 42nd Street. When the charge ended, the Anzacs tramped back through the olive groves, carrying their wounded to their original positions. Some hours later German troops began circling the 42nd Street positions to the south. That night, the troops at 42nd Street retreated east.

Exact numbers of casualties on both sides are impossible to confirm, but it is believed about 35 Australian and New Zealand soldiers were killed or mortally wounded during the battle. The official histories of the battle say later reckoning put the Germans casualties at 200 dead .

May 27 was significant in the battle for Crete.

On that day Chania fell to the Germans and Gen Bernard Freyberg, commander of Allied forces, finally received agreement from Gen Wavell, commander-in-chief Middle East, to begin a withdrawal to the south coast for evacuation.

The charge at 42nd Street had done much to enable Allied forces in the west to break contact with the German advance and begin the withdrawal.

For the next four days and nights, a number those who had fought at 42nd Street took part in a series of rearguard actions with British commandos to protect other units heading to the evacuation point at Chora Sfakia.

Pte Aupouri,of C Company, 28 (Maori) Battalion survived the action, but was wounded at the second battle of El Alamein in Egypt and died of his wounds on September 3, 1942.

Mandeville Fly-In recalls actions of controversial Crete commander Brig James Hargest, a former Mandeville resident and a pivotal if somewhat controversial figure in the battle for Crete, was a central figure in this year’s annual Mandeville Fly-In. More than 1500 people came to the airfield over the February 20-21 weekend to watch re-enactments, to get a glimpse at some war medals and to hear more about Hargest and his role in World War 2, and to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Battle for Crete.

Fly-In organiser Maeva Smith says several of Hargest’s relations attended the event. At midday on day one, there was a minute of silence in memory of the 880 New Zealanders who died on Crete.

Local historian Aaron Fox and Dryw McArthur, the student representative on the James Hargest College board of trustees, spoke about the man who in 1941 was in command of five New Zealand brigades on Crete and charged with defending the airfield at Maleme.

Fox is working on a biography that will reassess the Southland soldier’s increasingly criticised role in the battle. He says it is easy to be wise in hindsight and says his research suggests

Historian Aaron Fox

Brig James Hargest

that Hargest’s actions on Crete were based on available intelligence and appreciation of the situation at Maleme.

James Hargest, who served on Gallipoli in World War I, became the MP for Invercargill and then Awarua and was a founding member of the National party. After Crete he was captured in North Africa, but with Brigadier Clifton escaped and rejoined the Allied forces. He was killed in action in Europe shortly after D-Day.

For his upcoming biography Aaron Fox draws on a trove of private diaries and public records, some of which run counter to prevailing wisdom about the brigadier’s conduct and the reasons behind it.

In Crete, on May 20, Germany ruled the skies.

According to Hargest, the paratroopers had “never expected that our people would stand and meet them” after days of gruelling air attacks.The New Zealanders reacted fiercely to the paratroopers, held the line, and the day was won. However, in the early evening on the other side of Hill 107 overlooking the airfield, the remnants of the Germans gathered.

Hargest did not order a counter attack; instead his troops withdrew from the hill and the airfield.

Military writers and the occasional campaign veteran have grown increasingly critical of Hargest’s decision.

However, Fox says his research of documents and on Crete reveal that not only was the information Hargest was getting from his troops sparse, but some of it was wrong.

Fox turns the spotlight on to LtCol Leslie Andrew, Hargest’s commander on Hill 107, who had won a Victoria Cross as a platoon commander in World War I. That first night at Maleme, Andrew believed he’d lost the battle.

Fox says he had lost contact with his troops and overestimated the German forces. He shortened his line and pulled back to a defensive position.

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He was running low on weapons and ammunition, and when he realised his new position was no improvement, he left hill 107. The Germans swooped on the airstrip at Maleme, which allowed them to fly in reinforcements, tipping the battle in their favour. An Allied counter-attack early the next morning was too little too late.

Although the Allies’ intelligence had been first-rate, the information about the true state of German disarray on May 20 did not come through when most needed. It’s significant, Fox says, that people in Crete at the time and who had questions about the loss, also said you had to be there to understand the situation.

“How can you make decisions when you don’t have radio communications, the field telephones have been cut to pieces, any vehicles running on the roads would be shot up by the German aircraft, and anything that moved was attacked by, in Hargest’s words, ‘everything that came out of the Messerschmitt factory’?”

Hargest’s military career scarcely lacked dash and heroism. He served in both world wars, Gallipoli and the Western Front, and in World War 2. He was captured in North Africa, and broke protocol by refusing to salute Rommel, saying he would salute superiors only in his own army. He became the highest ranking Allied officer to escape from prison and on D-Day he was back in action, still filing reports when he was killed in action.

Yet, says Fox, those three days in Crete have proved central to the historical analysis of Hargest’s life. The initial, and official, history of the battle was written by Invercargill-raised Dan Davin, another Crete veteran who went on to become a divisional intelligence officer and a writer and editor of the Oxford University Press.

His book contained input from the senior officers involved and was, says Fox, “very kind”. Davin exonerated Hargest, but later writing has been increasingly critical of Hargest.

However, after examining Hargest’s writings and the background available through archival material, Fox concludes there are reasons for the decisions he made.

RSA Life 27

RSA REVIEW • AUTUMN 2016

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28 Remembering

RSA REVIEW • AUTUMN 2016

KEEPING 75 SQUADRON ‘FOREVER STRONG’ Belinda Carter

75 Squadron is celebrating its centenary – and there is one man determined to make the most of that event for members of the squadron, especially those who flew in World War 2, at a reunion in Tauranga later this year.

Glen Turner – 75 Squadron RNZAF Association secretary and stalwart – has spent hours and hours, and a fair chunk of his own money in the interests of the squadron and its members.

He joined the RNZAF as an armament technician in 1985, was posted to 75Sqn in 1999 looking after Skyhawk egress and weapons systems. He was also involved in managing manpower and aircraft operations to meet pilot requirements.

He finished his Royal New Zealand Air Force career late in 2014, and now lives in Bulls where he manages his own ejection-seat business and carries out the 75Sqn Association secretarial role.

The 75 Squadron Association of New Zealand was formed in Wellington in 1950 by men who been in the squadron during World War 2 and wanted to keep alive the memory of those lost and keep contact with those who returned.

Just 34 men from the World War 2 squadron are in New Zealand and fewer than 20 in England.

Turner started going to reunions in 2004, and in 2008 found himself voted in as the association’s new secretary.

He has breathed new life into the organisation, including colour newsletters, and creating a website and a Facebook page. He has contact with many who served in the squadron, has represented the squadron at services in Europe, and makes special certificates for the World War 2 veterans “to show them they are valued”.

He has put a lot of own funds into developing and designing squadron memorabilia and clothing – which includes 35 ties, plaques, lanyards,

Glen Turner with the late Des Horgan (1914-2010) a former World War 2 pilot with 75 Squadron and lapel pins designed by Turner.

and women’s scarves for people around the world. He has also designed a squadron flag, which is used at reunions, commemorative services, and funerals. “ I have a driving passion to make sure that the chaps I worked with, and all of those before me, have the ability to wear the squadron pieces I make with pride, having served with distinction,” says Glen Turner.

He also offers help to families writing death notices and obituaries. A letter detailing the correct wording and air-force language is on the association website.

He says many families leave it up to funeral homes to write death notices, and they use words such as 75th, or regiment instead of squadron, or missions when it should be operations, and so on. “Those little things really irk me … incorrect

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terms and descriptions unfortunately detract from their epitaph.”

In his role as an armourer, Glen Turner was posted to work with RNZAF ejection seats; in 1990 he was sent to Italy for training on new equipment.

This experience led to him being asked by a civilian aircraft-owner in New Zealand to fit an ejection seat in an ex-military jet aircraft.

In his research, he discovered that the New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority did not have rules for civilian systems. So he wrote a set of rules and procedures, which the NZCAA published in 1997.

He says this document is sought after in other countries and has been the cornerstone of his business plan for Warbird Egress (NZ ) Ltd, which supplies ejector-seats to private planemanufacturers in the United States.

“In 2000, a privately-owned Hawker Hunter jet in New Zealand became the first civilian aircraft outside air-force control to fly in New Zealand with a live-egress system.

Since his retirement from the RNZAF in 2015, he has contracted the services of his civilian ejection-seat servicing business to several aviation companies in the USA.

His present task is finding ex-75Sqn members to invite them to the reunion in October. He’s not flying solo on this one – even though he has designed and organised the last three biennial reunions. A Tauranga-based committee is looking after the venues, accommodation and entertainment, while he attends to the secretarial work from his home.

He expects a good turn-out, including many now based overseas. However, the association’s history will not be ready for publication by October. It is intended to launch a biography of Sgt James Ward VC at the reunion.

He says several people have tried to write the squadron’s history. Forever Strong, published in 1990, is the only hard-back version, but is incomplete and has some errors which the association intends to correct, he says.

Before the reunion Turner has some contracts in the USA and will be a volunteer worker for the 15th time at the Air Tattoo in England.

His other project is driving around Europe’s war cemeteries photographing 75Sqn graves.

He is down to the last 100 of 600-plus.

• Information on 75 Squadron and reunion – Glen Turner: 75sqn.assnz@windowslive.com.

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75 Squadron began nearly 100 years ago in England, on October 1, 1916, when the 75 Squadron (Home Defence) Royal Flying Corps was created to protect northern England from Zeppelin airship.

By the end of World War 1 the squadron had seen little action and RFC had become the Royal Air Force.

75Sqn was disbanded in 1919, but was revived in 1937 as No. 75 (Bomber) Squadron to train air crew in the new heavy bombers. In early 1940 the unit was made defunct again and the number became available In 1939, New Zealand airmen were in England training to bring home the first six of 30 new Wellington bombers for the Royal New Zealand Air Force. When World War 2 began, the New Zealand government gifted the aircraft and men to the RAF. These crews and aircraft began operational flying and were known as the New Zealand Squadron. In April 1940 it was decided they should keep their identity and the RAF allocated a squadron number. They became No. 75 Sqn (NZ).

“So it was not a Royal New Zealand Air Force squadron,” says 75Sqn Association secretary Glen Turner. “It was a Royal Air Force unit, just with lots of Kiwi airmen.”

Because the squadron suffered a high casualty rate, Britons, Canadians and Australians were posted in. The squadron flew Wellingtons, Stirlings and Lancasters.

By the end of the war, 75(NZ) Sqn, RAF had

suffered the second-highest number of casualties of Bomber Command squadrons and in recognition of the New Zealand contribution to the air war, the RAF gave the number, 75, to New Zealand (the RZNAF) in 1946.

“As far as we know, that has never been done by the RAF for any other Commonwealth country,” says Glen Turner.

The new RNZAF 75 Sqn was based at the Ohakea and from 1948 to 2001, flew Mosquito, Vampire, Canberra and Skyhawk strike aircraft.

The squadron went into action with Canberra bombers based in Singapore from 1958-62 with the RAF during the Malayan Emergency.

Back in New Zealand, 75Sqn became noted as the elite air-attack squadron of the RNZAF and a key part of New Zealand’s defence force.

The closure of the Air Combat Force squadrons in 2001 was a huge controversy at the time and against all defence-of-the-realm requirements, he says.

“Retired senior military staff advisers were told to shut up by the then prime minister (Helen Clark) who was intent on destroying the RNZAF’s combat capability. 75Sqn was the centrepiece of this force.

“The loss of the ACF squadrons saw a large number of airmen made redundant and caused a huge brain drain of aircrew and technicians to other countries’ air forces.

“The loss of technical equipment and knowledge, and the mass changes within the RNZAF are still being felt.”

Remembering 29

RSA REVIEW • AUTUMN 2016

MEMORIAL WALL FOR PATIENTS The combined efforts of affected families, a Hamilton funeral director, a genealogist and the Te Awamutu RSA have resulted in a memorial wall for more than 500 former Tokanui Psychiatric Hospital patients who had been buried in unmarked graves in an adjoining paddock over the last 100 years.

The Te Awamutu RSA has a long history of providing welfare support for ex-service patients at Tokanui and several of the dead had been RSA members. The situation aroused the interest of former Te Awamutu RSA president and current Waikato/King Country/Bay of Plenty vice-president Terry Findlay, who thought it fitting that the RSA get involved in a memorial for those lost people.

A newspaper story about the discovery of the graves sparked the interest of Mark Reinsfield, a Hamilton funeral director: “We were sitting around the table and talking about it. The way the story was written suggested there were lots of RSA veterans in the graveyard. We had put a statue of a soldier in our local cemetery in Hamilton Park and one of the guys said we should put a statue up at Tokanui.”

The idea took hold and he began researching: “It turned out there were only about half a dozen war vets in there, so it seemed inappropriate to put a statue up that didn’t acknowledge all these other people.”

Following a talk with James R Hill head office, $10,000 was committed to an eight-metre wall to replace an old, corroded plaque that formerly marked the spot. The names of all those buried on the site have been engraved on the solid granite wall, with space for a seat and flagpole on an anchor-shaped base of polished concrete.

Ground-penetrating radar was used to distinguish where in the paddock people are buried, and genealogist Anna Purgar helped divide the names of those buried between 1914 and 1964

‘Forgotten’ memorial moved A largely forgotten war memorial will probably be moved to an area where it will be more visible and have the name of the town’s only known Korean War casualty added.

The Cromwell Community Board has directed the Cromwell RSA to assess options for moving the Cromwell State School War Memorial to the grounds of the Memorial Hall. The memorial is hidden in bushes at the Cromwell Otago Polytechnic, which is on the site of the former school.

The memorial bears the names of old pupils who fought in World Wars 1 and 2, as well as one Korean War veteran. The RSA will now be able to add the name of a former pupil, William Cooper, who died after being lost overboard from a New Zealand Navy ship during the Korean War. Cromwell RSA president John Morton has been in talks with the board about the project since November 2014.

A large RSA delegation was on hand for the blessing and unveiling of the granite wall memorial for former Tokanui Psychiatric Hospital patients.

into those buried in the Anglican, Catholic and non-conformists plots.

Terry Findlay and other Te Awamutu RSA members formed a working party to help to install the wall in late February. More than 200 people took part in the ceremony, and a large RSA delegation formed a guard of honour for the blessing and unveiling. A commemorative luncheon followed at the RSA..

The names of those buried there are recorded on different sections of the wall according to their burial plot, with a separate RSA section

In brief

for war veterans. There are blank spaces for names to be added.

Anna Purgar believes there will be more names.

She has spent two years researching the names and stories of those buried on the site, comparing information from the hospital with Papers Past birth, death and marriage notices and the death register from the genealogist society from Te Kuiti written just after the hospital closed.

Information was very conflicting, and it was a matter of bringing all three sources together and trying to get the information right, she says.

Bomber command A worldwide search is on for veterans of World War 2 Bomber Command to invite them to the unveiling of the Lincolnshire UK memorial spire on October 2 this year. The spire, which carries the names of the 55,573 Bomber Command personnel in WorldWar 2, is taller than The Angel of the North.

• Contact: events@internationalbcc.co.uk; IBCC, 13 Cherry Holt Rd, Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9LA, UK; Google.

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30 Remembering

RSA REVIEW • AUTUMN 2016

TRIBUTE TO KIWI TUNNELLERS

Soldiers’ memorial in for a makeover

A national memorial to the New Zealand Engineers Tunnelling Company was dedicated in February at Waihi’s Gilmour Lake. People from New Zealand, France, the Cook Islands, Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada came to pay their respects.

The T-shaped, 7.5 metre-high steel monument was funded largely through a Lotteries Commission World War 1 commemorations grant, and the project was spearheaded by Waihi Heritage Vision. The monument was crafted by Nicolas Brumder (Waihi Metal Studio) and, along with an associated memorial wall constructed by Doug Yeoman, forms the central feature of a miners’ reflective area at the lake.

The dedication was prefaced with a street parade through Waihi, complete with classic military vehicles, an honour not given to the surviving diggers on their return home.

Participants included tunnellers’ descendants, representatives of the Cook Island and Maori members of the Pioneer Battalion attached to the Tunnelling Company, servicemen and veterans, and miners and their families.

The dedication included musical tributes, the blessing of the memorial, the mounting of a catafalque guard and the laying of wreaths, concluding with a flyover performed by three Harvards.

Commemorations in Waihi continued over the weekend with presentations by guest speakers, a showing of the film Beneath Hill 60 and a cemetery tour guided by local genealogist Robyn Ramsey.

