Part 1 - New Zealand

One day in early March 1942 I received a letter from the Ministry of Defence which stated in the second draft of ballot 15 my name had come up and I was to report to the Napier Drill Hall at 1800 hours on a particular date for a medical examination etc.  This command I duly obeyed and this was my first taste of army life.   There was a long table with army personal sitting on one side asking personal questions, including height, weight, and the colour of my eyes.  I was told I had blue eyes and after being questioned further I was sent along to give a specimen.  Next was the medical but this time I was told I had brown eyes.  The doctor said whoever told you that you had blue eyes must be bloody colour blind.  I was told that I had passed my medical grade one.

 

A few days later I received another letter which stated you are required to report to the Drill Hall at 0700 hours on the 15th March for transport to Trentham Military camp for one months intensive training and would then be posted to the 2nd A.F.V.  Wanganui.   All you need to take with you is a shaver etc,

and a container of some sort to put your civilian clothes in.  Your address is now private R.  Dean 2/l3/1394 Trentham Military Camp.

 

We were marched from the Drill Hall to the railway station where we caught the Napier Wellington Express to Wellington, then on to Trentham Military Camp.  On arriving at the camp we were shown the quartermasters store.  There we were given an empty sacking paliasse and told to fill it up with straw, that was our mattress, most uncomfortable I must say.   We were also given two grey army blankets.  So ended the first of many days in the army.

 

Day two - Trentham.

Next day, feet on the floor at 7 A.M.  Breakfast, then marched over to the quartermaster's store again.  We were kitted, out with battle dress, boots, tin hat, rifle, lemon squeezer felt hat, gas mask and rifle.  Next day we were lined up for our injections in the Y.M.C.A.  Hut, must have been five hundred or more in the queue.  Before going in there must have been a dozen medics practising injecting an orange with a syringe, a great thought before getting two injections.

 

Inside-the Hall were two tables where you got one jab then went on to the next table to get the second one.   Most of us were pretty nervous but one recruit, a big bloke, kept bragging about us worrying over a little needle.   Just as the doctor was going to give him his injection he flaked out and while he was on the floor the doctor put the needle in his arm.  When he came to and stood up he said, "I will be OK now"; the doctor said while you were out I put the injection in.  He flaked out again, the other injection was also given while he was out.   It must have taken him a long time to get over it as you can imagine the amount of flack he got from the rest of us.   The rest of the day we had off.

 

Next day was the start of a hectic four weeks of hell.  A lot of parade ground training, marching, being yelled at left turn right turn, about turn always with the rifle.  Over the next days and weeks we did a number of ten, twelve, and fourteen-mile route marches.  We were given all sorts of lectures including gas mask drill.  We had to put our gas masks on and go into the gas chamber.  It was only tear gas but we were ordered to take our masks off.  Not very pleasant as the tears streamed out but outside the fresh air soon cleared the eyes.

 

At times we were marched out the back of the camp and up the hills for field craft exercises and then on one day up the hill while we were being lectured on field craft I fell asleep and woke up with everyone laughing at me.  The officer was quite a good sort but suggested that if I must go to sleep not to snore as it disrupted the others.  All these boring sort of things went on all the time we were in Trentham and at the finish of our months intensive training we were now supposed to be fully trained soldiers.

 

Wanganui

After the months training we were sent by rail to Wanganui.  The camp in Wanganui was in the race course, so we marched from the station at Aramoho to camp.  The first night we slept in the grandstand after that we slept in a six-man tent.  We all hated that camp - it was the 2nd. A.P.V. Armoured Fighting Vehicles, formerly named the Queen Alexandria's Mounted Rifles, but as the army didn't use horses any more so the name changed.  The only armoured vehicles consisted of two or three bren gun carriers.

