# World War Two -the safer fringe



## spongebob (Dec 11, 2007)

World War Two- The safer fringes

We all have a good grasp of the rigours of WW2 as it affected the Northern Hemisphere especially the people of Britain, Europe and all the Maritime convoys of the Atlantic Ocean and North seas.
They were desperate times that involved huge losses of life and ships and a lot of human suffering to say the least.
I was growing up in a relatively isolated part of the far North of New Zealand at the time and I used my boyhood memories along with recalled anecdotes from my parents and internet research to find out what it was really like living in the relative security of NZ during those war years

Let me try to paint a picture of what life was like during the early forties and how it affected everyone’s life-style. Pearl Harbour happened in February 1941, the Japanese were dominating the Pacific and things were not looking good in Europe.
The Japanese had repeatedly bombed Australia’s Darwin and Broome, shelled Townsville and Newcastle from the sea and sunk ships around the Australian shores including the Australian hospital ship ‘Centaur’ in Morton Bay near the Brisbane coast. She was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine and sank within three minutes with a loss of 258 lives. The vessel was fully illuminated and identifiable as a hospital ship and its sinking was considered to be a war crime.
Midget submarines infiltrated Sydney Harbour but were sunk by Australian naval forces before causing too much damage. 
Shipping around the New Zealand coast was also attacked by both German and Japanese raiders and several sinkings occurred the most publicized being the SS Niagara, a Canada-Australian line passenger ship on a voyage from Auckland to Vancouver which sank in June 1940 5 km off Bream head near Whangarei after striking a German mine. All on board were saved but the ship was in the news then and several times in post war years due to the fact that she was carrying millions of dollars worth of gold bullion which was being transferred from South Africa to the USA via NZ to pay for the British war effort. This gold was largely recovered in 1942 by the then famous Australian deep sea diver Jack Johnstone who had to use a diving bell to cope with the 50 fathom (90metre) depth. He returned post war to recover most of the remaining bars and was also responsible for many other salvage activities including the Japanese Submarines from the Sydney Harbour bed. I remember him as a bit of a boy’s hero during these times.
Another significant attack was the sinking of the NZ Shipping Co’s RMS Rangitane 300 miles off the NZ coast by the German Raiders Orion and Comet. She was on a voyage from Wellington to Liverpool England and was the largest passenger vessel to be sunk by surface raiders during WW11. Of the 312 persons on board only 16 were killed and the survivors were imprisoned on board the raiders. The women and children were eventually put ashore on the small tropical island of Emirau in the New Guinea group but 150 men were taken back to Germany as prisoners of war. The survivors on Emirau became latter day Robinson Crusoes until rescued by Australian Authorities and at that time the world press called it a rip-roaring yarn.
Little did I know then that I would go to sea 17 years later on the replacement Rangitane built in 1947.

Another intrusion, not publicized until after the war, was the fact that a super size Japanese submarine surfaced in the Hauraki Gulf at dawn one summer’s morning and launched a small collapsible float plane. This flew over Auckland City around 5.30am and at low level taking photographs of all strategic places including Devonport Naval Dockyard, Whenuapai RNZAF Airbase and the City Centre all without raising any alarm. The pilot was eventually tracked down after the war and he described the beautiful day with just a few ‘early bird’ people out for a morning stroll, only some of who looked up. He returned to his ship where the Captain examined the photos and decided that there was nothing worth attacking! 
A bit of research on the internet revealed that this same submarine, no F 25, had done a similar reconnoiter over Melbourne 26/2/42, Hobart 1/3/42, Wellington 8/3/42 before visiting Auckland 13/3/42. She then headed north taking a look at Suva and finally Kodiak in Alaska. On the 29th September ‘42 the same seaplane was launched off the coast of Oregon USA to drop incendiary bombs on the vast cedar and pine forests in an attempt to start bush fires and this was the first time bombs had fallen on US continent. F25 continued to cause mayhem in the Pacific sinking several ships until the US destroyer ‘Elliot’ sunk her on the 3rd September 1943. Some crew was rescued to tell the tales which show how exposed, poorly defended and vulnerable New Zealand was.
Another incident that has been brought to my attention is the authenticated account of a German submarine that entered Napier Harbour on a dark moonless summer’s night and the crew was actually able to come on deck to listen to an evening concert held at the waterfront sound shell. This story later developed into a local myth that the Captain had sent crew ashore one night further up the coast to milk some cows to obtain some fresh milk! 

There was a commonly heard saying in those days that if the Japanese or Germans really wanted to capture NZ they would take it by telephone!