New Zealand Defence Force vice chief, Air Vice-Marshal Kevin Short, dedicated the memorial along with several first-generation tunneller descendants. At the ceremony Waihi mayor John Tregidga said the tunnellers had, until now, been largely unrecognised in their own country– despite being the first Kiwi unit on the Western Front and the last off it.

British High Commission defence adviser

The Te Arawa Soldiers’ Memorial in the Rotorua Government Gardens is in for a makeover.

Funding for the restoration project has come from the district’s World War 1 commemorations committee.

The memorial, which was erected to commemorate Te Arawa men who fought and died in World War 1, portrays key events in the history of Te Arawa and the interactions of Te Arawa and pakeha.

It was unveiled on February 28, 1927 by the Duke of York (later King George VI) during a visit to New Zealand.

The structure has deteriorated and some elements have been vandalised. Rotorua mayor Steve Chadwick, who chairs the Rotorua District WW100 Commemorations Committee, says it will be fantastic to see the memorial restored ‘to restore and preserve an important piece of Rotorua war history ... one of only a few erected

by Maori to commemorate their men who fought and died in World War I”.

The Lotteries World War One Commemorations, Environment and Heritage Fund has confirmed $275,229 for the project. Other support is coming from Rotorua Trust ($25,000), New Zealand Community Trust ($30,000) and the New Zealand Maori Arts and Crafts Institute, which will make bronze work on the project.

Chadwick says that, where possible, Te Arawa carvers will be given the opportunity to work on the project.

The project will involve the repair and conservation of the stonework; replication of the stone statue of Rangitihi which was badly damaged and removed from the memorial in 1936; replication in bronze of eight original tekoteko and four pou that originally surrounded the memorial; and research and development of new interpretive panels.

The dedication ceremony at the national memorial to the New Zealand Engineers Tunnelling Company.

LtCol Mike Treffry-Kingdom acknowledged the bravery displayed by the tunnellers as well as the camaraderie and loyalty in the face of shelling, poisonous gas threats, cave-ins, and illness related to their appalling living conditions.

France’s ambassador to New Zealand, Florence Jeanblanc-Risler, said France remained ever grateful to the men for their remarkable efforts.

“The tunnels they created still stand as a testament. Both memorials (at Arras and Waihi) mark our common memories. Now we are making new memories.”

The New Zealand Engineers Tunnelling Company dug under enemy lines at Arras in preparation for the 1917 Battle of Arras. The company included about 90 miners from Waihi and Karangahake.

Moira Brabazon of Auckland, 85, a first-generation tunneller descendant, has visited the tunnels

where her father, Robert Ronayne, served. She says it means a lot to her to recognise the men who came back as well as those who died in France.

Brig John Howard, whose great grandfather, Sapper George Fairweather, was a West Coast gold miner, says his great grandfather would have cared little for parading, speeches and shining buttons. He and his mates would have found it hard to talk about their experiences.

“They were the sorts of men who made things work with equipment not issued to them and without any orders.

“However, he would have laughed that a rock from Reefton was sent to Waihi as part of a memorial wall and would have been pleased.

And he would have enjoyed a drink at the RSA afterwards. I think our old soldiers will now rest a little easier.”

Flag It – product of an impromptu jam-session furl

Forever - an Anzac Day sentiment Wendy Baker says the inspiration of her 2016 Anzac poem came from the wording she noticed on a visit to the war memorial at Mataura Island in Southland.

She was particularly taken with the phrase, ‘Their names liveth forever’.

She’s a firm believer in maintaining war memorials because of their significance as a memory and tribute to those who lost their lives in wars.

She notes that the Mataura Island memorial is in poor condition – deteriorating and poorly maintained.

Forever..

Their names liveth on never to be forgot war heroes...so strong.

Forever...

Keeping their memory alive honouring the sacrifice of many who died.

Forever... we bow our heads to reflect and look to the wreaths laid all hearts do connect. ...Forever

Alan Eyles’s father was an Anzac at Gallipoli and played a cornet in the New Zealand Army band. He recalled how they were fooling around in the bandroom one wet Sunday afternoon and put this together.

Eyles senior was also one of New Zealand’s champion rifle shots in both smallbore and long range 303, competed at Bisley and in Australia.

At one competition, either in Australia or at Trentham, competitors were shooting in pouring rain, with a gale-force wind across the range. His father had to adjust his sights so that he was shooting 40 feet to the upwind side of the target so that he could land shots on the target. Many of the competitors failed to hit the target at all.

As Alan says, this song “certainly has a good rousing band tune”. The musicians names it Flag It. Verse 1 The leader of the homeless club arose last Labour night

And said when we were on parade today: I really felt so much ashamed as it did not seem right, When all the countries marched to banners gay.

Just at the stand, the German band they puffed and proudly blew the Watch on Rhine, The Scotch brigade, each man arrayed In new plaid kilts they matched to Auld Lange Syne.

Even Spaniards and Swedes, Folks of all kinds of creeds, Had their banners ‘cept vagabonds alone, Every nation can brag, of some kind of a flag, Why can’t we have an emblem of our own.

Chorus For Ireland has the harp and shamrock, England floats a lion bold, Even China waves a dragon, Germany an eagle gold, Bonnie Scotland loves the thistle,

Turkey has her crescent moon, And what won’t Yankees do For the old red white and blue, Every race has a flag ‘cept vagaboonds.

Verse 2 He said now I’ll suggest a flag that ought to win a prize Just take a flannel shirt and paint it red.

Then draw a chicken on it with two poker dice for eyes, And have it waving razors round its head.

To make it quaint, you got to paint, A possum with a pork chop in its teeth.

To give it tone, a big ham bone – You sketch upon a banjo underneath.

And be sure not to skip, Just a policy slip, Have it marked for 1144.

Then them Irish and Dutch they can’t guy us so much, We should have had this emblem long before.

Repeat chorus

Kings Cup All Black missed Morrinsville gun Alistair Abbott writes in response to the story a talking point (RSA Review summer 2015) on the 1919 Kings Cup rugby tournament in Europe.

He says the name of his grandfather, Harold Murray, was missing from the list of 1919 New Zealand team members who played for the All Blacks. Harold Murray was an All Black in 1913 and 1914, playing tests against Australia and All-America.

Alistair says Harold is standing (sixth person, or fifth player, from the right) in the team photo.

Our apologies for omitting Harold’s name.

His All Black career also escaped the notice of the writer of the story.

The gun mounted on a cow outside the Morrinsville RSA (photo and caption, RSA Review summer 2015) attracted the attention of Barry Turner, from Christchurch.

The caption referred a bren gun, but Barry responded to the Review and suggested that “surely this bren-type gun is a Japanese Type 96, 6.5mm light machine gun based on a Hotchkiss 1936 design with hopper feed of the original Type

11 replaced with a 30-round box magazine”.

An enquiry directed back to the Morrinsville RSA brought a reply from the office manager that was not what we expected, and certainly added a new dimension to the discussion: “The gun attached to the cow is in fact a sculpture made from tools such as hammers etc. The magazine (which unfortunately has been stolen) was in fact an old car number plate.

“It really is quite impressive, but it is not a replica of any official gun.”

RSA REVIEW • SUMMER 2015

Classified 31

32 Remembering

RSA REVIEW • AUTUMN 2016

STATUE ONE OF NZ’S NOTABLE MEMORIALS A World War 1 centenary project has focused attention on the unique features of the PapakuraKaraka war memorial The battle-ready soldier on the Papakura Cenotaph has been recognised as one of the country’s “notable” war memorials

by Heritage New Zealand, which researched more than 50 war memorials around Auckland and the upper North Island.

The aim was to record historical information about the memorials to tie in with World War 1 centenary commemorations. Heritage NZ Auckland co-ordinator Antony Phillips says preserving the historical information of these sites is crucial.

The Papakura cenotaph is made of Oamaru stone and features an armed soldier above a recumbent lion. It stood out among those studied, Phillips says.

“Memorials depicting both a soldier with full fighting equipment as well as a lion are uncommon. Many war memorials have also taken a practical form, such as those dedicated as community halls.”

The trend towards more “useful” memorials came after World War 2 when a government

Heritage NZ Auckland co-ordinator Antony Phillips stands beside the PapakuraKaraka war memorial.

subsidy scheme discouraged more decorative and symbolic obelisks and statues.

The Papakura Borough Council commissioned Auckland architect Lewis Walker to redevelop the memorial. The site was modified between 1951 and 1955 with a World War 2 memorial and a garden of remembrance.

“He set about incorporating memorial tablets with concrete walls that were raised while also undertaking major redevelopment of the surrounding garden,” Phillips says.

“His thoughtful approach meant that the

importance of the older memorial was carefully preserved while still giving due reverence to the World War 2 memorial.”

The Papakura monument, erected in 1921 and inscribed with 33 names, is also “unusual” because it’s likely to have been designed and crafted by two men who fought in the war.

Local man T S McFarland is believed to have made the statue of the soldier under the direction of English sculptor William Henry Feldon, who carved the lion. Not much is known about McFarland.

Feldon, however, was an accomplished artisan who served a five-year apprenticeship in sculpting at Oxford and taught carving and modelling. He came to New Zealand in 1910 and created a series of panels for Government House in Wellington. He served in World War 1. He won a number of design awards for war memorials in Bombay, Pokeno and Rotorua, and is known to have taken “close personal interest” in maintaining his sculptures.

When, in 1932, the Papakura community became concerned about the degeneration of the cenotaph, Feldon was again called in to work on the memorial.

Among those commemorated by the PapakuraKaraka war memorial are Reginald and Walter Costar, from Karaka. Walter was awarded the Military Medal for repairing a gun under heavy shell fire and for rescuing a comrade whose gun had been blown to pieces. He was injured in December 1917 and died of his wounds.

The memorial is within view of the Papakura Peace Oak, which was planted in 1919 by Rev W C Wood as a symbolic commemoration of peace and victory

Plaque unveiled for fallen East Timor, Afghanistan soldiers Family members of both Pte Leonard Manning and Cpl Douglas Grant were joined by retired and serving soldiers at a service in Papakura to bless a memorial plaque for soldiers killed in East Timor and Afghanistan.

The plaque, at the Papakura Cenotaph, was the result of the combined efforts of the Papakura RSA and the local board.

Linda Manning and Tina Grant jointly unveiled the memorial plaque, RSA members and retired soldier Sam Rahui recited the Last Post, and Trevor Gilbert read the roll of honour: Army chaplain Kevin Herewini conducted

the prayers and blessed the memorial after it was unveiled. Papakura MP Judith Collins and local board deputy chairman Michael Turner were the guest speakers.

The roll of honour includes: East Timor: WO2 Tony Michael Walser, date of death – November 30, 1999, died in theatre; SSgt William Edward White, April 25, 2000, died in theatre; Pte Leonard William Manning, July 24, 2000, killed in action; Pte Boyd Reagan Henare Atkins, March 14, 2001, died in theatre; Pte Dean Russell Johnston, July 28, 2002, died in theatre.

Afghanistan: Lt Timothy Andrew O’Donnell, August 3, 2010, killed in action; Pte Kirifi Mila, February 15, 2011, died in theatre; Cpl Douglas Grant, August 19, 2011; killed in action; LCpl Leon Kristopher Smith, September 28, 2011; killed in action; Cpl Douglas Charles Hughes, April 3, 2012, died in theatre; LCpl Pralli Durrer, August 4, 2012, killed in action; LCpl Rory Patrick Malone, August 4, 2012.killed in action; Cpl Luke Douglas Tamatea, August 19, 2012, killed in action; LCpl Jacinda Francis Elyse Baker, August 19, 2012, killed in action; Pte Richard Lee Harris, August 19, 2012, killed in action.

Tina Grant, Papakura MP Judith Collins and Linda and Charlie Manning at the blessing of the memorial plaque in Papakura Cenotaph.

33

RSA REVIEW • AUTUMN 2016

ADVERTISEMENT

PUBLIC TRUST SERVICEMEN HONOURED A re-dedication ceremony for the 63 Public Trust Office employees who lost their lives in World Wars 1 and 2 paid tribute to their sacrifice as civil servants, fathers, sons and brothers.

The names of the servicemen are recorded on two plaques in the foyer of the former Public Trust Office building on the Lambton Quay/ Stout St corner in Wellington, where the honours boards were originally installed.

The plaques were removed when the Public Trust moved out of the building in 1982. They were recently relocated in the current Wellington Public Trust premises as part of a research project, and have been reinstated in the Lambton Quay building.

Paul James, chief executive of Manatú Taonga, the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, which now occupies the Lambton Quay premises, says that while many public service departments erected honours boards, this is one of just a handful in its original location.

The ministry is proud to have been involved in returning them to their rightful home, says James.

“The honours boards remind us that those who died were men who came to work each day as civil servants, with many walking up the same stairs Ministry for Culture and Heritage staff ascend today.”

Public Trust chief executive Bob Smith says the impeccably handcrafted brass plaques held pride of place in the foyer for many years and seeing them returned was special.

“Almost half of our male employees enlisted in World War 1, and by the time the war ended, 135 men had served. A third of those men would have, at one stage, worked here in this building.

“The rest came from around the country, including Richard Price who was the chief clerk

of our Dunedin office. Richard, who served as a major, was born in Wellington and attended Kilbirnie School, where his name is inscribed on the school’s memorial gates.”

Smith said that by the time World War 2 ended, more than 500 Public Trust officers were either in the armed forces or had been seconded for duty in departments directly concerned with the war effort.

Twenty-four of them served in the British or Canadian air force and two were recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross.

“One of those young men was James Cowan,” said Bob Smith.

“James was born in Hastings and attended Napier Boys’ High before working as a clerk in the Palmerston North Public Trust office.

“James was one of four brothers who served in the Air Force and received his Distinguished Flying Cross posthumously for his unswerving determination to perform his tasks successfully and his courage and leadership of his crew.”

Smithsaid that behind each of the names on the honour boards is a story like Richards and James.

“Each name on these boards represents someone’s loved one. These were ordinary New Zealanders; they were fathers, brothers and sons.”

The Last Post and Rouse, played by Leading Aircraftswoman LAC Sarah Henderson, Royal New Zealand Air Force, at the commemoration ceremony, and State Services commissioner Iain Rennie laid a wreath.

• I n f o r m ati on about the me n honoured: NZHistory memorial page: http:// www.nzhistory.net.nz/media/photo/ public-trust-office-roll-honour-boards.

The two Public Trust honours boards back in their original home in Wellington’s Lambton Quay.

Won in Crete.

Lost in court.

Make sure your special things go to special people.

Call 0800 371 471 or visit publictrust.co.nz Ogilvy/PTR0705_RSA

Get a Will.

RSA REVIEW • AUTUMN 2016

35

36

RSA REVIEW • AUTUMN 2016

RSA Life

MEMBERSHIP DRIVES GORE EXTENSION Peter Owen Work has begun on a $1.1-million extension at the Gore and Districts Memorial RSA’s building.

This expansion is just the latest signal of the RSA’s success.

Not only is it the preferred social centre for many of Eastern Southland’s former service personnel and their wives, but it is now one of the most popular clubs in the region. Membership has topped 2200 – and continues to grow.

Manager Steve Brinsdon says the expansion had been on the cards for a long time and it’s great to see the project under way. He says much of the funding will come from the club’s reserves and the balance from a bank advance.

The time is right to do that, he says: “We can get it paid off while interest rates are low.”

The addditional facilities will include a conference or function room, which will allow the club to cater for large (up to 500) conventions, weddings and meetings.

“It will give us another room to cater for groups without having to close our bistro as we do now if we have bigger groups in,” says Steve Brinsdon. “And it will have another bar, which will make life easier.”

The extension will give the club much-needed breathing space. The sports room will be moved into a new area (currently a carpark) and the billiards room will be expanded into a function

Work has begun on a $1.1 million extension of the Gore and Districts Memorial RSA.

room. A wall with a poppy symbol will “tie in nicely with the cenotaph”, says Steve Brinsdon.

He says it was hoped that the new facilities will be up and running by the middle of the year.

Brinsdon believes Gore’s membership is among the top five for RSAs in the country.

A big celebration and open day is being planned for the club’s centenary in September 2017, and he is confident this will bring in more members.

“People are aware because we open our doors.

Everyone is welcome for a meal. We would

like them to be members though. We need to concentrate on the next generation. It’s not the end, it’s just the beginning.”