 

We had a lot more bullring drill but several nights or early mornings the alarm would go and we would have to get out of bed and marched around the block.  One night I was on excused duties, I had paraded sick in the morning and was given an E.D. chit, so I didn't have to report on a parade, but one of my mates in the tent was really crook and he didn't go on parade.  Shortly the sergeant poked his nose in the tent and ordered us to get out and go on parade, I was O.K. as I had an excused chit but the sergeant was very abusive and swore at my mate in real foul language and eventually said you will be on charge in the morning.  I was worried for my mate's sake but he said "don't worry I know something about Kings regulations as I was studying law before I was called up".

 

He asked me if I would be a witness at his trial in the morning as to what the sergeant actually said.  Next morning his name was called out from the Orderly Room; he had earlier reported to the R.A.P. (Regimental Aid Post) and was given an Excused Duty pass.  I walked over to the orderly room with him as usual and as is usual with anyone on charge his hat was knocked off.  I waited outside the O.R.  while he was charged in front of the Major.  He asked for his witness I was ushered in. The Major asked me what the Sergeant said and my reply was that the sergeant had  been very rude and on several occasions had said get but of the B——bed and get on parade.  The sergeant admitted what he had said, and the Major thumped his hand on the desk and said case dismissed.  The Sergeant was severely reprimanded and told that no orders could be accepted if bad language was used - this was Kings Regulations.

 

We were only a couple of weeks in Wanganui when we went on manoeuvres.  We went up the East Coast after leaving Wanganui but instead of going through the Manawatu Gorge we turned off at Ashurst and went over a very rough track over some quite hilly country and ended up at Woodville.  It wasn't until after the war I learnt that the army had built this track in case of an invasion and enemy action blocked the Gorge.

 

There was about 28 of us on the back of the truck and we didn't have a clue where we were heading for, periodically we would have to get out and walk over paddocks and fences, up and down hills; you name it and we did it.  We headed through Hawkes Bay, past Hastings and Napier and on towards Gisborne.  We marched along the railway for miles and walked over the Matahora viaduct.  There was a fairly sharp bend on the Gisbome side of the viaduct and when we were half way across we heard a railcars horn.  We had to quickly scramble off the track and hold onto the side of the viaduct as the railcar had no chance of stopping in such a short distance.  It was a real scary experience as if we had fallen there was a big drop down to the river below.  After that we went through Gisbone and up the East Coast walking and doing more exercises.

 

After we got back most of the Hawkes Bay troops put in for a transfer to the camp at Napier which was in Nelson and McLean Park.

 

It was awkard getting from Wanganui to Napier for leave.  We had to catch a slow goods train from Aramoho to Martin, then wait on the Marion station for a couple of hours until the Auckland to Wellington express arrived.  Then on to Palmerston North; another couple of hours wait; then another slow train to Napier.  On one trip home from Wanganui my mate Jim Carrol and myself got to Marton and as the express wasn't due for a couple of hours we went to sleep on a seat on the platform.  We woke up as a train pulled in so we climbed aboard.  When the guard came around he wanted to know why were on the Limited because privates were not allowed to travel on the Limited.  It turned out we had slept on the station platform and hadn't heard the express, it took some fast talking for the guard to let us stay until we got to Palmerston.

 

Before I left Wanganui on my transfer I was walking across the Wanganui bridge and I stopped half way across and gazed down at the river.  A young couple passed me and kept looking back at me.  They came back and said: "I wouldn't do that soldier; the river is a long way down and the water would be pretty cold."  I had to explain to them that I was only filling in time waiting for the train which wasn't due to leave for another couple of hours.

 

Napier

At Napier the camp had a totally different atmosphere, moost of those already there were either young territorials, home guard, or graded men.  We ate and showered at the main part of the camp in McLean Park.  I was in a two-man hut just outside the tennis pavilion in Nelson Park.

 

Life was pretty easy after Trentham and Wanganui.  No bull ring drilling and only a few field craft exercises.  We used to march down Latham Street, cross the ditch which used to be the old bed of the  Tutakuri River.  There was only a wooden plank to walk over and the grass was pretty long.  There were no houses there in those days.