New Zealand really would have been caught with its ‘pants down’ had the enemy mounted an attack during those early war years and it is only in hindsight that the general public became aware of the gravity of the situation. The bulk of our Naval force was overseas, the NZ crewed light Cruiser HMS Achilles was with HMS Ajax and HMS Exeter in the South Atlantic fighting the German pocket Battle ship Graf Spee in the first major Naval battle and British victory of WW2..
HMS Leander, also crewed by NZer’s as the NZ division of the Royal Navy was busy in action in the Pacific Theatre and the balance of our naval ships, the Mine sweepers HMNZS Tui, Moa and Kiwi posed little threat to a would-be attacker
Our first and second Army Echelons were fighting in Crete, the Middle East, Italy etc and finally the country’s airmen were serving with the RAF in the Battle of Britain, the Coastal Command and the Bombing raids over Germany. A Coromandel born New Zealander, Keith Park, was Senior Staff Officer to the RAF’s Chief Hugh Dowding. Park was responsible for the air support during the evacuation from Dunkirk and later in charge of the RAF’s defense of London and Southern England during the Battle of Britain 

Amidst all this a local man from Houhora, just a few miles north of Kaitaia, Flying Officer Lloyd Trigg, was flying for British Coastal Command from a base in West Africa and during a patrol over the Atlantic coastline in a Liberator bomber he engaged a surfaced German U-Boat. His aircraft received several catastrophic hits from the submarines’ anti-aircraft guns during his first bombing run and was on fire when he made his final attack to successfully drop depth charges on the Sub.
The aircraft then crashed killing Trigg and his crew and the only witnesses to his actions were the U-boat crew members. The U-boat sank but seven survivors managed to climb aboard the Liberator’s life raft mercifully floating nearby and were later rescued by a Royal Navy vessel. The surviving submarine captain reported the incident in detail to the British Authorities and personally recommended that Trigg be decorated for his bravery. The Victoria Cross was later awarded posthumously and was the only time in both World Wars that such an award was made on the recommendation of the enemy.

I clearly recall the day that the school Headmaster told the morning assembly 
of this brave deed by an old pupil.

All in all New Zealand was making a proportionally large contribution to this war on the other side of the globe
.
Our home defense forces were made up of the Home Guard and base non-combatants, mostly older men and the above scenario of the ‘enemy at our door’ and the rumour that any Japanese seaborne assault would be mounted in the far north where there were suitable beaches for landing craft and that the narrow northern isthmus would allow them to create a concentrated front to for a military offensive drive down to Auckland was one that worried many isolated North Aucklanders.
All these wartime activities were going on right on our doorstep yet censorship of the day meant that very little information was made public and what was released was of the scantest of detail but sufficient to induce added rumour. This atmosphere of concern was reinforced by such things as large log tank traps laid ready at all road bridges including the ones near home, Posters all around the Kaitaia Township stating all the British sourced and recycled messages such as “Don’t talk the enemy may be listening”, the recycled Lord Kitchener poster proclaiming “Your country needs you” and one poster showing a merchant ship sinking with it’s stern in the air and the caption “Careless talk sinks ships”
. We had air raid practices at school when the siren would sound and all children would vacate the class rooms, retreat to the lower playground and hide under the many trees. A ‘Vickers Wildebeest,’ a post WW1 vintage bi-plane, known locally as a ‘Waipapakauri Bomber’ would then fly low overhead looking for faults in our cover and after the all clear was sounded and we had returned to class and the pilot had arrived back at base he would ring the Headmaster and report any sightings. At the next assembly we would be told that the pilot could see ‘a girl in a bright red jumper’ or similar comment and this made us all keen to hide as securely as possible to achieve a good report.
.
The Vickers Wildebeest airplane was like a very large Tiger Moth with two open cockpits and with bomb racks each side of the fuselage that allowed the pilot or the observer to hand release the bombs when needed and they flew so low over the playground that you could clearly see the crew clad in their leather skull caps and goggles. This was all very exciting to young boys as the events were readily likened to the then popular ‘Biggles’ books by author W.E.Johns about a British flying ace but I can imagine that a ‘Zero’ fighter pilot off a Japanese Aircraft carrier would of laughed so much at the sight of these vintage aero planes, our front line air defense, that he would not of been able to pull the trigger.

Bob Jenkins


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## Santos (Mar 16, 2005)

Thank you for telling us about New Zealand, Bob, its not often that you get to know what life was really like in other allied countries during WW2.

Chris.


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## Bernard McIver (Feb 26, 2007)

Hello Bob,
Trust you wont object to my gentle reminder that Pearl Harbour was attacked on 7th December 1941, not February 1941.
Regards, Bernard


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## tunatownshipwreck (Nov 9, 2005)

Thanks for that, very interesting to get the more obscure stories of the war.
Yes, the floating firebombs did start a few forest fires here in Oregon, the outskirts of my little town of Astoria was actually shelled by a submarine also. I didn't come along until 1953, but people in town still talked about it when I was growing up.


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## benjidog (Oct 27, 2005)

Thank you for a very informative and interesting post Bob.

Regards,

Brian


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## J Boyde (Apr 7, 2005)

Interesting artical, yes I remember some of the defence steps NZ did. My father was a farmer and did a lot of time in the home force. Part of his job included drilling holes in bridges to be ready to blow them up. He was on a group who built up a lookout on a hill that gave them a very good view of lot of central Taranaki.He told me that one one occasion one of the observers asked where is Fanthans Peak? For those who dont, it is the knob part way up Egmont, some 6000 feet up. There was restrictions on may things, as much food as possible was shipped out to the UK. NZ was short of people for many things they needed to do, many farmers were away, people to do engineering tasks. Even after the war there were many restrictions food for europe was still a priority. Nowdays that demand has gone, our sheep have come from 70 million to around 30 million and the gas from animals is now becoming a big problem, how the world changes
Jim B


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