Gore has eight sub-branches – which would not survive on their own, but sit under the Gore wing. With 200 members Mataura is the biggest of these. These sub-branches do not operate full-time – they have a few meetings, and base their activities largely around Anzac Day Despite Gore’s commercial success (“we run it as more of a business than a club”), Brinsdon

says the RSA is about the welfare of the soldiers in the area. Brinsdon believes the Mataura Licensing Trust is also to thank for the RSA’s successes too. Because the MLT governs the area it helps to prevent competition intruding on the RSA’s bar.

One of those behind the success of the RSA in Gore has been Fred Cooper. His efforts for the RSA in general, and in Gore and Mataura in particular, led to life membership awards fof both the Gore and Mataura branches, and two Gold Star badges for services to the national RSA (the first on March 3, 1981 and the second on May 10, 1997).

He was Otago/Southland RSA district president for two years, and the RSA representative on the Southland Pensions Board for 12 years. He has been associated with all RSA working bees since 1957. Several years ago he was honoured with the Queen’s Service Medal for his services to his community.

He sees the RSA as primarily a welfare organisation; looking after the interests of returned personnel and their widows is very important. He has been an active visitor to sick and distressed ex-service personnel and their widows for more than 47 years and continues to do so.

He was responsible for the purchase of the Gore RSA’s very central site, for designing and building the premises, and then for the design and construction of alterations and extensions, and the purchase of adjoining land.

Carol Messenger, of Wittington Investments (left) and Sarah Kippenberger at the handover of Sandy Thomas’s medal group to the National Army Museum.

Army museum acquires Thomas medals The medal group of Sandy Thomas – one of New Zealand’s higher-profile surviving World War 2 soldiers – has been donated to the National Army Museum in Waiouru.

MajGen Walter Babington ‘Sandy’ Thomas CB, DSO, MC and bar, ED, Silver Star (USA) received several gallantry awards, including a Military Cross and a Distinguished Service Order.

The medals have been donated by Mary Weston, daughter of MajGen Sir Howard Kippenberger KBE, CB, DSO, ED. They will be refurbished and put on public display in the museum’s medal repository this year.

Museum curator Windsor Jones says the Thomas medals “will sit nicely” alongside the likes of the Kippenberger, Weir and Reginald Miles medals.

Sandy Thomas was severely wounded during the Battle of Crete and taken prisoner by the

Germans. Lucky not to lose his leg, he spent many months recuperating in a prisoner-of-war hospital in Greece. He made several unsuccessful attempts at escape – from cutting the wires, feigning death, hiding in a ration wagon, even just striding purposefully past the guards. But he was determined to escape and managed to convince doctors to pass him as “fit”.

He was sent to Thessaloniki, the transit POW camp in northern Greece where he managed to escape and evade capture for more than a year.

He made his way to neutral Turkey and then to Syria, reaching the Allies and going on to command the 23rd New Zealand Infantry Battalion, fighting in North Africa and Italy.

At the end of the war he transferred to the British Regular Army and rose through the ranks, finishing his career as Britain’s final commander of Far East Land Forces in Singapore in the 1970s.

Cake replicates monument Marlene White made this cake (left) for the 100-year anniversary of Anzac Day. A family friend, John Kyle, who organised an anniversary gathering in Washdyke, approached her about making a replica cake of the Washdyke monument that celebrates the lives of the seven men from the area who fought in Gallipoli.

RSA Life 37

RSA REVIEW • AUTUMN 2016

FRANCE HONOURS KIWI D-DAY VETERAN His involvement in the largest amphibious assault in history has earned David Evans France’s highest decoration, the Knight of National Order of the Legion of Honour.

He describes the military invasion of Germanoccupied France on the coast of Normandy during World War 2 as a “marvellous, well-organised exercise”.

He was a sub lieutenant on a landing craft tank in the first wave that landed at Juno Beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944.

“To me it was just a job to do and you did it.

You’d had the training to do it and it was no problem. I’m not a death and glory person, I’m fairly low profile.”

He was presented with the medal by France’s ambassador of France to New Zealand, Florence Jeanblanc-Risler, in a special ceremony, surrounded by family and friends, aboard the French naval frigate, the Prairial, which was in Nelson.

Born in Reefton in 1920, he enlisted in the New Zealand Army artillery corps at the age of 19, then transferred the following year to the Royal New Zealand Navy as an ordinary seaman.

He trained as an officer at the Royal Naval base in Portsmouth and at a shore base in Bristol in

David Evans has been awarded the Legion of Honour, France’s highest decoration.

1942. TheNormandy landings were “organised chaos”, he says, but everything went fairly well.

The flotilla had been training with amphibious tanks in the lead-up.

“We were behind the first landing because

we’d had to go back to Southampton and reload.

At the last minute our craft had to go unload our tanks and load up again with ammunition and aircraft fuel, so that was quite a happy load to take in.

“That was our last operation as a flotilla. After that each craft acted independently, so you just reported for duty every time and they informed you what was required.”

Following D-Day, David Evans continued to work aboard a landing craft delivering supplies between Southampton and Normandy, an 18-hour return trip, until the war ended in September 1945.

He recalled one of the early trips to Normandy after the first touchdown where the landing craft he was aboard was used as a torpedo screen around a battleship.

“They were anchored offshore carrying a heavy bombardment, so there was hardly a piece of crockery or glassware on the craft that wasn’t damaged because all around there were 16-inch guns firing.”

It was another four months before he could return to New Zealand; he worked in a care and maintenance job in Dartmouth during this time.

Just 20 other New Zealanders have been awarded the Legion of Honour.

Founded by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802, it rewards both military and civilian distinguished services rendered to the nation.

Marlborough stalwarts honoured with life membership awards Three Marlborough RSA members have been honoured with life membership – a reward for After years of hard work and thousands of volunteer hours. Ernie Thomson, Ken Shalders and Peter Slape were presented with their certificates in a special in the RSA lounge at the Clubs of Marlborough.

Ernie Thomson has been a member of the RSA since 1983, and has dedicated a great deal

of time to visiting veterans, widows, widowers and ex-service people in their homes. He says he is “just doing what others would do”.

Ken Shalders joined soon after Ernie in 1985, and has been the RSA representative for cemeteries and monuments. He says he was “gobsmacked” to receive the award.

Peter Slapes, a member of the RSA since 1998, has dedicated a lot of time to visiting people in

need in their homes or in hospital. He says he is grateful for the support he has received through the RSA.RSA vice president Rod Shoemark says the three have “showed their commitment year after year”.

“A life membership is generated only for someone who has gone above and beyond, which they definitely have. They have done a marvellous job.”

RSA members Ernie Thomson, Ken Shalders and Peter Slape with their life membership awards.

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RSA REVIEW • AUTUMN 2016

What’s On REGULARS AUCKLAND BRANCH, CMT/NS ASSOCIATION INC

Meets monthly on third Tuesday, 1100 hours, New Lynn RSA. New members welcome for friendship and camaraderie, fun and laughter, perhaps a light lunch. Guest speakers, outings, bus trips. Anzac Day parades; unit parades as at Auckland Naval Base HMNZS Philomel, for Armistice Day memorial service to pay tribute and lay a wreath. Contact: Mark Sinclair, president – 09 534 8138; Malcolm Baird, vice-president 09 2676557; Brian Caltaux, secretary– 09 4209794.

CMT/NS ASSOCIATION CHRISTCHURCH INC

Anyone who did Compulsory Military Training or National Service welcome. Meets monthly, Papanui RSA. Variety of activities, Contact: Alison Smith, secretary – 21 Kearneys Rd, Christchurch 8062; 03 9817623, legles@paradise.net.nz.

ITALY STAR ASSOCIATION (CHRISTCHURCH BRANCH)

Meetings – 30 Apr, 11 Jun, 27 Aug, 22 Oct, 26 Nov (Christmas luncheon), 2pm, Papanui RSA, 55 Bellvue Ave, Christchurch. Contact: Peter Scott – 27 Kenwyn Ave, St Albans, Christchurch 8052; 03 3556732; peter.judy@actrix.co.nz.

SOUTHLAND CMT GROUP

Ex-CMT and National Servicemen welcome.

Meets monthly, third Thursday. Gore RSA or nominated venue. Usually lunch, on-site visit, or speaker. Contact: John Turner – 03 2016084, ardlussa@farmside.co.nz.

REUNIONS/EVENTS/MEETINGS MARCH KAITAIA WAR MEMORIAL REDEDICATION

24 Mar, Kaitaia Cenotaph. All returned service men and women invited to rededication on 100th anniversary of original dedication. Enquiries: Red Beatson – 09 4453526 (home) 09 9505642 (bus); Arthur Simeon 09 4080031; David Russell 09 4080490; Richie Taafe 09 4067198.

APRIL NEW ZEALAND SCOTTISH REGIMENT LAYING-UP OF COLOURS

16-17 Apr. Saturday: Early Saturday afternoon, Toitu Early Settlers Museum, Queens Gardens, Dunedin. Parade of a full guard and escort to the colours at a ceremony, followed by afternoon tea in the Early Settlers Museum, and an evening function. Sunday: General meeting and sick parade/ morning tea. All ex-members invited.

Prices/information: Gordon Arnold – goma@ clear.net.co; Steve Buxton - stevebuxton @ clear.net.nz .

LOCH CLASS FRIGATES ASSOCIATION UK

22-25 Apr, Duke of Cornwall Hotel, Plymouth, Devon, United Kingdom. Annual reunion in

recognition of 75th anniversary of the Royal New Zealand Navy. All New Zealand Loch class sailors invited. UK contact: Andrew Nunn, honorary secretary – andrew.nunn@blueyonder. co.uk; NZ contact: Mick Richards – 09 4397870; awakinopoint@xtra.co.nz.

Or you can become a member and register via the website (www.hmnzotago.org) or send stamped addressed envelope to Terry Whimp, 24 Cranston St, Northcross, Auckland 0632.

Numbers are limited, so register as soon as possible. A top run guaranteed.

9.20am, 16 Oct, St David’s Church, 70 Khyber Pass Rd, Auckland. Sappers’ Day church parade.

Jacket and medals. Noon, 16 Oct, Annual general meeting, Pt Chevalier RSA, 1136 Great North Rd, Auckland, followed by luncheon 12.30pm.

Details: www.sappers.org.nz. Contact: Vail ‘Hub’ Hubner – 027 4978651.

23 ACS/5 CET ROYAL NEW ZEALAND AIR FORCE ALL SHIPS REUNION – 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF 50TH ANNIVERSARY COMMISSIONING OF HMNZS BLACKPOOL F77 RSA NATIONAL GOLF 23-25 Apr (Anzac weekend), Blenheim. Reunion of & 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF COMMISSIONING 22-24 Oct (Labour weekend). Tauranga.

23 Intake Airmen Cadet School/5 CET. Information OF HMNZS ROYALIST and registrations: 23intakeacs@gmail.com.

15-18 Jul, New Plymouth. Details to be finalised. RSA NATIONAL SNOOKER SINGLES ANZAC TOUR

23-30 Apr. Seven-day tour to Australia – three days (including Anzac Day at Currumbin RSL) at Currumbin, Coolangatta; four nights at Broadbeach, Surfers Paradise. Information/ expressions of interest: Maurice Mitchell – P O Box 9352, Newmarket, Auckland 1149; 09 5202506; alarm1@xtra.co.nz.

MAY

RSA NATIONAL DARTS

TERRITORIAL FORCE VOLUNTEERS 1ST-60TH INTAKE WHO WERE IN ROYAL NZ ENGINEERS

DECEMBER

Sappers’ Assocation invites you to Decade 1975-1984 ‘do’, 5pm, 23 Jul, Taupo RSA. Details: www.sappers.org.nz. Contact: Vail ‘Hub’ Hubner – 027 4978651.

TERRITORIAL FORCE VOLUNTEERS 95TH– 150TH SAPPERS’ ASSOCIATION INTAKE WHO WERE IN ROYAL NZ ENGINEERS Decade 1975-1984 ‘do’, 5pm, 23 Jul, Taupo RSA. Sappers’ Association invites you to Decade 1995-2004 ‘do’, 5pm, 28 May, Taupo RSA. Details: www.sappers.org.nz. Contact: Vail ‘Hub’ Hubner – 027 4978651.

SAPPERS’ ASSOCIATION

Decade 1995-2004 ‘do’, 5pm, 28 May, Taupo RSA. For all army engineers who joined up between 1995 and 2004. Sappers from outside this era also welcome. Details: www.sappers.org.nz.

Contact: Vail ‘Hub’ Hubner – 027 4978651.

22-24 Oct (Labour weekend), Otaki.

Apply for application forms; will be sent when programme completed. Trevor Wylde – 146a Ngamotu Rd, Spotswood, New Plymouth 4310; 06 7515595 (phone/fax); 027 4844587; trevor. cherryl@xtra.co.nz.

For all army engineers who joined up between 1975 and 1984. Sappers from outside this era also welcome. Details: www.sappers.org.nz. Contact: Vail ‘Hub’ Hubner – 027 4978651.

AUGUST

22-24 Oct (Labour weekend). Venue to be confirmed.

SAPPERS’ ASSOCIATION

Decade 1955-1964 ‘do’, 5pm, 7 Dec, Taupo RSA. For all army engineers who joined up between 1955 and 1964. Sappers from outside this era also welcome. Details: www.sappers.org.nz. Contact: Vail ‘Hub’ Hubner – 027 4978651.

NATIONAL SERVICE 1st–12th INTAKE WHO WERE IN ROYAL NZ ENGINEERS

Sappers’ Association invites you to Decade 1955-64 ‘do’, 5pm, 7 Dec, Taupo RSA. Details: www.sappers.org.nz. Contact: Vail ‘Hub’ Hubner – 027 4978651.

ASSOCIATION CONTACTS

RSA NATIONAL POOL PAIRS

Date and venue to be confirmed.

BATTLE OF LONG TAN (VIETNAM) 50th BRITISH AIRBORNE FORCES (NZ) INC Are (or were) you para-trained and like to meet ANNIVERSARY MEMORIAL ANZAC TOUR

JUNE RSA NATIONAL SNOOKER PAIRS

4-6 Jun (Queen’s Birthday weekend). Mt Maunganui.

RSA VICTORY CLUB DARTS

12-24 Aug. Twelve-day tour to honour the fallen and those involved in the Battle of Long Tan (18 August, 1966). Tour via Singapore: $4580 per person. Information: Ray Farrell (Vietnam veteran 1969-70) – 021 02666294; farrellr28@ yahoo.com.

4-6 Jun (Queen’s Birthday weekend). Napier.

RNZRSA NATIONAL WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING/CONFERENCE

SEPTEMBER

NZ BAND ASSOCIATION

16 Sep, Hall of Memories, Pukeahu National Park, Wellington. Two-day programme. Information: Bill.wullie@gmail.com.

13-14 Jun, Swanson RSA. Contact: Deidre Rich – 09 8343998; richfamily@xtra.co.nz.

18 Jun, Wigram Base Function Centre, 14 Henry Wigram Drive, Christchurch. Get-together and blows from 1pm, informal buffet dinner. All ex-members of the NZ Army Band and 1 RNZIR/ NZ Regt bands welcome. Contact: Wayne Shears – 03 9428636; wayneshears@outlook.co.nz.

RSA NATIONAL INDOOR BOWLS 25-26 Jun. Levin.

JULY HMNZS OTAGO ASSOCIATION 2016 REUNION

15-17 Jul, New Plymouth, in conjunction with the RNZN All Ships reunion. Otago Association members, see January 2016 Claymore newsletter.

NATIONAL COMMEMORATION OF POST-WAR MALAYA/MALAYSIA OPERATIONS (MALAYAN VETERANS’ DAY)

OCTOBER

other ex-(or current) paras? Regular meetings of Northern (Auckland to Taupo), Central (Taupo to Wellington) and Southern (South Island). Full membership – all ranks of Parachute Regiment, SAS, support arms (engineers, signals, medics, artillery etc) and those with special service to British Airborne Forces; associate membership to immediate family; afflilate membership to airborne units of other countries. Contact: Frank Clark, president – 04 2336123. Roy Tilley, secretary – 04 5660850, rmt@xtra.co.nz. Website, www.britishairbornenz.tripod.com.

CMT ASSOCIATION SOUTH CANTERBURY BRANCH Ex-CMT and National Servicemen welcome.

Contact: Bruce Townshend – 14 Ewen Rd, Temuka 7920; 03 6156637; Temuka-RSA@xtra.co.nz.

