School pupils' memories, the Home Guard, the mystery object in the sea, the
Navy League, defence measures in Lyttelton Harbour ....
The war years brought loss of loved ones, social change, times of
austerity, an awareness of New Zealand's vulnerability, and defence
measures.
There was a shortage of manpower with so many men serving in the forces
overseas, and many married women went to work for the first time, with some
working in foundries or machine shops making munitions. Some were drafted
to work on the farms as 'landgirls'. Other women worked voluntarily for
patriotic causes, raising funds for the war effort and for parcels to send
to the troops overseas. The able-bodied men who remained in New Zealand
served in the Home Guard on a part-time basis.
Some industries were declared to be essential and men there were not
allowed to join the armed forces.
A schoolboy's war effort
Secondary school pupils also volunteered for roles in the planned defence.
Warwick recalls his role.
"Auckland city is built on land bordered between two oceans, the Pacific
Ocean, with the Waitemata Harbour on the East Coast, and the Tasman Sea,
with the Manukau Harbour on the West Coast. Geologically, the whole
isthmus was a very active area and is studded with volcanic cones such as
Mt Albert, where I lived, Mt Roskill, the Three Kings, Mt. Eden, One Tree
Hill and in the Auckland Harbour, Rangitoto Island. Some of these cones
are now barely recognisable, having been excavated for the volcanic cinder,
scoria, used to build the roads of Auckland.
"Because of the city's location it was very exposed to any attack from the
sea, so when the War extended to the Pacific area and the threat of war
from Japan became closer to both Australia and New Zealand, defence
precautions were activated. The actual defences, both in New Zealand and
in Australia were minimal and the situation was serious when Darwin was
attacked and frequently bombed by carrier aircraft. The full extent of
these attacks was never revealed to the public at the time. The Battle of
the Coral Sea was our eventual salvation.
"Sightings of submarines had been reported in the Auckland area and
although no attacks by aircraft or submarines had been experienced, air
raid regulations were enforced. At night, all buildings in Auckland
were 'blacked out'. Not a chink of light was allowed to be seen and
regular street patrols were maintained. An Air Raid Precaution Unit, the
ARP, had been formed with men who had not been recruited for active
military service because of age or other conditions. One of their duties was to
patrol the streets at night, to make sure that the black-out was total.
School children were also recruited for duty. Divisional units of the ARP
were responsible to a central unit and were structured militarily.
Individuals had their rank and although uniforms were not issued,
individuals wore arm-bands with the letters ARP Warden stencilled on them.
They were also issued with tin hats and a gas mask but no firearms, because
none were available. Even the army was short of rifles!!
"Being a schoolboy I volunteered to be an ARP Messager. It was my job to
carry messages from one ARP Station to another and my means of
transportation was my own bicycle. I was equipped with both an arm band,
marked 'ARP Messager' and also a gas mask, but it was up to me to find my
own rubber block. This was required to be put into my mouth during bombing
attacks, to cushion the shock of a bomb explosion and so prevent damage to
my teeth. On occasions, mock air raid practices were carried out. All traffic was stopped and with the roads being empty,
except for me, it was fun to break all the traffic rules and whiz down the
hills, carrying the vital messages which kept the war machine running. At
the same time however, I was glad that it was only a practice. I could
only visualise me, on my bike, during an actual bombing raid, with planes
overhead, pedalling as fast as I could go, steering my machine down the
roads, between the smoking bomb craters, feeling the force of the
explosions but bravely riding on, carrying those vital messages but still
secure in the knowledge that my teeth, at least, were protected by my
little rubber block!!
"Fortunately, America saved us from the real thing. We had so little to
save us from invasion by the enemy and now, sadly, years later, I cannot
even feel any confidence at all in the protection offered by my little
rubber block."
A younger schoolboy's memory from the war years
"My oldest brother joined the Home Guard. He was not called up into the
armed forces because my father was unwell and my brother as a farmer in
charge of the farm was in a key occupation. He and the commander of the
Home Guard would correspond with each other by Aldis lamp (a type of
battery lamp). My brother would sit up on the top of the hill and signal
to Mr Arthur Hayman, the commander.