 

After a short period of time the platoon I was in was detailed to guard duty at the Port.  The Japs were in the war by now and were getting much closer to N.Z. so the fear of a Jap landing in N.Z could be possible.  My section was billeted in the old Harbour Board offices on the opposite side of the road to the Iron Pot.  Life was sure easy after what we had been used to.  After dark was when guard duty started.  One guard was posted on the Harbour Board front door, while two guards patrolled from Harding Road along Bridge Street, then along the Iron Pot looking out towards the harbour and down by where the trawlers berth, then along to the old foot bridge to Westshore.  There was a pill box at the bridge and one on the corner of the Iron Pot, and another on Harding Road.  These were manned by two men in each box and we had to check on each box as we passed. 

 

One night there was a young territorial on guard at the billet and after we passed him my mate said: "lets have a bit of fun."  When we got half way along the side of the wharf he grabbed a boulder and we pretended to have a scuffle as he threw the rock in the sea with a big splash.  We continued on our rounds and when we got back to our man on guard he was in a hell of a state, he could hardly talk but said there had been a fight and somebody fell in the water.  He was that badly shocked we had to put him to bed; we never did that sort of thing again.

 

On Guard

On another night Don and I were detailed to spend the night on guard in the pill box on the corner of the Iron Pot facing the entrance to the harbour.  As we weren't expecting the Japs to arrive that night we took our blankets, put the Bren gun in the opening and went to bed.  We always had to stand to half an hour before dawn as most attacks started at this time; however nothing happened as usual.  Our next task was to check the Bren gun in back at the barracks, but no Bren gun.  When we reported back there was a Bren gun sitting on the table.  The officer had taken it while we were asleep.  We got a hell of a lecture from the officer and told that sleeping on duty was a court marshal offence.  He ended up by saying that if ever we went to sleep like that again, make sure you take the gun out so no one can pinch it.

 

Shortly after this episode a number of us were called together and told we were being transferred to the N.Z. expeditionary force.  We were given a special two days leave pass then off to Trentham again.  At Trentham I ended up in the infantry.  We had a lot of bull-ring drill again, lots of lectures, and lots of route marches.  Both Bill and I ended up in the same unit.

 

The Amy Service Corp

One day on parade those who had a heavy traffic licence were told to form a queue; they wanted a certain number for the A.S.C. (Amy Service Corp.).  I was the last one selected, the rest were sent back to the infantry lines.  There were no trucks to drive, but luckily Bill and I were out of the infantry.

 

The training continued, as before but we were to move camp to Paekariki - this time we had to march with full pack up - it was twenty six miles.  It wasn't too bad until we had to walk down the Paekariki Hill and that was really bad on our calves.  Anyway, when we arrived at Paekariki we were told, they weren't expecting us and had no dinner ready for us.  We did get some after a long time.  We couldn't get leave to go into Wellington as there was a rail strike on, it was too far to walk and impossible to hitch hike.

 

We were in Paekariki for about three weeks then trucked back to Trentham.  Usually things went on most the same, but at one stage about six of us were sent in to Wellington to work on the wharves stacking boxes of ammunition: a good job to get away from camp.  We fell foul of the wharfies and were told by them to go slow.  There were twice as many wharfies as us and we were handling the same amount of boxes as them.  They were told where to go and we pointed out that they were getting a hell of a lot more money than our seven and six a day; and we didn't get danger money either.

 

About the beginning of December 1942 all leave was cancelled, I phoned Gracie that night and she told me there was a big four tunnelled ship in the harbour.  Time was getting close.  On the 9th December we were issued with new gear, shorts, putties, sandals etc.  I tried to ring Gracie at night but the phones had been cut off.

 

On Thursday 10th December the powers that be decided to close the wet canteen, so the lads wrecked the canteen, every window was broken and everything inside was broken.  The fire brigade was called out to stop the rioting with their hoses.  One of the lads in my hut wanted to know if anybody had a pocketknife he could borrow.  I lent him mine and when he came back he said I fixed the B____ - I cut the b— hoses.  I have still that pocketknife.

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