CMT/NATIONAL SERVICE ASSOCIATION WORLD WAR 2 BOMBER COMMAND UNVEILING CHRISTCHURCH Ex-CMT and National Servicemen welcome.

OF LINCOLNSHIRE, UK MEMORIAL SPIRE 2 Oct. Spire carries the names of the 55,573 killed in World War 2 and is taller than The Angel of the North. Contact: events@internationalbcc.co.uk; IBCC, 13 Cherry Holt Rd, Bourne, Lincolnshire, PE10 9LA, UK; Google’ Les Hewett, voce-president, Hastings branch, RNZAF Association, Napier.

SAPPERS’ ASSOCIATIONN NORTHERN BRANCH

Contact RSA National Office to subscribe to the RSA Review and get your copy delivered straight to your door.

Contact: RSA Review, PO Box 27248, Marion Square, Wellington 6141 Email: rsareview@rsa.org.nz Phone: 04 384 7994

Contact: Colin Rae – 28 Cranbrook Ave, Christchurch 8053; 03 3583099; colandglen@ hotmail.co.nz.

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RSA Life

RSA REVIEW • AUTUMN 2016

39

Veterans gather as flag lowers for last time at Te Puke

Alan Sayers (centre) is flanked by is Frank Townley, president of the KEV Silverdale branch (right) and immediate past president Jim Murray (left).

Dave Ransfield (left), Doug Brown (centre) and Peter Reekie watch as the New Zealand flag is lowered for the final time at the Te Puke RSA. About 60 former service personnel joined veterans, their families and friends in a special flag-lowering ceremony as the RSA prepared to merge with the Citizens Club and relocate down the road as the Citizens RSA Te Puke Club, Te Puke RSA president Colin Peake says merger talks have been on and off for about 10 years: “But we are not closing, just relocating. We’ll still be going for a few years yet.”

The veterans were seated outside the club for the last hurrah, while Rex Harris, a former regimental sergeant major from Papamoa, loudly coerced former service staff to form ranks and that “the orders will come from the rear”. As one wit noted: “You must have been a general.”

The turnout, one of the largest outside the

clubrooms for years, reminded Te Puke resident Mike Lally of the early days when crowds gathered to vote for the queens during fundraising for the War Memorial Hall. He wondered there were as many as on the day the RSA opened in 1977 .

Representatives from the Opotiki, Whakatane and Tauranga RSAs were among the guests.

Bugler Brian Geoghan, from Tauranga, played The Last Post as the flag was lowered by Te Puke’s Vic Mottram (warrant officer, retired).

Anzac Day-related ceremonies in France and Belgium, and the Battle of the Somme centenary on September 15 will form the heart of New Zealand’s international World War 1 commemorations this year.

New Zealand services for Anzac Day in France and Belgium will include the participation of a New Zealand Defence Force contingent.

Ceremonies are scheduled for Longueval and Le Quesnoy in France, and in Belgium.

Three services are planned at Longueval on September 15 to commemorate New Zealand’s involvement in the Battle of the Somme – a dawn service, a national service, and a ceremony of beating retreat.

About one in seven of the 15,000-strong New Zealand Division who fought on the Somme was killed, and about four in 10 were wounded.

Most of the those killed have no known graves and are commemorated at the New Zealand Memorial to the Missing in Caterpillar Valley Cemetery. New Zealand’s Unknown Warrior was originally buried in Caterpillar Valley Cemetery before exhumation and interment at National War Memorial in Wellington in 2004.

Information on World War 1 commemorations on the Western Front: WW100 website, WW100.

govt.nz/international-commemorations.

Anzac Day-related services France (commemorations traditionally held on the weekend closest to Anzac Day) • April 23: 3pm (1am, Apr 24NZ) – New Zealand National Service, Caterpillar Valley Cemetery, Longueval.

• 24 April: 6am (4pm Apr 24NZ) – New Zealand Anzac Dawn Service, Le Quesnoy. New Zealand also participates in the French service later that morning, which includes a march with the Le Quesnoy community to the New Zealand Memorial embedded in the walls of the town).

• April 28: 6pm (4am, Apr 29NZ) – New Zealand contingent participates in Rekindling of the Eternal Flame ceremony, Arc de Triomphe, Paris.

Belgium • April 25: 6am (4pm Apr 25NZ) – Anzac Day Dawn Service (joint Australia, Belgium, New Zealand service), Buttes New British Cemetery, Zonnebeke.

11.15am (9.15pm Apr 25NZ) – Anzac Last Post ceremony, Menin Gate, Ieper.

2pm (midnight, Apr 26-27NZ) – New Zealand Anzac Day Service, New Zealand Memorial Park, Nieuwzeelandersstraat, Mesen.

8pm (26 April 6.00am NZ) – Last Post ceremony,

Menin Gate, Ieper.

Turkey • 25 April: Dawn service, Anzac Cove, Gallipoli.

New Zealand service, Chunuk Bair, Gallipoli.

United Kingdom • 25 April: 5am (4pm, Apr 25NZ) – dawn service, Wellington Arch, Hyde Park Corner, London.

11am (10pm, Apr 25NZ) - wreath-laying ceremony and parade, The Cenotaph, Whitehall, London.

Noon (11pm, Apr 25NZ)–Service of Commemoration and Thanksgiving, Westminster Abbey, London.

Battle of the Somme centenary commemorations France • September 12: Noon (9pm Sep 12NZ) – Thiepval 141 France/British memorial service, Thiepval. New Zealand Defence Force provides vigil guard.

• September 15: New Zealand observance of 100th anniversary of Battle of the Somme, Longueval.

Dawn service, New Zealand Battlefield Memorial.

National service, Caterpillar Valley Cemetery.

Evening ceremony of beating retreat, New Zealand Battlefield Memorial.

Hunter – 027 343 2017, ikehunter@xtra.co.nz; Stew Couchman – 06 3258593, BLongami@xtra. co.nz; Doug Walker – 027 4950473, walkd@tpk. govt.nz. Annual subscription of $25 includes membership of both the MTA and RNZAC.

Wellington 6037; 04 4783238; 04 4783602 (fax); callanderd@clear.net.nz.

secretary NZDF CSC – Trentham Military Camp, Private Bag 905, Upper Hutt 5140; 04 5271008; 04 5271009 (fax); csc.alumni@nzdf.mil.nz.

Centenarian a noted Battle of the Somme centenary part of Anzac Day ceremonies journalist, sportsman Alan and June Sayers celebrated his 100th birthday at the Silverdale Kings Empire Veterans meeting in December; they have been married for 63 years. The cake, in KEV colours and displaying its insignia, was provided by Janet Fitzgerald, a support member and community councillor.

Alan Sayers had an extensive career as a journalist, starting pre-World War 2 with the New Zealand Herald as a sports writer, and then with the Auckland Star before becoming a freelance reporter. As an athlete, he won a bronze medal at the 1938 Empire Games in Sydney. He played representative rugby for Waikato, then switched to rugby league and scored seven tries in a senior game at Carlaw Park – a record still unbeaten.

He enlisted in the World War 2 artillery in 1942, but within days was whisked off by the Navy and sworn in as a lieutenant into Naval Intelligence.

In 2001 he was awarded the MNZM for services to sport and journalism. He wrote the biography of his very close friend, the late Sir Fred Allen and produced his own memoirs in 2014 in a work entitled Deadline. He continues to be involved in community activity in Whangaparaoa.

WHAT’S ON 2120, 09 2392698, edaustin38@gmail.com.

HOROWHENUA ARTILLERY ASSOCIATION – LEVIN

Gunners, ex-gunners, associated corps. Meets May and Sep to celebrate Gunners’ Day and El Alamein Day, lunch, Levin RSA. Contact: Adam Gibson – 34 Gordon Place, Levin; 06 3684187.

ITALY STAR ASSOCIATION (CHRISTCHURCH BRANCH)

New members, veterans, family members, historians. Contact: Peter Scott, chairman – 27 Kenwyn Ave, St Albans, Christchurch 8052; 03 3556732; peter.judy@actrix.co.nz.

NEW ZEALAND ARMY BAND ASSOCIATION

For ex-members of NZ Army Band nd 1 RNZIR/ NZ Regt bands. To promote and forward interests and welfare of members, and foster relationship between the association and the NZ Army Band.

Committee meets quarterly at the Papanui RSA, Christchurch; all members welcome. Contact: Wayne Shears – 03 9428636; wayneshears@ outlook.co.nz.

NEW ZEALAND MALAYAN VETERANS ASSOCIATION INC ROYAL NEW ZEALAND NAVAL ASSOCIATION, Welcomes new members who served with CANTERBURY BRANCH Commonwealth forces or police in Malaya/ Malaysia/Borneo or Singapore. Contact: Paul Anderson – PO Box 8112, Cherrywood, Tauranga 3145; 07 5767757; 027 2079623.

OX & BUCKS LI, KINGS ROYAL RIFLE CORPS, RIFLE BRIGADE AND ROYAL GREEN JACKETS All past members of RGJ and former regiments invited. Contact: Frank Jones – 09 4766974.

J FORCE ASSOCIATION, WESTERN BAY OF PLENTY BRANCH NEW ZEALAND BATTLE OF CRETE ASSOCIATION RAF CHANGI ASSOCIATION Meets third Wednesday of month at Mt Maunganui RSA. Welcomes visitors. Membership: 19 veterans, 22 wives and widows. Activities: Christmas dinner, quarterly 8 ball competition, short trips.

Contact: President, Ron Browne – 07 5758916; ronaldbrowne@xtra.co.nz.

MOUNTED TROOPERS’ ASSOCIATION (MTA)

North Island branch of the Royal NZ Armoured Corps Association (RNZAC). If you are serving or have served, in an armoured unit in any way, you are eligible to join. Family members of deceased personnel welcome. The aim is to bring comrades together through national reunions, member’s birthdays, funerals, unveilings and regimental occasions to which the association is invited, and to provide collegial support to members. The MTA is managed by a six-person trust board: Stew Couchman (chair), Doug Walker (secretary), Zac Hunter (treasurer), Morris Meha and Jim Taylor.

Membership enquires, application form: Zac

All who served in RNZN or Commonwealth navies, and their partners, welcome. Monthly meetings, regular social get-togethers, ship visits, four newsletters a year. Contact: Miles McIlraith (ex-RNZN), treasurer – 4987 State Highway 75, R.D., Little River 7591; 03 3251937; 03 3251936 (fax).

SOUTH AFRICAN MILITARY VETERANS OF AUSTRALASIA (SAMVOA)

NEW ZEALAND BRANCH, ROYAL MARINES ASSOCIATION REGULAR FORCE CADET ASSOCIATION (INC)

All who served in uniform in South Africa and now live in New Zealand are invited to join. Also in Australia. Aims to preserve memories, and commemorate those who were injured or fell in action. Attends Remembrance Day and Anzac Day parades; regular meetings. Information: Chris Pattison – 021 2316612; ytrose@vodafone.co.nz.

RNZAF COMMAND AND STAFF COLLEGE NEW ZEALAND KOREA VETERANS’ ASSOCIATION GRADUATES INC New Zealand Defence Force Command and

Seeks members to rekindle their activity with the association. Regular meetings at Papanui RSA, Christchurch. Send rank, name, address, phone number and e-mail address to: Frank Newsome – Unit 19, 53 Condell Ave, Papanui, Christchurch 8053; 03 3525471; frankandaudrey@ clear.net.nz.

Contact: Deirdre Nottle – c/- Mount Maunganui RSA, P.O.Box 4011, Mount Maunganui South 3116; 07 5482018; dee.hauschild@gmail.com.

Includes HQ Far East Air Force, seeks New Zealand members ex RAF or RNZAF, who served at RAF Changi 1946-71. Contact: B W Lloyd – 32 Redwood, Burnham, Bucks, SL1 8JN, UK.

Meets two-monthly, 2pm, Pt Chevalier RSA, Auckland. Full membership to serving or former RM, RMR and RN, HM Forces RM units, family members, Royal Marines Cadets. Contact: Peter Collins – peter-collins@xtra.co.nz; www.royalmarinesassociation.org/nz/rma_nz_home.html.

Provides contact between ex-cadets and enables them to re-establish contacts. Membership: $10 a year (1 Jul-30 Jun. Contact: Secretary – RF Cadet Association, P.O.Box 715, Paraparaumu 5032; www.rfcadet,org.nz.

Veteran membership available to NZDF members who have completed a posting in the United Nations Military Commission since 1 Jan 1958 and have been awarded appropriate medallic recognition. Membership details: Douglas Callander, secretary – 23 Longcroft Tce, Newlands,

Staff College has formed an alumni association.

Records of previous associations’ members misplaced during move from Whenuapai to Trentham in 2004. If you wish to join, would like information, or wish to re-connect with former colleagues and course members, contact: Alumni

THE REGIMENTAL ASSOCIATION

TS VINDICATRIX ASSOCIATION

Ex-Vindicatrix boys – those who served on training ship TS Vindicatrix are invited to join Lower North Island branch. Write: Arthur Woolard – 21 Pohutukawa Drive, R.D.1, Levin 5571.

40

RSA REVIEW • AUTUMN 2016

Local RSAs NORTHLAND Ph 09 407 8585 37 Cobham Road

KAITAIA FAR NORTH (Kaitaia) RSA CLUB

Matthews Avenue, Kaitaia When visiting the Far North you are welcomed to visit our Clubrooms where comfort and friendship is assured.

KERIKERI

AVONDALE RSA

RSA (Inc) Visitors and Guests Most Welcome

Overlooking the Racecourse

Come & visit your mates. A friendly Welcome Assured

MEALS Lunch: Mon to Fri Dinner: Everynight Entertainment: Thursday, Friday and Sunday Evenings

Restaurant Wed-Sun 5.30 - 8.30pm

Bar Open Seven Days From 3.30pm

If you are in town give us a call. Ph: 09 828 5000

AUCKLAND Ph 09 846 8673 1136 Great North Rd

Billiards - Snooker - Pool - Bowls - Darts

Pleasant lounge and excellent bar facilities

Hours 11am-10pm, Mon to Sat. Noon-6pm Sun Family Restaurant - Meals Wed Thurs Friday and by arrangement.

Courtesy Coach Available Please phone (09) 408 0423

WHANGAREI THE HUB OF THE CITY

Warmly welcomes visitors to our Clubrooms at 7 Rust Ave Bar Service 7 days Snooker, Pool, Darts, Gaming Courtesy Coach Bistro Wed to Fri 12-2 & 5-8p.m.

Saturday 6-8p.m.

PH 09 438 3792 admin@whangareirsa.co.nz

www.whangareirsa.co.nz

WARKWORTH & DISTRICTS RSA Inc 28 Neville St Warkworth Ph 09 425 8568 Opening Hours 11am Mon - Sat 3pm Sun Gunners' Restaurant

Lunch 12 - 1.30pm Wed- Fri Dinner 5 - 8.30pm Thurs-Sat Full Bar Facilities 18 Pokies * Mystery J/P * Sky Tv * Pool * Snooker * Darts * Bowls

Live Entertainment & Dancing every Friday evening.

Call in on your way north & view our memorabilia tables - A warm welcome awaits you

RUSSELL RSA 1 Chapel St Russell 0202 Ph: 09 403 7773 Fax: 09 403 7885Email: russellrsa@xtra.co.nz www.russellrsa.org.nz OPEN EVERY DAY EXCEPT TUESDAY FROM 11:30AM TILL CLOSE Diggers Restaurant open 6 days Lunch & Dinner Bar snacks available Pool, Darts, Gaming Machines Huge outdoor courtyard

Come and enjoy our clubrooms while holidaying in historical Russell We will make you welcome

Kaikohe & District Memorial RSA (Inc) We are open everyday from 11am Meals Daily from 11am till 9pm Great quality food at affordable prices All visitors are most welcome to enjoy our club facilities • • • • • •

Sky TV TAB Pod Gaming Machines Pool Tables Courtesy Van Available Facilities available for function hire

114 Hobsonville Road • Ph: 09 416 7227 Restaurant Ph: 09 416 9239 • E: hobbyrsa@xtra.co.nz

RSA

Open Tues - Thurs from 2pm. Fri - Sun from Midday.

• Restaurant open Fri - Sun lunch, Wed - Sun Dinner.

Excellent meals at reasonable prices.

• Live entertainment last Friday of each month.

• Quiz Nights 7pm 3rd Thursday of every month.

