I was talking to my Grandad today and his story of his military life in WW2 is quite interesting. He left New Zealand with his friend to join the Fleet air arm of the Royal Navy. My Grandad got through training and won his 'wings', unfortunatly he suffered from a hight related problems and had to stop flying. The Royal Navy decided that if he couldn't fly he would have to stay in the Navy. My Grandad didn't like this, he was a pilot not a sailer. He had to go to the New Zealand High Commision in London to convince the RN to release him. He was put in the New Zealand Army the next day. Without a unit he was sent to help some Army Engineers doing forestry work (for the war effort) in Warwickshire. They set him up with an Army uniform etc, as he had nothing. The cap he was givin had the blue piping for the Engineers. He was still not officaly in any unit. He was sent to Egypt along with other New Zealand soldiers, expecting to be put in the Infantry. When he arrived in Egypt 'some joker at a table' asked him what unit he was with. My Grandad said that he wasn't in a unit. The man at the table reconised the Engineers cap and became certain that my Grandad was a Engineer. After a brief agrument my Grandad gave in and said "alright, I'm a bloody Engineer!" even though, of course he was not! He was posted to an Engineer unit. When his C.O. found out that my Grandad had no eingineering training he decided that my Grandad, being in the Fleet Air Arm must know how to use a radio. My Grandad pointed out that he had used only single frecuency (sp) radios and had no idea how to operate an Army radio. So the C.o. asked if he could use a Bren gun and my Grandad said yes, he knew how to use a Bren (well, basicly!) so he was appionted as Bren Gunner. My Grandad was one of the youngest men in his unit and was taken under the wing by the older members of the unit and started to pick up the ropes and got into doing mine clearing and bridge building. He even got himself a commision! He served a short time in Africa and through the nearly the entire Italian campain (including Cassino), even though he had no training in Engineering and was not even ment to be in the unit! He also talked about his dislike for Italians, he said he hated how if they captured you they were ruthless, but if you had captured them they were always on their knees begging for mercy. Where as, he said, with Germans (ie. paras) you could put a gun to their head and threaten to pull the trigger and they would just spit in your face. He said once a German prisoner, when asked what thought of the bombing of Cassino had said said 'unimpressive'!! My Grandad must have been one of the few soldiers with wings! One last thing is that he said he only knew of one Engineer killed mine-clearing and that was when they found a new German anti-truck mine and they did not know how to deal with it. My Grandad was near by and said that there was nothing left. Well I thought his story was quite interesting
Kiwi, That is quite a story! I have a Here and Now or After The Battle magazine (Dutch edition) that is about the New Zealanders liberating Turin and part of Slovenia. I think it was the 49th division or something. Was your granddad part of that too? Another Q, if you speak to him again; Did he encounter/fought together with New Zealand Maori's?? Otto Renger (former FSJ) writes in his book he was captured in Italy by New Zealand Maori's (infantry) who operated together with Polish tank forces.
Stevin - It was the 2nd New Zealand Division and Trieste. You'll find more detail at http://www.milhist.net/trieste/onemoreriver.shtml
Thanks guys, glad you enjoyed it! I don't know if he fought in Slovenia, I'll have to ask him. I wasn't going to talk about the Maoris because I didn't know if anyone would know what I was on about. In fact my Grandad didn't like the Maoris very much at all! Being and engineer and unable to carry a weapon most of the time (because of other equipment) they had to have a Infantry sqaud with them. The 2nd NZEF had 8 battlions overseas (20 - 28) with the 28th being Maori. The engineers were split up randomly beteewn these and they changed often. The reason my Grandad thinks poorly of the 28th (Maori) Bat. Is often when they were out mine clearing with the Maoris guarding them, the Maoris would just say 'No action here boss' and walk of to go find a fight in some houses near by, leaving the unarmed engineers to fend for themselves. Where as, he said if you were with a 'white' bat. you were safer. He said he remembered being out mine-clearing with men of the Auckland (24th?) bat. They got ambushed and the soldiers stayed in the line of fire to allow the Engineers to pull back past them, they lost one man and had two wounded, but all the engineers got out. He said a Maori squad would never have done that. Like (probably) overseas when talking about New Zealanders, In New Zealand the Maori Bat. get all the media spot light, with Anzac day coming up I can tell you now that 'The History of the Maori Bat.' will be on again. So, where is the reconision on the SEVEN other battlions that that served and died overseas for New Zealand. No dout the Maori men were brave soldiers, but so were all the New Zealanders.
Kiwi, I came across a site a few weeks ago with some pretty good pics of anzac camps in UK in war..While stationed over here they made some great lasting monuments to their time...whitewashed stone elbems and such...Ill find the site and post the link...Intesting stuff I never knew existed in the UK.
Sorry Kiwi, the site I was on about, found it again, its from ww1 not ww2, and more Australian than New Zealanders. http://www.fovantbadges.com/his_det.htm
MHN, I stand corrected! I looked it up and you are right! Thanks for pointing it out and providing the link! Very much appreciated. It was just one of those obscure (to me at least) bits of WW2 history.