"Then my brother, who was very interested in electricity and telephones,
rigged up a telephone line between our house and Mr Hayman's house and the
store, using the top wire of the fence line. Our place had a panoramic
view of the ocean. It was a recognised plan that if we were invaded my
brother would be well placed to view and report anything suspicious or any
coming invasion. He was to ring one long ring on the telephone which went
to the store and the storekeeper/postmaster would answer it and connect us
to the commander of the Home Guard. The system did not last very long.
A mystery object in the sea
"On another occasion my brother and I spotted a distant black object in the
sea straight out from Little Akaroa. We thought that it might have been a
large tree. The authorities in Lyttelton were alerted and they sent out a
boat to see what it was. They didn't find anything, but when I think back
on it at round that time - 1941-42 - passengers on the inter-island
ferry reported seeing a white wake in the sea and a torpedo was seen to
pass under the stern of the ferry. To prevent panic it was kept fairly
quiet at that time, but if it was the case then the black object that we
spotted out in the sea could have been a submarine. It was also stated
later that mines had been laid around the coast of New Zealand. This also
lends weight to the thought that this object was a submarine."
The Navy League
Jean remembers working for this organisation which aimed to support the men
of the navy with hospitality and fundraising. Ships from the Merchant Navy
called to take New Zealand's frozen meat to Great Britain.
"I remember being invited to people's large homes to dances where local
girls were invited to partner English officers from the Merchant Navy. I
found most of the contacts enjoyable, except when one man said to me, 'You
don't dance badly - for a colonial!'
"The League ran jumble sales on Saturday morning and charged three pence
admission fee. Sometimes the better off citizens donated clothes from
their wardrobes, but with shortages of almost all goods and rationing of
clothes there were long queues of people who were keen to buy. We raised
quite a lot of money by these sales.
"Women knitted socks, jerseys and balaclavas for the Navy League or other
patriotic groups. They took their knitting everywhere and knitted at every
opportunity."
Branches of the Navy League were opened in schools and schoolgirls knitted
and raised funds. At Christchurch Girls' High School the branch was so
strong and hardworking that the Governor General, Sir Cyril Newall,
presented a flag to the school in recognition of the work of the branch.
|
Sir Cyril Newall presents a flag to the CGHS Navy League
|
Patriotic groups
Other patriotic groups ran clubs like the Welcome Club and the Union Jack
Club which offered hospitality to men in camp at Burnham, often awaiting
their overseas posting. Jean recalls helping as a waitress when dinner
was served to these men, many of them young, away from home for the first
time, and uncomfortable in their rough woollen uniforms.
The Anzac Club in Dunedin ran socials for the men in training at the Air
Force base at Taieri and the army unit at Taiaroa Heads.
School groups
Groups in other schools made camouflage nets, raised funds through the Red
Cross and knitted for the men in the Forces.
Margaret S remembers that classes from Cashmere School in Christchurch went
to Purau Beach on the Lyttelton Harbour and collected in match boxes ergot,
a hard substance in the seed heads of rye grass. This was valuable for the
war effort as it was used in the manufacture of pharmaceuticals. Peter remembers it
being collected on Nelson beaches from the seed heads of marram grass.
Military training and defence measures
Margaret also remembers the Home Guard practising on the village green.
Maurie recalls watching army manoeuvres on Banks Peninsula. His home at
Diamond Harbour overlooked Ripapa Island. Guns had been installed on the
island and at Godley Heads at the entrance to the Lyttelton Harbour. He
remembers that the Home Guard dug trenches on Ripapa Island, but
unfortunately they filled with water and sheep on the island were drowned
in them.
He recalls a convoy from Burnham coming around the corner near his home and
being dive bombed by Air Force planes with flour bombs.
He had to travel by launch to Lyttelton to go to school each day and
remembers that the nets placed as a defence measure across the Lyttelton
Harbour had to be lifted to let the launch approach the wharf.
More next week about what life was like at home in New Zealand during
World War 2
Related Articles