Car Boot Sale last Sunday of every month 8am, sellers $8 • Excellent Bar staff & service • Large car park. Easy bus turnnig • Coach Tours welcome - advance booking essential • Facilities available for function hire • Other facilities include darts, pool, indoor bowls & fishing club

THE SMALL RSA WITH THE BIG HEART

Visitors always welcome

Friday night raffles, Entertainment Wed, Fri, Sat, Sun

HOWICK RSA

Phone: 09 534 9702 • 25 Wellington St Howick

When visiting Auckland’s Eastern Suburbs call into our pleasant clubrooms and enjoy our hospitality

IN THE  OF HOWICK Fridays & Saturdays from 7 pm DINE & DANCE LIVE MUSIC www.howickrsa.co.nz

The Orpheus Restaurant Open Thurs - Sat lunch 12 - 2 pm, dinner 5.30 - 8pm Bus Trip Lunches phone Rona Major Games on Big Screen or Weekend Entertainment

BIRKENHEAD RSA Recreation Dr, Birkenhead, North Shore Ph: 09 418 2424 Fax: 09 418 3054 Email: secman@birkenheadrsa.com www.birkenheadrsa.com

Snooker - Pool - Darts - Warriors Supporters Section

We have excellent facilities for reunions and other functions NEW RETURNED AND SERVICE MEMBERS WELCOME. Inquiries to Sec/Manager 09 636 6644 PO Box 13016, Onehunga

We welcome all RSA members & their guests to enjoy the friendly atmosphere & excellent facilities at our clubrooms

CLUBROOMS OPEN SAT - MON 11AM TUES - FRI 9 AM BAR OPEN 7 DAYS FROM 11AM DON STOTT MEMORIAL RESTAURANT PROVIDES EXCELLENT ECCONOMICAL A LA CARTE MEALS WED-FRIDAY 12 -2PM WED-SUNDAY FROM 5.30PM. GROUPS BY ARRANGEMENT

LIVE ENTERTAINMENT WED: 1.30-4PM. FRI & SAT: FROM 7.00PM

POOL * DARTS * I/D BOWLS * TAB LARGE SCREEN SKY * GAMING MACHINES TEA/COFFEE & LIGHT MEALS ANYTIME

Ph: 09 528 6245 & 09 521 2710

ORAKEI RSA

(Members)

Hours: Mon : 12-7.30pm. Tues:11am-8pm

Wed: 11-9pm. Thurs & Fri: 11-11pm. Sat: 11-9pm. Sun: 2-7pm.

Bistro Lunch Tues-Fri 12-2pm. Evening Thurs-Fri 6-8pm Function room bookings for catering.

Sports sections, gaming machines ,Sky TV, big screen TV Handy to city centre, Ellerslie Race Course, Kelly Tarlton Underwater World, Eastern suburbs, Mission Bay, St Helliers, Remuera etc.

ALL NEW MEMBERS WELCOME

Mt Wellington Panmure RSA 163 Queens Rd, Panmure

Ph: 09 570 5913 Fax: 09 570 5903 Email secrsa@vodafone.co.nz Bar Menu Seven Days. Bus loads by arrangement.

Live Entertainment every 2nd Friday

Darts - Pool - Snooker - Gaming Machines - Courtesy coach available for local pick-ups / drop-offs When in Auckland Visit our Friendly Club.

NEW LYNN

Memorial RSA (Inc)

2 Veronica St Ph: 09 827 3411 Where a friendly welcome is assured. A must stopover when visiting Auckland BAR & TAB FACILITIES Open 7days Gaming Facilities FREYBERG RESTAURANT Lunches: Tues-Sun 12-2pm, Dinner: Wed-Sat 5.30pm open

Band Friday Nights Handy to rail & bus. Shop in New Lynn & relax in our spacious clubrooms

The Best in the West

SWANSON MEMORIAL RSA 11am - 11.30pm Sun 1pm - 9pm

158 Broadway, Kaikohe Ph 09 401 2368 kaikohersa@xtra.co.nz “Look us up on Facebook”

Restaurant, Family Karaoke Sundays from 1pm Functions venue available email admin@ptchevrsa.co.nz

A warm welcome is assured to all members and visitors.

Special welcome to local and out of town visitors.

HOURS Mon toThurs 11am - 11pm. Fri & Sat

“Friendliest Club in The North”

Affiliated Members and Guests Most Welcome

HOBSONVILLE

MEALS Our spacious Restaurant allows us to cater for up to 200 people at any one time Lunch open from Wednesday - Sunday 12 - 2pm Dinners Wednesday - Saturday 5 - 8.30pm Sunday Buffet 5 - 7.30pm We have large outdoor garden area, Big Screen for major games, Sky T.V., pool, bowls, darts, cards, fishing, golf, quiz.

663 SWANSON RD - PH 833 9013 A WARM INVITATION IS EXTENDED TO RSA MEMBERS & GUESTS TO THE FRIENDLIEST RSA IN THE WEST

WAIHEKE RSA

RSA

66-70 Railside Ave Ph (09) 838 9012 www.hsnrsa.co.nz

Service with a smile, and bar prices better than most.

18 gaming machines, self service TAB, Housie every Thursday, live entertainment Friday and Saturday evenings, 4 snooker tables, 3 pool tables and 8 competition dart boards. 5 big screen TV’s.

Whatever you’re interested in we’ve got it covered, visit us today!

EAST COAST BAYS RSA (Inc)

15 Bute Road Browns Bay Ph: 09 478 8033 North of the Harbour Bridge ecbrsa@xtra.co.nz

INC

29 Belgium Street, Ostend

Clubrooms and Bar Open 7 Days Restaurant Open 6 Days, closed Monday Take advantage of the free transport to our doorstep for Super Gold Card holders.

Spoil yourselves with a trip to our wonderful Island and enjoy our hospitality.

Ph: (09) 372 9019 Bar: (09) 372 5554

HENDERSON

Restaurant: (09) 372 6655 E-mail: waiheke.rsa@xtra.co.nz

PAPATOETOE DISTRICT RSA (Inc)

22 Wallace Rd Ph: 09 278 6372 Email: papatoetoersa@xtra.co.nz Bar Hours Mon 11am -7.30pm Tues, Wed: 11am - 10pm Thurs: 11am - 10.30pm Fri: 11am - 10pm Sat: 11am - 11pm Sun: noon - 7pm BISTRO Lunch: Tues -Fri 12-1.00pm Dinner: Tues 6pm - 7.30pm Thurs Fri Sat 6pm - 8.00pm. Ph: 09 278 6374

(Hours may vary without prior notice) Social Nights with live bands: Thurs Family Nights - have entertainment on the second Friday of the month and starting in mid-July on Friday nights and Housie

Snooker Gaming Machines 8 Ball I/D Bowls Darts Sky Tv

Whether you are going to or from the Airport or just passing through pop in & spend a relaxing & friendly time with us.

We Are Your Airport Club

When heading north, staying or visiting the North Shore, stop at East Coast Bays RSA Lunches Tues-Sat 12-2pm.Dinner Wed Carvery 6-8pm Thurs-Sat 6-8.30pm Sun from 5.30pm VISIT OUR CLUBROOMS Open: Mon-Sat from 11am Sun 2-8pm

DANCING FRI & SAT 7.30PM

Coach tours welcome by arrangement Gaming Machine * Darts * Pool * Snooker Housie I/d Bowls * Dinning & Dancing * TAB * Raffles

A WARM WELCOME TO ALL MEMBERS & THEIR GUESTS

WAIKATO / KING COUNTRY / BAY OF PLENTY

TE AROHA MEMORIAL RSA (Inc) Rewi Street

Ph 07 884 8124

Club open from Mon 3pm- Tues - Sat 2pm, Meals Available Thurs, Fri, Sat from 6pm A warm, friendly welcome awaits you

VISITORS CORDIALLY WELCOME

OPOTIKI COUNTY RSA INC When passing through Opotiki call in and enjoy our hospitality.

We are the Gateway to East Cape

Glen Eden RSA

9 Glendale Rd West Auckland Ph: 09 818 4219 Web: www.glenedenrsa.co.nz

Meals Lunch: Tues - Fri. Dinner: Thurs - Sun. Entertainment: Fri & Sat.

We are better than the rest. We are the friendliest in the West

Club Hours: Mon-Sat 1pm till late Sun 2pm till late Meals + Bar Snacks 7 days Membership draw nights Wed, Fri, Sat. Snooker - Pool - Indoor Bowls - Darts St John Street, OPOTIKI. Phone (07) 315 6174

41

RSA REVIEW • AUTUMN 2016

Local RSAs MT MAUNGANUI

RETURNED & SERVICES ASSOCIATION (INC) 544 Maunganui Road, Mount Maunganui

27 Studholme Street Morrinsville Ph: 07 889-7014

Restaurant open 7 days Lunch: Mon/Fri Noon-1.30pm Dinner: Mon/Sat 6.00-8.00pm Sunday: Carvery 5.30pm-7.30pm

Entertainment every Friday & Saturday night, Sundays from 4.00pm Regular Shows.

TAB, 18 Gaming Machines, 3 Eight Ball & 8 Snooker Tables, Sky TV, Big Screens & Data Projector, Courtesy Bus, Friendly Members, Great Staff, Wonderful Food, 12 Beers on tap, Excellent Wines, All This in the best climate in NZ Phone / Fax: 07 575 4477 Web: www.mtrsa.co.nz Email: mtrsa@xtra.co.nz

Hours: Tues - Fri: 3pm - 10pm, Sat 11am - Late, 3rd Sunday each month: 3pm - 8pm

Bar Hours - Open 7 Days - From 11.00am

Family Lounge: Regular entertainment, 10 gaming machines with $1000 jackpot, Sky TV on the big screens, pool & snooker tables, indoor & outdoor bowls, fishing and darts.

Open 7 Days from Breakfast - 7.00am - Lunch - 12.00 noon Dinner - 5.00pm

www.morrinsvillersa.org.nz

NGARUAWAHIA RSA (Inc)

4 Market St, P: 07 824 8905, E: ngaruawahiarsa@gmail.com

Open 7 days, Poppies Restaurant available at RSA Visit us on Facebook

MATAMATA

MEMORIAL R.S.A. (Inc.) Ngaio Street Ph: 07 888 7190 Open from Mon- Sat 3pm, Sun 4pm.

Poppyfields Restaurant:

Open for bus tours & private functions by arrangement

CITIZENS CITIZENS RSA RSA

179 -185 Jellicoe St TE TE PUKE PUKE Ph: 07 573 8555

Open from 11am Seven days a week All RSA members & Visitors are most welcome to our warm & friendly, air conditioned club

TAUPO “The Centre Of it All” * Gaming Machines * Sky Tv * Snooker * 8 Ball * Indoor Bowls

TE AWAMUTU

District Memorial RSA (Inc) 381 ALEXANDER STREET P. 07 8713707 E. tarsa@xtra.co.nz

Club Hours Mon- Wed: 11am -10pm.

Thurs- Sat: 11am - Late. Sun: 2 - 8pm Horomatangi Street Phone: 07 378 7476 Please visit our wesite at: www.tauporsa.co.nz

Taumarunui & District RSA 10 Marae St, Taumarunui

PO Box 24 PH: 07 895 7517 FAX: 07 895 8343 Email: taumrsa@xtra.co.nz

MANAGER: John Callinan MEMBERS: 862 Restaurant open 7 nights from 5:30pm Club open daily from 11:00am Sunday from 1:00pm 18 Gaming Machines, Courtesy Coach Charge back facilities to local motels.

If you are coming to Taumarunui we can arrange local tours, golf club bookings, Motel Bookings.

Entertainment Centre of Taumarunui

Oaktree Restaurant

“When in the Bay stay with us” Motor Inn accommodation available Excellent Rates “Visitors Welcome Anytime”

EAST COAST - HAWKES BAY WAIRARAPA - TARANAKI MANAWATU - WELLINGTON

Turn into the main street at the traffic filter and look for our Rose Garden at the end of the main shopping area.

Bar Hours - Mon-Thurs: 11am- 9pm Fri: 11-11pm Sat: 11-10pm Sun: 1- 8pm

Restaurant Hours

Sun, Mon, Wed, Thurs 5:30 to 7:30pm Fri & Sat 5:30 to 8:30pm Lunch Thursday 12pm noon Groups catered for during week on request

Come and visit our friendly Club the

‘ROSE of the WAIKATO’

HAMILTON Combined Returned Services Club

Rostrevor Street, Po Box 9028 Ph 07 8380131 Fax 07 8340170 Email: hamcrsc@clear.net.nz. Web: www.hamcrsc.co.nz

OPEN 7 DAYS Club Restaurant Lunches Tues-Fri Dinner Tues-Sun from 5.30pm.

FUNCTION BOOKINGS BY ARRANGEMENT

WANGANUI Great Entertainment...

S BER MEM ME W E N CO WEL

Live Bands 18 Gaming Machines TAB Terminal Big Screen TVs' 8 Ball * Darts * Bowls Euchre * Housie Raffles * Members' Jackpots

Gallipoli Restaurant

Lunch Tuesday to Saturday from 11.30am Dinner Monday & Wednesday to Saturday from 5.30pm Tuesday Pension Day Special - Lunches Whiteboard Dinner Specials

Ph: 07 386 8717 PO Box 1 Katopu Place Turangi Email: trgirsa@hotmail.com Bar 7 days from 11am Restaurant Thur - Sat evenings Gaming Machines, Snooker, Pool, Darts, Indoor Bowls, Library, Big Screen Sky TV TURN 3RD RIGHT FROM ROUNDABOUT

OPEN 7 DAYS PER WEEK Restaurant Open:Lunch: Mon- Sat. Dinner:Mon-Sun

Top meals at reasonable prices

• Live entertainment Fri & Sat nights • Parking • Conference room • Taxi chits available for discounted fares

Membership still open. Affiliated members Welcome

Conveniently located to Marine Parade, motels and city centre THERE ARE NO STRANGERS AMONG US, ONLY FRIENDS WE HAVE NOT MET.

Otaki & District Memorial RSA 9 Raukawa Street Ph: 06 36 46221 Open Tues - Sunday Dining room Tues, Thurs, Fri, Sat & Sun roast lunch TAB - Sky - Snooker - Darts Fridays entertainment Affiliated Members and Guests most welcome

SOUTH TARANAKI RSA (Inc) Bar Hours: Mon, Tues 3-7pm Wed 3-9pm, Thurs 3-7pm.

Fri, Sat 3-9pm Clubrooms open some mornings Bistro Meals: Fri. 5-7pm

Princess Street Hawera When in our area you are cordially invited to visit our Clubrooms & enjoy our hospitality. A friendly welcome is assured to all.

Courtesy Bus 027 345 5750

Email: admin@wanganuirsa.co.nz * Website: www.wanganuirsa.co.nz

1 Easton Street, Ph: 06 3637670 Fax: 06 3636838 Email: foxtonrsa@xtra.co.nz www.foxtonrsa.co.nz Friendly & safe environment (children welcomed)

Open:

HASTINGS RSA Avenue Road West Ph: 06 878 8808 Fax: 06 878 7642

OPEN SEVEN DAYS

Mon. & Tues.

Wednesday Thursday Fri. & Sat. Sunday First & last Sun of the month

11am - 7pm 11am - 9pm 11am - 10pm 11am - 12pm 2pm - 7pm 12pm - 7pm

Reasonably priced quality meals available: Lunch – Thurs., Fri., Sat. 12pm to 1.30pm Sun (first and last of the month) Dinner –Thurs., Fri. & Sat. 6pm to 8.00pm SKY TV, big screen, pool, darts, pokies, juke box Campervans welcomed (two sites are powered) Venue available for hire for special events and functions

All The Games You Can Play, TAB & Superscreen TVs/Videos

WHANGAMATA RSA (INC) 324 Port Road, Whangamata Ph/Fax: 07 865 9419 Email: whangamata.rsa@actrix.co.nz Web: www.whangamatarsanz.com

GALLIPOLI RESTAURANT

Ph: 06 876 4739

VISITORS WELCOME

Clubrooms Open: 7 days from 11 am Restaurant Open: 6 days from 11 am Closed Mondays Group Bookings, Bus Tours, etc. by arrangement

Entertainment Big Screen TV’s, Snooker, 8 Ball, Darts, Indoor Bowls, Golf, 12 Gaming Machines

Lower Hutt Memorial www.lowerhuttrsa.org.nz

Kensington Restaurant Open Upstairs Wednesday - Sunday from 5:30pm

Gaming Machines - Big Screens - 8 Ball - Snooker Darts - Indoor Bowls - Line Dancing - Karaoke Thursday evenings

Live Entertainment Friday Nights Close to motels in the heart of town

Richardson St Ph: 07 307 0343 E: admin@whakatanersa.co.nz

Thurs, Fri & Sat. Dinners 5.30 - 9.30pm

NEW, RETURNED & SERVICE MEMBERS MOST WELCOME

Bistro Open 7 Days A Week Lunch 11.30 - 2.00pm Dinner 5:00 - 9.00pm Live Band Friday and Saturday 8.00pm and Sundays 3.00pm 3 Bars, Garden Bar, Large TV Screens, Sky Sport, TAB, Internet, Library, Gaming Room, Conference Facilities.

47 Udy Street, Petone. Ph 568 5404 Members, Guests and Affiliated members welcome

BULLS SH1 Bulls Ph 06 322 0875

Hours Mon, Tues & Sun:11am -8pm Wed -Sat:11am -10pm When passing through Bulls call at our clubrooms, enjoy our hospitality and have a friendly chat.

Open 7 Days ---- Bar Hours

Lunch and Dinner Tues-Sat Bar Snacks Available

* Sky Tv * TAB * Gaming Room * Pool * Darts * Indoor Bowls * EFTPOS * Wine Club * Kapa Haka BAR HOURS

RESTAURANT HOURS CLUB night every FRIDAY 4.30 - 6.30pm in the ANZAC Lounge

A Friendly Welcome in Warm Whakatane

5 -7 McKillop St, Tel: 04 237 7695 Fax 04 238 2343

Mon 11am - 7pm. Tues 11am - 7pm. Wed 11am - 8pm. Thurs 11am - 11pm. Fri 11am - 12pm. Sat 10am - 12pm. Sun 10am - 9pm

Visitors Most Welcome

WHAKATANE RSA (Inc)

PORIRUA RSA (Inc) OPEN SEVEN DAYS

Gateway to the Coromandel Peninsula

Restaurant Hours

& Districts Memorial RSA

A warm, sunshine welcome is extended to all visitors to our modern, comfortable clubrooms

170 St Hill Street, Wanganui Phone: Clubrooms 345 5750 * Restaurant 345 4140 *

Mon-Thurs 10am-10pm.Fri & Sat 10am till late. Sun 12noon-6pm

TOKAANU-TURANGI

NAPIER RSA

34 Vautier Street, Napier Office: 06 835 7629 Fax: 06 835 1357 Club: 06 835 1034

… MEMBERS AND BONA FIDE GUESTS WELCOME ...

18 Gaming Machines * TAB * Sky Big Screen * ATM *Eft Pos * 8 Ball * Snooker * Euchre * 500 * Darts * I/D Bowls

Rendezvous Restaurant Wed, Thur, Fri Lunch 12 - 2pm Mon, Wed, Thur, Fri, Sat Dinner 5 - 8 Closed Tuesday and Sunday

Big Screen TV’s, Snooker, Pool, Darts, Indoor Bowl, Cards, 18 Gaming Machines, Live Bands

Moorish Restaurant: Thurs - Sat 5pm - 8pm Lunch every 2nd Tuesday 11am - 1pm

Affiliated Members, Guests and Potential Members Welcome

Friendly social atmosphere. Entertainment including live music, raffles, quizzes. Children welcome till 8:30pm.

Pool,Darts, Gaming Machines, Sky TV, Courtesy Van

1237 Cameron Road, Greerton, Tauranga

Ph 07 578 9654 Fax 07 577 0715 E: admin@tgarsa.co.nz | www.tgarsa.co.nz

THE NEW GENERATION RSA

Clubrooms open 7 days Mon/Tues 10.00am-9.00pm Wed/Thurs 11.00am-10.00pm Fri/Sat 11.00am-11.00pm Sunday noon-8.00pm

RSA TAURANGA

TAWA RSA

Visitors Made Welcome

89 Oxford St. Ph: 232 5788

A warm welcome is extended to all RSA & Char tered Club visitors We are open: POOL Wed to Sun from 4pm DARTS Meals Friday 6.00 - 8.00pm Sunday Roast the last Sunday of SKY TV each month 6.00pm-8pm

ANY CHANGES TO CLUB ADVERTS OR CLASSIFIED ADVERTS PLEASE CONTACT DAVE McKEE Ph: 03 983 5518 Fax: 03 983 5552 Email:davem@waterfordpress.co.nz

42

RSA REVIEW • AUTUMN 2016

Local RSAs RICHMOND/WAIMEA R.S.A. INC. P.0. Box 3034 Richmond 7050.

TARADALE 156 Gloucester Street

& DISTRICTS RSA INC

Ph/Fax 06 844 4808

Clubrooms Open Mon-Fri 8.30 am Sat-Sun 10.30 am

Meals Available 7 days - Lunch & Dinner When in Napier or Hastings visit us, we are only 8 minutes from either city. Motel accommodation next door with discounts available

All Visitors Assured of a Warm & Sincere Welcome

CHARTERED CLUB 35 Centennial Ave. Alexandra

Operating from Club Waimea Premises Lower Queen Street, Richmond. Phone 03 543 9179.

Open from 11.00am till late. Club Waimea facilities including Caravan Park facilities which are available to all R.S.A. Members.

Meals are available Wednesday - Sunday 11.30am Onwards

motueka

PO Box 10 Ph: 03 448 8090 Fax: 03 448 8023

CATERING A SPECIALTY Gaming Machines, Sky Tv, Snooker, Pool Darts,Bowls

Open from 11.00 am Monday – Saturday; 11.30 am Sunday Tribute: 6.00 pm Wednesdays Lunch 11.00 am – 2.00 pm; Dinner 5.30 – 8.30 pm

ALL VISITORS WELCOME

Alexandra Clyde RSA Bar Hours Mon-Sat: 11am-Late Sun: 4.30 9pm Bistro Hours Thurs: 6.30-8.30pm. Fri: 6-9pm Sun: 6-8pm Snack Bar open all hours

NELSON RSA (Inc) 168 Tahunanui Drive, Nelson. Phone 03 548 6815.

memorial rsa (inc) 49 High Street

Look us up on Facebook

Open 7 Days Mon-Thur 2.30pm Fri-Sun 11.00am Restaurant open 7 days

Dinner 5.30-8:30pm Lunch Fri-Sun 11:30am-1:30pm rsa - clubs nz members most welcome

GREYMOUTH RSA CLUB 181 Tainui Street Phone 03 768 7307 Open Daily - Visitors Welcome

Call and make some West Coast friends

Visitors Welcome MARLBOROUGH - NELSON WEST COAST CANTERBURY OTAGO - SOUTHLAND

ashburton rsa [inc]

12 Cox Street

Hours Mon - Tues: 11am-7pm. Wed Thurs Fri: 11am-10pm. Sat: 11am-12pm. Sun: 11am- 5pm

Tues+Wed Lunch noon. Bistro Thurs, Fri, Sat 5.30-8pm

All Indoor Sports available. Gaming Machines Live Music Every Alternative Saturday nights.

Wheelchair available

ashburton Where the North meets the South

PAPANUI RSA Ph: 03 352 9770 55 Bellvue Ave Papanui Rd & 1 Harewood Rd

Access also from

Visiting Christchurch Try our hospitality in the heart of Papanui. Adjacent to major civic amenities incl. shopping mall,motels & hotels Club Hours Mon -Tues: 11am -9pm. Wed-Thurs: 11am-10pm. Fri- Sat: 11am- 11pm. Sun: 11am- 8pm Bistro Meals

RANGIORA RSA CLUB (Inc)

Gore District Memorial RSA Inc

12 Civic Ave Ph: 03 208 6218 Fax: 03 208 6220 Email: GoreRSA@xtra.co.nz Clubrooms Open 10.30 am 7 days a week Bar Hours Mon - Fri 10.30 am - 11 pm Sat 10.30 am - 1 am Sun 10.30 am - 9.30 pm Family Bar The Gore RSA Bistro Wed - Fri 12-2 pm.

Tues - Sun from 5.30 pm Private functions by arrangement * 5 F/size Snooker Tables * 18 Gaming Machines * Big Screen Sky TV * TAB Live entertainment each month. Tea coffee in our smoke free lounge. Off street parking for visitors.

Raffles: Thurs & Fri. Flag 500 Wed 7 pm during winter

82 Victoria Street Ph: 03 313 7123 Restaurant: Lunch Wed, Thurs, Fri. Dinner Thurs, Fri, Sat & Sun. Courtesy Van Available Thurs, Fri, & Sat nights

4

Welcome

Milton Bruce RSA 31 Union Street, Milton Ph: 03 417 8927

Open daily from 5.00pm *All Welcome*

INVERCARGILL WORKINGMEN’S CLUB INC. Incorporating the INVERCARGILL R.S.A. 154 Esk Street, Invercargill Ph. 03 218 8693 Fax 03 218 3011 e-mail office@iwmc.co.nz Hours Mon - Wed. 11.00am - 10.00pm Thurs. 11.00am - 11.00pm Fri. 11.00am - 12 midnight Sat. 10.00am - 1.30am Sun. 12.00noon - 9.00pm Bottle Store Corinthian Restaurant open for lunch Mon - Fri 12noon - 1.30pm Dinner Thurs. - Sun. from 6.00pm Corinthian Convention Centre available for meetings, conferences or functions, large or small 24 Gaming machines - 5 snooker tables Sky TV 5 pool tables Raffles Mon. - Sat. Band on Sat. nights Off-street parking

38 Kirk Rd, Templeton E: templetonrsa@xtra.co.nz

CLUB BAR HOURS

Wed, Thurs & Sat: 4pm - 7pm Fri 4pm till late

MEALS

Friday nights from 6:10pm

NEW MEMBERS WELCOME

Travel New Zealand WANGANUI. Bignell St Motel, Quiet, Warm, Friendly, Comfortable, Pets by arrangement.

RIVERTON & DISTRICTS

$65 single + $15pp extra Phone Now 0800 244 635

141 Palmerston Street Riverton 9822 Phone: (03) 2348737 Enjoy Southern Hospitality Tue-Sat 3-6pm & Fri 3-9pm

WHAKATANE. Bay Hotel Units 90 McAllister Street. Very handy to RSA. Discount for RSA members. Friendly service, courtesy pickup, Pets very welcome. Your hosts Betty & Willy Arends.

Ph 07 308 6788 Fax 07 308 6749

Marlborough RSA 42 Alfred Street Blenheim (In Clubs Marlborough Complex)

We extend a cordial invitation to all visiting members to visit our Clubrooms

ANY CHANGES TO CLUB ADVERTS OR CLASSIFIED ADVERTS PLEASE CONTACT DAVE McKEE Ph: 03 983 5518 Fax: 03 983 5552 Email:davem@waterfordpress.co.nz

Open 7 Days from 9.00, Restaurant meals - 7 Days.

Gaming, Pool, Snooker, Sky TV.

Lunch: 7 days 12 - 2 pm Dinner: 7 days 5pm onwards

Facilities Eftpos, Sky TV, Snooker Billiards, Pool, Bowls, Cards, Darts, Gaming Machines, Library, Live Entertainment, Off Street Parking.

Power Point for Campervans

Templeton RSA

Christchurch Memorial Returned and Services Association Inc.

Travel Australia

Facilities: Administration Office Support and Welfare Office Museum • Event/function Centre Trenches Restaurant and Bar (Public License) Poppy Club members’ bar Memorial Plaza and Remembrance Wall Operating Hours: Monday to Wednesday 08:00am to Midnight Thursday to Saturday 08:00am to 01:00am Sunday 08:00am to 11:00pm

Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner available P: 03-3799724 E: office@christchurchrsa.org.nz www.christchurchrsa.org.nz | www.trenches.co.nz 74 Armagh Street, P.O. Box 354, Christchurch 8140,

Private function bookings are welcome

NEW BRIGHTON RSA 21 Mafeking Street, New Brighton, Christchurch Ph: 03 388 9059 Open daily from 3.30pm Sunday 11.30am Meals available Thurs, Fri & Sat “All Welcome”

Beac hfront Apartment s Heated swimming pool and spa BBQ area Close to local restaurants Short walk to Jupiters Casino 50 Metres to the famous Broadbeach Oasis Mall

Sandpiper Apartments is a 12 storey resort complex located on the beach. Every apartment faces the ocean and includes a private balcony. Spectacular views.

Book for 7-nights in a 1-Bedroom Ocean view apartment - $910 Book for 7-nights in a 2-Bedroom Ocean view apartment - $1120 (Excludes High season, school holidays and special events)

www.sandpiperapartments.com.au | 155 Old Burleigh Rd, Broadbeach | 07 559 201 44

43

RSA REVIEW • AUTUMN 2016

Travel Australia ABSOLUTE BEACH FRONTAGE ON GOLD COAST Fully Self Contained Holiday Apartments

Included in this great accommodation deal FREE Resort Wifi FREE Tourist Membership and 1 FREE drink voucher per guest on arrival at Currumbin RSL Service Club

Rates from per night 1 Bedroom Apt - 2 Guests A $109 2 Bedroom Apt - 4 Guests A $125 2 Bed Deluxe - 4 Guests A $148 2 Bed Beachfront 4 Guests A $195 *conditions apply - subject to availability

Only 5 mins drive from Gold Coast Airport Currumbin Wildlife Park & Walking distance to Cafes, Restaurants, Shops, Parks, Tugun Hotel and the Surf life Saving Club

: (0061 7) 5525 9800

Golden Riviera Beach Resort

Website: www.goldenriviera.com.au Email: goldenrivierabeach@gmail.com

www.pandanusmooloolaba.com.au

Largest holiday apartments in the area.

Opened in 2005, across from main car park to the beach.

• Complete cooking & laundry facilities • Fully air conditioned • Full gymnasium • Free foxtel TV • Free Wifi • Heated pool & spa • be let as 1, 2 and 3 bedroom.

• 2 Carparks Tel: +61 7 5457 8989 Free call: 1300 787 668 15 – 21 Smith St, Mooloolaba QLD 4557

Accommodation on the Gold Coast - Mermaid Beach Holiday Apartments.

Mermaid Beach Park View is a beautifully maintained boutique self catering apartment complex, ideal for couples of all ages, families or small groups. And considering the range of facilities on offer, Park View is excellent value-for-money.

Being completely self-contained, each air-conditioned apartment offers all the comforts of home, including a fully equipped kitchen and laundry and satellite television (with 2 Movie channels and 3 Sports channels amongst others). Also, for peace of mind, each apartment has its own secure internal car park space. Only 50m to Mermaid Beach Surf Lifesaving Club through the park.

Wireless broadband is also available throughout the complex. 10% Discount with this advertisement.

Anyone for f a Gold Coast Getaway??

Getaway??

40 -44 Ventura Road, Mermaid Beach, QLD 4218, Australia PH +61 7 5575 6100 FAX +61 7 5575 6199 EMAIL info@mermaidparkview.com.au www.mermaidparkview.com.au

Welcome to Palazzo Colonnades boutique, high-rise holiday accommodation apartments in Surfers Paradise....

• Fully self contained, air conditioned one bedroom and two bedroom apartments • Heated swimming pool, spa, sauna, gymnasium and BBQ facilities

The serenity of the adjacent park and absolute river front location at the end of a col-de-sac, cafes, restaurants, clubs, cinemas, kayaking, biking, great fishing, sunshine plaza all within walking distance or a short bus ride.

HOT DEAL!

• Under cover, fully secured free parking

Stay 5 Pay 4 from AUS $630.00*

• Flat screen televisions and AUSTAR cable television free of charge • In room wireless internet broadband service • Extensive choice of restaurants within minutes walking distance

TO BOOK PHONE +61 7 5538 4555

• 1.5km from Gold Coast Exhibition and Convention Centre • 150 metres to the beach and 6-8 minutes leisurely stroll to Cavill Avenue

Address: 2988 - 2994 Surfers Paradise Blvd, Surfers Paradise. 4217 Telephone: +61 7 5538 4555 Email: info@palazzocolonnades.com.au

FOR THE BEST RATES BOOK DIRECT AT OUR WEBSITE: www.palazzocolonnades.com.au * Valid for sale 01/03/16 - 15/12/16 - Block out dates apply. .

and use promocode: PCRSA

STAY FOR 7 PAY FOR 5 * CONDITIONS APPLY

Riviere on Golden Beach, Caloundra, Queensland

Email: info@riviere.com.au web: www.riviere.com.au

Phone: 0061 75492 3200

DO OUR READERS KNOW YOU EXIST? Put yourself in front of potential clients.

Ph: 0061 7 54 380600 www.kingsbayapartments.com 18 Mahia Tce, Kings Beach, Caloundra

Phone: 03 983 5500 Fax: 03 983 5552

Check out our winter and spring specials

www.waterfordpress.co.nz

44

RSA REVIEW • AUTUMN 2016

Travel Australia SAILPORT

FREE

M O O LO O L A B A A PA R T M E N T S

High Speed 271 Elizabeth Street, Sydney + 61 2 9264 6001

Overlooking Mooloolaba Wharf and Marina.

100 metres to Surf Club and safe patrolled Beach.

Great rates, modern 4 star luxury 1,2 & 3 bedrooms. Spacious, fully self contained & air conditioned.

Central to all the Sunshine Coast attractions.

DIRECT BOOKING ONLINE NOW AVAILABLE Visit: www.hydeparkinn.com.au

The Hyde Park Inn offers friendly, personalised service and spectacular views across Hyde Park. Central CBD location, just minutes to shopping, theatres, Central Station, The Opera House, Darling Harbour and Kings Cross.

Our features include:

Special - Stay 7 Pay 5 Feb, May - July, November

Telephone: 00617 5444 1844 email: reception@sailport.com.au.

Cnr River Esplanade & Hancock St, Mooloolaba, Queensland Australia.

w w w. s a i l p o r t . c o m . a u

|

Surfers Paradise Fully self contained boutique apartments - 4 star self rating, all with lift access, airconditioning & ocean views. Direct access to beach 50 meters. Heated pool and spa, BBQ area. Transport arranged from Brisbane or Coolangatta Airports. Easy walk to heart of Surfers or Broadbeach

Book direct and get great deals from friendly kiwis, Ph: 00617 5526 7588, Or email: info@emeraldsands.com.au Or visit: www.emeraldsands.com.au

07 5444 1844

Holiday Accommodation in Mooloolaba, Sunshine Coast • 50 Meters from the patrolled beach and Surf Club • 1 and 2 bedroom air conditioned and fully self contained apartments.

• Heated Pool and Spa • Complimentary Cable Television • Undercover and secure free car park • Within the hub of Restaurants, coffee shops and boutiques • Walking distance to Mooloolaba Bowls Club Website www.aegeanmooloolaba.com.au Email reservations@aegeanmooloolaba.com.au Phone +61 75444 1255

• Self catering facilities • Complimentary continental breakfast • Air-conditioning • Balcony to Deluxe Rooms • Large family rooms and apartments • Free car parking • Free in-house movie channels • Guest laundry • DVD players to all rooms • Flat Screen LCD televisions

Owned by RSL NSW Branch • Special rates for RSA Members • Special long term rates available Eligible RSA members can join a NSW RSL Sub Branch for even better rates.

ELOUERA

TOWER TTOWER

BROADBEACH Gold Coast BROADBEACH Gold Coa

Maroochydore Qld

Fantastic water views spacious fully s/c 1, 2 & 3 bedroom apartments, balconies to panoramic views. Free cable TV, washing machine & dryer. Heated swimming pool, spa and sauna, electric BBQ’s, secure U/C parking. Close walk to beach, surf club, cafes, shops.

WINTER SPECIAL $670pw (min 4 week stay) • 2 Bedroom Apartment

81 Sixth Ave Maroochydore 4558 P. (00617) 5443 5988 E. holiday@eloueratower.com.au W. www.eloueratower.com.au

Take A Break!

Barbados Holiday Apartments offer 2 b Take A Break!

contained apartments (main withself ensuite) Barbados Holiday Apartments offer 2 brm contained apartments (main with ensuite) north balconies, air.con lounge/dining, full kitch facing balconies,laundry air.confacilities. lounge/dining, Onsite full poolkitchen & BBQ. & laundry facilities. Onsite pool & BBQ. Meters to beach, shopping centre, restaura Meters to beach, shopping centre, restaurants, &Casino more! & more!

0061 0439 679 153 0061 4 0439 679153 admin@barbadosbroadbeach.com.au admin@barbadosbroadbeach.com.a www.goldcoastaccom.com.au www.goldcoastaccom.com.au

Tours VIETNAM

FULLY ESCORTED TOURS FOR SENIORS

BATTLE OF LONG TAN 50th ANNIVERSARY COMMEMORATION TOUR 12 DAYS - Departs 11th August 2016 • • • • • •

Memorial service at the battle site of Long Tan 18th August Tour of the Nui Dat camp area and Long Phuoc tunnels Baria wartime movie theatre and Vung Tau back beach Ho Chi Minh City - Reunification Palace & War Museum Cu Chi Tunnels - Extensive underground tunnel network Tour to Changi Prison and Kranji Memorial in Singapore

Tour led by - Ray Farrell (Vietnam War Veteran) - Erick Greening (Explorer Adventure Tours Ltd) Price $4560 per person, share twin

Price available for Vietnam land tour only War Veterans may be eligible for Government assisstance.

VIETNAM TOURS. 20 Days ex Auck, Wgtn, Chch.

From $6795pp share twin. Special conditions apply.

Kiwi Vietnam Tours: 305 Kahuterawa Rd, RD 2 Palmerston North. Ph: 06 324 8444

info@kiwivietnamtours.co.nz |www.kiwivietnamtours.co.nz

Price includes: 3 nights in Singapore • international flights • 4 star hotels • sightseeing • entrance fees • all breakfasts, three dinners, one lunch • For an itinerary contact: Erick Greening

EXPLORER ADVENTURE TOURS LTD 09 479 6807

explorerat@xtra.co.nz Ray Farrell

09 838 4224, 021 02666294

farrellr28@yahoo.com

Our 2016 tours include:

NZ: Waiheke Island 5-8 Apr; Great Barrier Island 26-29 Apr; High Country Spectacular 23 Sep-4 Oct; Wonders of Westland 10-19 Oct; Taranaki Rhodo Festival 28-31 Oct; Chatham Islands 12-17 Nov; Hokianga for Christmas 23-27 Dec. AUSTRALIA: Touring Tasmania 5-15 Apr; Melbourne, Adelaide & Murray River 27 Apr-10 May; Heavenly Hervey Bay 5-14 Aug; Kakadu Explorer 22-31 Aug; Spring in Western Australia 8-19 Sep. PACIFIC: Hawaii 1425 May; New Caledonia 29 May-5 Jun; Samoa 4-11 Jul; Rarotonga 18-25 Jul; Norfolk Island 20-27 Nov. For our new 2016 colour brochure or to make a booking, phone 0800 66 44 14 or email: info@scottsdaletours.co.nz www.scottsdaletours.co.nz

Phone: 03 983 5500 Fax: 03 983 5552

waterfordpress.co.nz

45

RSA REVIEW • AUTUMN 2016

Medals MEDAL MOUNTING COURT STYLE

SWING STYLE

Damage free professional medal mounting in either court style or swing style $20 per medal with new ribbon (full size & miniature). $8 return courier NZ wide. Replicas of all medals available at just $50 per medal inc mounting. NZ wide mail order service or by appointment.

Turnaround is usually 7 days.

Framing from just $150

A G Bairstow - NZ Medals Ltd PO Box 128 - 134, Remuera, Auckland 1541 Ph: 09 571 2074 E: aubreyb@clear.net.nz

www.nzmedals.com

MEDAL MOUNTING Full Size and Miniature Orders, Decorations and Medals. Court Mounted or Swing Style.

If necessary medals cleaned and new ribbon supplied.

Duplicate groups made up to order.

Registered with New Zealand Defence Force as an Approved Medal Mounter Quality work guaranteed Contact: Russell Barker, P O Box 346, Waikanae 5250 Phone: 04 293 1045 Email: rmbarker@xtra.co.nz Website: www.kiwimedalmounting.com

MEDALS MOUNTED Court or Swing style.

Professional quality guaranteed work. Reasonable prices. Medals also framed for family history displays, museum quality work. Medals & military souvenirs purchased for my own collection especially gallantry awards eg. DFC, MC, MM etc.

German & Allied hats, helmets uniforms, RNZAF RAF pilots wings & boots also sought. Ph: Ian Hamilton 09 266 5783

MEDAL MOUNTING, MILITARY HISTORY & GENEALOGY RESEARCH. Orders, decorations & medals (full size &

miniatures) court mounted for day, evening wear, and for family history displays. Medals mounted with respect for over 45 years by a long serving soldier. No modifications to medals or clasps. Contact Medal Mounting Wellington, H.E. Chamberlain, Ph: 04 293 3504. 470 Te Moana Rd. Waikanae. Email: clas.chamberlain@xtra.co.nz.

English Tie & Medal Co *Replica medals and Miniatures supplied and mounted. *Full sized and Mini medal groups for other family members. *Framed Medal Displays and Copy displays. *Regimental Ties & Blazer pocket badges.

We do not sell or trade in original medals

P. 09 838 4828 F. 09 838 4850 W. www.medals.co.nz 6 Central Park Drive, Henderson, Auckland 0610

NEWS

Army’s ‘woman of influence’ makes difference From page 48

Evelyn Hutchins is now 102. But she recalls very clearly her World War 2 days of driving trucks in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF). Her military service interrupted her budding professional singing career, but she found ways to mix her love of singing with her efforts to contribute to what she considered ‘a worthy cause’.

Not even war could stop this songbird from singing From page 48 There were no serious injuries, but a much worse incident was on the horizon. She was sitting watching two Tiger Moths flying one day when the pair collided.

“The two instructors and the trainee boys were killed – the whole four of them. My heart was in my mouth and I thought ‘Oh goodness me’ and I never went up in a Moth again.”

But despite her day job, she still managed to find a way to sing: “I sang in the Dunedin Town Hall every Saturday night. I was lucky because if I had

night flying duties, one of the other girls would stand in for me.”

She was also getting paid, but had to keep quiet about her moonlighting role because getting wages from sources other than the Air Force was not allowed. Her performances were recorded for the local radio station.

At Harewood, Evelyn continued singing.

“I used to sing to the boys as I drove. Sometimes I would drive the trucks to a concert where I’d get out and be the singer as well.”

Also at Harewood she joined the Armed Forces Operatic Society where she played the lead female roles in performances that included The

Pirates of Penzance and HMS Pinafore.

Wounded soldiers who had returned from battle also benefited from her talents – “I would sit at the piano and play for them and sing, because I liked doing that .”

After the war, Evelyn was commissioned to sing Welcome Home and Smoko to the returned servicemen and women.

She gets the chance to reminisce about her time in the services this month when she attends the 75-year reunion of women in the Air Force.

“I’ve been to every one since the 21st-year reunion. At 102, I’ll be the oldest girl there apparently.”

the organisation, knowing that these trades aren’t only for men will make a massive difference to their willingness to join us.”

“This simple fact is that diversity within organisations – particularly within leadership – has become a priority. And it should be. Our’s is a modern organisation – and we need to reflect the attitudes of today’s society.

Why? As the newly elected Canadian prime minister recently answered when asked why he had ensured half his cabinet were women: Because it’s 2015.”

Thompson says that since her ward, she has often been asked “What’s next for you?”. Her answer is simple: “Next year I will become commander headquarters training and doctrine command in Waiouru.”

This unit is responsible for land-specific doctrine, the mid- and long-lessons-learned loops, the delivery of individual training, command of the reserve infantry units and directed training evaluation.

Thompson will be its first woman commander.

“I can’t wait to be back in the training environment,” she says. “I consider Waiouru the home of the New Zealand Army. We have all been through there at some stage, so for me it’s like coming home. Training our people, watching them develop and grow, is my passion.

“I hope that my being there, having a woman at the helm, might show those looking at our army as a career choice that not only is it viable, but that you can reach senior leadership levels and continue to make a difference.

46

RSA REVIEW • SUMMER 2015

What’s New

ARMY SPAWNS ITS OWN GAULDIE Sue Russell Matt Gauldie’s connection to matters military runs deeper than simply an interest in using his artistic talent to depict and celebrate aspects of our war history. For 11 years from 2005 the Kapiti Coast-based painter and sculptor held the rank of honorary captain as the New Zealand Army and then NZ Defence Force official artist.

His latest project has involved sculpting a warhorse marquette series – six limited-edition, World War 1-themed, small, bronze statuettes.

Each depicts a theme with a direct connection to the events of 100 years ago.

Henderson and his Donkey is his interpretation of WW1 war artist Sapper Moore-Jones’s image of Simpson and his Donkey. But, instead of Simpson, Gauldie chose to depict WW1 New Zealand medic Henderson.

“Sapper is my favourite WW1 army artist. He was one of a handful of New Zealanders on the front lines producing art.”

Last year Gauldie completed a six-metre statue depicting Moore-Jones drawing on the Gallipoli Peninsula. It stands in Hamilton’s main street.

Hongi represents two soldiers from the New Zealand Expeditionary Force’s Native Contingent in costumised uniforms, which were common during the summer months at Gallipoli. Gauldie remembers seeing two Maori soldiers greet one another in this way in East Timor in 2009.

“This hongi/karakia scene would have been a common sight at Gallipoli as Maori soldiers were preparing to move to the front.”

Charge depicts a young New Zealand infantryman charging across no-mans-land. The bronze is available with two different hat styles – with a New Zealand ‘lemon squeezer’ hat or with a ‘pith’ helmet (which were issued to New Zealand tooprs in this campaign.

A Break in Battle/Contemplation has a limited edition of 50 and shows a battle-weary soldier

Matt Gauldie on location at Bunyam, Afghanistan.

sitting on a supply crate on the beach: “The beach often provided a break in battle for weary soldiers. I have also painted a few ‘thousand-yard stare’ paintings of soldiers who have reached a point of physical and emotional exhaustion.”

War Horse is a scaled-down replication of a planned life-size war horse memorial sculpture commissioned for Hamilton. It is based on an image he drew of a lone horse with head down sniffing a hat on the battlefield. The statue will sit in Hamilton’s Memorial Park as a tribute to the 10,000-plus horses taken from New Zealand to serve in WW1.

“I hope the sculpture will highlight the sensitivity and the consciousness of the bond between

Often forgotten battle described in detail The Battle of Sidi Rezegh – barren, stony ridge outside Tobruk – is often overlooked, even forgotten, in World War 2 analysis. But this battle, fought in November 1941, was an important part of the Allies’ Operation Crusader at a crucial time in the Desert War campaign in North Africa.

Twenty thousand New Zealand soldiers crossed from Egypt into Libya to fight one of the deadliest battles of the war. New Zealand casualties were the highest of the Eighth Army divisions involved – nearly 900 killed, 1700 wounded, 2000 captured.

The Allies two objectives – to destroy the German and Italian armoured formations near Tobruk, and to drive them back through Cyrenaica, the eastern region of Libya. These were arduous objectives as the key strong points were held by skilled and determined troops.

In his report, Gen Auchinleck concluded that

Crusader “was a success, but rather slower, more costly and less complete than hoped”.

In Desert War: The Battle of Sidi Rezegh, Peter Cox tells the story of this vital battle. He draws on his experience of twice visiting the battlefield and a detailed study of the battle to write the wartime story of his father, Brian Cox, who fought at Sidi Rezegh with the 27th Machine Gun Battalion.

Cox describes the unforgiving and inhospitable desert landscape, traces the action, and recounts the often moving and heroic stories of soldiers.

The book, part of the Anzac Battles Series edited

by Glyn Harper, includes maps, photographs and a timeline of the battle.

• Recommended retail price $34.99. Exisle Publishing, 2/506 South Titirangi Rd, Titirangi, Auckland 0604; hannah@exislepublishing.co.nz; www.exislepublishing.co.nz.

100 Years

NEW ZEALAND MILITARY NURSING New Zealand Army Nursing Service - Royal New Zealand Nursing Corps

1915 - 2015

With over 500 pages, 390 images and the foreword by Her Royal Highness, The Princess Royal, Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal New Zealand Nursing Corps this new book records the 100-year history of the Royal New Zealand Nursing Corps (RNZNC). The book tells the story of the struggle to have a military nursing service established and the ensuing misfortunes and achievements of the nurses who have served and continue to serve. Included are rolls of over 2,700 women and men past and present of the RNZNC along with VADs who served in New Zealand military hospitals during World War One and New Zealand nurses who served in other military nursing services and organisations in both World Wars.

To order your copy of this limited edition send $59.95 plus p & p, NZ tracked parcel post $12 per book (Rural plus $3.20 ) to S McNabb, 11 Haig Street, Wairoa, Hawke’s Bay 4108, or email your order to: rnznc_2015@xtra.co.nz Online bank payment available by request.

soldier and horse,” he says. A miniature bronze to complete the series will be unveiled before Anzac Day. “It was a case of being in the right place at the right time,” he says of his military career, “The chief of army was keen to see the role of official artist reinvigorated, and I seized the opportunity and felt honoured when it was offered to me.”

He was 27 at the time. Just right, he says – young enough to to join in and thrive in the culture of army life. He describes the experience as a “reinvention of self” that provided fresh purpose and direction to his life and art.”

He volunteered to be a regular solider and go through the three-month training at Waiouru as – which, he believes, added integrity to his artist role. ‘Gunner Gauldie’ was subsequently promoted to honorary captain and created an exhibition about recruit training before being deployed to serve in Afghanistan, the Solomon Islands and East Timor.

Pioneering the new role of army artist was something of a “trail-blazing” experience.

“There were a number of key roles, including doing exhibitions in the community. It was very important to ensure that what I was depicting on canvas were realistic expressions of NZ Army culture. That was one of the reasons why I joined the army.”

He says his works gave opportunity for the army to engage with the public in ways not focused around recruitment, but a more emotional forum.

The marquette series (each of them limited editions) is on show at Auckland’s Parnell Gallery. Manager Anna Silcock says the gallery’s association with Gauldie goes back to 2002.

“Very few artists have the capabilities to be fine painters and sculptors. Both his parents were painters and his father also sculpted.

• Enquires: Anna Silcock – Parnell Gallery, 09 377 3133.

Gallipoli book works on several levels Dion Crooks While Richard Stowers has a wide interest in New Zealand history, he admits that Gallipoli has always been close to him. The Waikato-based historian has been to the Turkish peninsula several times and has a personal interest in events there, and many of the people involved.

His latest work, Heroes of Gallipoli: The gallantry of New Zealanders at Gallipoli, zeroes in on those whose courage and serviced for formally recognised.

He tracks the campaign through its various battles and initiatives. And after each section, he lists those recognised for bravery, with an explanation of why, and a brief biography.

Stowers says he was moved to write the book because he wanted “to increase the awareness

Americans digitised The Auckland Museum has digitised a large tranche of the photography collections of Warkworth photographer Tudor Collins, which were donated by his nephew.

The images are of American servicemen based in Auckland during World War 2 before going to the Pacific. They include individuals, groups and action shots of them sea fishing and relaxing at local homes. Many are unidentified and the museum is keen to discover more about them and their experiences in Auckland.

The museum is working to attract Americans to view the photographs on line, and is seeking information on their stories from locals, and friends and families overseas. A page has been created on how to browse the on-line gallery and how to contribute using an enquiry form.

It is being promoted through the museum’s social-media channels and a live link has been created for people to share.

• http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/collections-research/collections/explore-highlights/ american-soldiers-in-new-zealand-wwii

Munro collection on show A tribute to World War 2 aviation war hero SqnLdr Les Munro and his collection of medals, including a Distinguished Service Order and Distinguished Flying Cross, is now on display at Museum of Transport & Technology in Auckland.

Les Munro made international headlines in March last year when he offered to auction his medals to raise funds for the upkeep of the Bomber Command Memorial in London. British philanthropist Lord Ashcroft stepped in and donated £75,000 to the RAF Benevolent Fund in return for Less withdrawing his medals from auction and gifting them to MOTAT. Ashcroft flew the medals and memorabilia to New Zealand where Les Munro presented them to MOTAT. • Entry to the Aviation Display Hall to view the Les Munro tribute and replica medals is included in the general admission fee. of the unpretentious gallantry and services of New Zealanders during the Gallipoli campaign and to expose the marked disparity in number of honours and awards to New Zealanders compared to those of Australia and Britain”.

The result is a multi-purpose book that could be used as a text, as a narrative read for anyone wanting to know about Gallipoli, or as a reference. Or for all of these at the same time.

A combination of thorough research, and clear, straightforward writing and design make for a product that’s easy on the eye, easy to find your way around, and easy to assimilate.

As has become its custom, John Douglas Publishing has produced a design that blends artistic quality with uncomplicated presentation • Information: John Douglas Publishing– publish. johndouglas@xtra.co.nz

Authors look beyond the obvious, behind NZ’s WW1 scenes New Zealand’s First World War Heritage tackles World War 1 from a different angle – the places in New Zealand where it happened.

No battles were fought here, but the landscape is signposted with thousands of memorials many with rediscovered wartime associations: army camps, fortifications, soldier-settler farms, convalescent homes and hospitals, cemeteries and war memorials, dairy factories and woollen mills – where ordinary New Zealanders conducted their lives through extraordinary times.

Imelda Bargas and Tim Shoebridge – senior

historians in the Ministry for Culture and Heritage’s History Group – have uncovered new and period photographs, and maps, and tied in original research and information.

They look beyond the facades of old buildings, under scrub and behind farm fences to a less visible landscape of war and stories waiting to be told – a soldier’s name carved on a remote railway station, a once bustling uniform factory in the heart of a city, a long abandoned gun battery.

Their book is extensively illustrated.

What’s New 47

RSA REVIEW • AUTUMN 2016

SPECIAL ISSUE PUTS STAMP ON CENTENARY Special stamps have been released to help celebrate the RSA’s centenary. The new commemorative stamp issue consists of six stamps that portray the RSA’s identity and history.

The designs incorporate the RSA “heart” logo, designed to reflect the organisation’s place at the heart of New Zealand’s communities, and images include the poppy, RSA badge, fundraisers, and some of the veterans the RSA has supported.

RSA national president BJ Clark says the RSA – which stands for courage, compassion, comradeship and commitment – has been an integral part of New Zealand communities over its 100 years.

“We are delighted to pay tribute to that, in partnership with New Zealand Post, with this special stamp issue. We think these values continue to be important for our past and present service personnel, including the NZ Police, for their families and for all New Zealanders.”

The organisation was formed in April 1916 at

the first national meeting of returned soldiers – the result of wounded soldiers returning to New Zealand from World War 1 recognising a need to provide support for veterans and honour those killed.

The NZPost issue includes a silver proof coin, a presentation set iof stamps, mint and miniature sets of stamps, and single and sheets of stamps, NZ Post will donate to the RSA $5 for every silver-proof coin and $1 for every presentation pack sold, says the organisation’s head of stamps and coins, Simon Allison, The stamps are available individually, in sheet sets of 25, or in special presentation packages.

They range from the standard 80 centsto $3 each.

The presentation packs come with extras for those interested in a memento. The stamps are on sale until the end of the year.

The ‘100 Years of Service’ commemorative options (clockwise from upper left): The presentation pack; the set configuration; the set of stamps; the miniature sheet.

• Information: www.nzpost.co.nz/rsa100years, or from NZ Post stores.

Harley a Western Front favourite Peter Owens The 1918 model J Harley-Davidson motorcycle and sidecar combination in Wanaka’s Warbirds and Wheels museum was a favourite among Allied forces on the World War 1 Western Front.

Introduced by the manufacturer in 1915, it has a 61-cubic-inch F head twin, three-speed transmission and an electrical system that unites the headlight, taillight, ignition and horn.

It also features a Remy Model 15 magnetogenerator with vacuum-operated battery cut-out.

The Allies, including New Zealand Forces of 1New Zealand Expeditionary Force, used these machines in the rough, wet and war-torn Left: All revved and ready to roll – The Harley-Davidson model J in the Warbirds and Wheels museum atWanaka.

FAMOUS PAINTING ON LOAN AT WAIOURU The original water colour and famous painting, The Man with the Donkey, is on display in the National Army Museum medal respository, at Waiouru. The work is on loan.

Horace Moore-Jones’s painting, often wrongly referred to as Simpson and his Donkey, helps depict the World War I story of the medics who used donkeys to help carry the wounded to safety through the gullies and ravines at Gallipoli.

In the words of Pte Roland Chadwick, of the New Zealand Medical Corps: “A stretcher-bearer was the name given to those who carried the wounded from where they lay to the first-aid posts dotted about the hills. Some stretcher-bearers used donkeys to aid in carrying their loads in Gallipoli; while others worked in pairs with stretchers or whatever they could find to complete the task.”

Two of the New Zealand medics amongst the first group of stretcher-bearers were William ‘Bill’ Henry, who was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal on landing day at Gallipoli, and Richard (Dick) Henderson, who was awarded the Military Medal on the first day of the Somme for rescuing wounded.

It is believed that both Henry and Henderson were the ‘models’ for Sapper Moore-Jones’s painting.

Moore-Jones enlisted with the British section of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force and took part in the Allied landing at Anzac Cove on April 25, 1915. He was attached to the printing section to make topographical pencil and water-colour sketches of Allied and Turkish positions.

His sketches of the rugged terrain, made under dangerous conditions, provided an aid for planning and defence , and were used to illustrate official dispatches.

Late in 1915 he was wounded and invalided to Britain where, once recuperated, he painted

further water colours based on his Gallipoli experiences. An exhibition of his work at New Zealand House in April 1916 were so well received it was also shown by command at Buckingham Palace.

In 1916, Moore-Jones was classified as unfit for duty and returned to New Zealand. A couple of years later, in Dunedin, he painted the first of his three The Man with the Donkey water colours, based on a photograph of Dick Henderson.

The image became famous in New Zealand and Australia, but the New Zealand government did not take up an offer of his Gallipoli sketches, and they now form part of the art collection at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

Moore-Jones was killed in a fire in

Hamilton in April 1922 when he went back to save others. He was an art teacher at Hamilton High School at the time.

A 'very rare and detailed' account Bombing the Rainbow Warrior A new BWB Text, available as an e-book from the BWB website and global e-bookstores. It has been derived from Michael King's s Death of the Rainbow Warrior (published 1986).

French agents Alain Mafart and Dominique Prieur toured New Zealand in a campervan posing as tourist; they were, in fact, part of a dozen-strong team behind the bombing of the Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior.

They were detained by police when they returned their rental van. King’s account of the police interrogation of the couple is very rare and very detailed .

• BWB Texts come in multiple, DRM-free formats: 9781927277850 (Epub); 9781927277867 (Kindle); 9781927277874 (PDF). Price: $4.99 Available direct from www.bwb.co.nz.

That famous painting...Sapper Horace Moore-Jones’ The Man with the Donkey is on loan to the National Army Museum, at Waiouru.

History planned to record the deeds of the engineers A group of former army engineers is working to publish a book on the history of the Corps of the Royal New Zealand Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.

Fred Milligan, who is one of the group, says the aim is to cover the formation of the corps and its activities through the war years until it was

countrysides of Belgium and France because they could go where other vehicles could not.

The sidecars were adapted to carry wounded soldiers to the rear for treatment.

The Model J had been tested in wartime conditions by the United States Army in Mexico in 1913. That force was commanded by Gen John Pershing, who also led the American forces on the Western Front when the US entered World War 1 in 1917.

Pershing was insistent that modern technology should be used in warfare and introduced the Harley Davidson model J. The Harley Davidson company designed and manufactured a base for the sidecar so that a machine gun could be mounted on it.

By 1918, 70 per cent of the 15,000 Harley Davidson motorcycles used by US forces in France were sidecar combinations.

declared defunct about 1996. Engineers travel under the guise of logistics, he says. The group hopes to launch the book at the RNZEME reunion in the Trentham area at the end of November.

• If you have information or you are interested in helping with the project, contact: Fred Milligan – email, phreddo_wave@ihug.co.nz.

How To Get A Good Job After 50 A practical guide that encourages ageing jobseekers readers to become proactive. Author Rupert French offers a step-by-step guide through the strategies and tools that will provide the confidence to win a rewarding role.

Tasmania-based French was a journalist, teacher and truckie before heading into 20 years as a career coach; he has developed and run training programmes for mature age job seekers, many of them long-term unemployed.

He seeks to equip job-seekers to take control of their job-hunting, and feel more positive towards it as they learn how to network and use social media.

• Book available from www.exislepublishing.co.nz. Recommended retail price: $34.99.

48

News

RSA REVIEW • AUTUMN 2016

When World War 2 broke out, it brought an abrupt halt to a young Evelyn Hutchins’ budding professional singing career. She had dreamed of being on stage singing light opera. But even though she traded in the stage for driving military vehicles in 1942, the now 102-year-old says she never stopped singing. Air Force News editor Rebecca Qulliam talks to the now 102-year-old.

WAR DIDN’T SILENCE THIS SONGBIRD

“When World War 2 came and everything stopped, my singing lessons stopped – there was no use for those any more,” Evelyn Hutchins recalls.

However, it turned out that not even a war could stop the songbird from singing.

Framed photos on the walls of her two-room unit at a rest home in Waikanae show off smiling children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Even more photos, much older photos, tell the story of Evelyn Hutchins’ career as an Air Force driver and lead singer with the Armed Forces Operatic Society.

One image shows her smiling at the wheel of a troop carrier, which holds scores of young, eager new soldiers.

“I would often wonder how many were being sent off to never come home,” she says sadly.

Her’ own fiancé was killed during the war – “in one of the big bombing raids over Germany in October 1943”.

She joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) out of a sense of duty: “I thought it was a worthy cause and I think I thought it was a good idea to replace the men. But I didn’t think so much at the time we were more or less sending them over there to be slaughtered.”

The farm girl was first stationed at Taieri with others from Otago and was immediately tasked as a driver of trucks, cars and ambulances. She was later posted to Harewood, near Christchurch.

She recalls one horror day at Taieri when she was ordered to race an ambulance to a crash site of a Union Airways plane (now Air New Zealand).

“There were about nine passengers on board and mail for Christchurch, and the starboard engine had been torn away.”

To page 45

‘WOMAN OF INFLUENCE’ MAKES DIFFERENCE TO ARMY LIFE Her work in helping lead the New Zealand Defence Force towards creating an inclusive environment has led to Col Karyn Thompson winning the New Zealand Women of Influence diversity award. She is the manager human resources strategic programmes and chief human resources officer (army).

The New Zealand Women of Influence programme recognises and celebrates women who make a difference to the lives of New Zealanders.

“In 2009, I was invited to a women’s development forum being run by the air force,” she says.

“At the time I was commandant at the Officer Cadet School, and pregnant with my daughter.

I had two sons already – and listening to stories around what the Royal New Zealand Air Force was doing in promoting a diverse and accepting environment made me ask myself whether I would let my daughter join the army. At the time, my answer was “No”.

She realised her answer would remain the same unless she helped drive change: “I realised that it was my duty as a senior woman in our army to help make women see joining us as a realistic career choice.”

Along with her counterparts, WgCdr Leanne Woon (RNZAF ) and Cdr Mel Ross (RNZN), she set about engaging NZDF leadership in initial discussions about setting up an NZDF women’s development steering group.

Col Karyn Thompson (left) with service colleagues Cdr Melissa Ross (navy), centre, and WgCdr Leanne Woon (air force).

The inaugural NZDF Women’s Development Forum took place in 2011 and in 2013, the Women’s Development Steering Group was approved for establishment within the Defence Force.

“It took a little over three years to stand up the steering group – but there were many factors that influenced our time frames. Each of us was undertaking this on top of our already

busy day jobs – plus juggling life outside the Defence Force. It also takes time to get people to understand the issues, discuss solutions, and be comfortable putting their head above the parapet. We had to fully understand every one’s perspectives, and clearly articulate them to demonstrate the positive impact such a group could have on our organisation.”

Since its induction, the steering group has helped drive programmes and change through the NZDF to the benefit of all – most notably the introduction of the More Military Women programme.

“There was a strange sense of relief when the More Military Women programme was stood up,” she says. “The programme has allowed us to formally analyse issues and develop initiatives – all under a governance framework with allocated resourcing to ensure it stays on track.

“We knew that unless this was formal, it would be piecemeal and we were not willing to let that happen. Happily, senior leadership was completely behind this.”

Similarly, leadership has supported other changes that will help increase diversity within the NZDF, including replacing some trade names with gender neutral versions designed to help females thinking of joining the Defence Force to see beyond a name that might limit their willingness to enlist.

“Within army, a military policeman is now called Military police, Crewmen are armoured combat specialists and riflemen have become Infantry. I know that for some, this seems like change for change’s sake – but for women looking at careers within To page 45